Going in the dorm after the first date with Barney I was met by Mrs. Wells, the dorm mother. Thinking it was something I had done wrong I was surprised when she had a discussion with me about what a charming young man Barney was. It never ceased to amaze me how closely she watched all of us. That had it's good and bad points.
Arrival back to my room brought on all the questions I could not answer before the date. There were a lot of inquiring minds especially as they were hanging out the window as we walked away from the dorm. Yes, he was very nice, a junior/senior at Mizzou carrying twenty-two hours working on a business degree, he was from Kansas City and we had another date the next day.
Actually I was glad when all the girls went to bed and stopped asking questions. Needless to say I was a little behind in the homework department since the weekend had not been very productive for studying. Trying to do it that evening was just about as difficult. One of those times when the brain goes on a rewind of the afternoon. Anyone remember the times when one moment you have a sort of warm and fuzzy feeling that this was someone really special - the next moment you just know he will never show up again? Did I really tell him I would show up in a ballerina tutu? Is my crazy room mate really rubbing off on me that badly?
Monday morning came too fast to get all the classwork done and I was really wondering why I had agreed to a date with Barney that afternoon. There was a book I had to read by Wednesday and a lot of extra TV and radio studio time I needed to put in. Since I had not bothered to ask for his phone number I was stuck but somehow I doubt that I would have cancelled the date. Cancelling would have been the logical thing to do and there were not a lot of logical thoughts floating through the brain.
I got back to the dorm a little after 3:00 and ran upstairs to drop off books. Cathie and Sally had borrowed a skateboard from the only girl on our floor that had one and headed downstairs. For those of you who did not know there were skateboards back in the 50's and 60's, there were. They were a lot different than later models in that they were only about eighteen inches long and six or seven inches wide with small metal or wooden wheels. It was more difficult to place feet on them and the wheels did not roll over bumps in the sidewalk very well. By the time I got downstairs Sally and Cathie had introduced themselves to Barney who was early as usual. It began to look like a set up deal for them to meet him.
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It was very easy to lose control of any situation when Cathie was involved and adding Sally in made it truly difficult. Whatever the plans had been for the afternoon were suddenly changed by my two wacky friends. The four of us ended up skateboarding all over the campus. Well, let's say attempting to skateboard. It had to be quite a sight. Sally was balance challenged and could trip over anything. She spent most of the time in some hilarious position before crashing to the ground. I managed to do pretty well but Cathie was the champ. She would go as fast as she could waving her arms and singing. When she crashed it was pretty spectacular as all three of us ran after her in laughter.
Poor Barney could not even get his big feet on the tiny skateboard. As a last resort Cathie got him to try to just stand on one foot which was a total disaster. Don't think he wanted to try the art of skateboarding after one crash that resulted in a definite limp for the rest of the afternoon. That was when he suggested we go have pizza so he wasn't forced to try any more new tricks.
It was difficult to actually eat pizza for all the laughter. Between Cathie and Sally who always brought out all the silliest in me it was a good thing we were not asked to leave the restaurant. I had a class that evening so Barney and I walked back to the dorm. He wanted to know if all my friends were crazy and I answered that they actually pretty much were. It was like one of those questions that made you wonder if he really wanted to hang out with a group of idiots especially when the conversation turned to the amount of studying we both had to do. The fear crept over me that the next thing coming was perhaps he was to busy to see me.
Arriving back at the dorm he said that he could not remember laughing so hard and that he knew he would never know what to expect next from me. There was a moment when it felt like the big brush off was coming as he talked about how much studying he had to do but then he asked me to make out my schedule of classes for him and meet him for lunch the next day. That had to be a positive thing or he just wanted to know when to hide in Columbia so he didn't run into me or my nutty friends.
Later that night after class Cathie gave her approval of Barney but said I had better work on teaching him how to play. For the first time in three days I was able to open a book and remember what I had just read. Back to studying since we had a special guest coming the next week for the dedication of the new performance learning center which meant more hours in the TV studio plus it was nearing the end of the third semester.
It was interesting that Cathie came to the conclusion that Barney did not know how to play. She was the absolute queen of playtime so I figured she should know. Can I really teach a twenty year old, 4.0 Eagle Scout how to play?
Probably.
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| Cathie |
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