MY MEMORIES

Charles Glenn Petersen

1953 - College Years I

Iowa State College (continued)

Fall Quarter, with a more acceptable course load, went much better. I was living off campus in a rooming house with two veterans, one a Marine and the other from the Air Force. After the Fall term, I was back in good graces with the school by raising my grade point over the 2.0 bench mark, primarily because I was able to replace a 5-credit-hour F from the previous Fall with a B. It wasn't that I was dumb enough to get that F it was because halfway through that previous Fall term, I gave up on that 5-hour course in order to assure C's in my other courses. If I had stayed with it all the way I probably would have gotten D's in all of them and I sure didn't want that, particularly in my first EE course. So, I had failed Physics to save my standing in Math and EE.

Winter Quarter went well and so did Spring Quarter. The only trouble was that by the end of the year I was out of money and all but starving myself. After books and tuition that Spring Quarter, I was down to a little over a dollar a day for food. At that time there was a diner downtown where I could get coffee and a short stack for 25 cents. That was breakfast. During the week I had lunch in the Friley Hall cafeteria on campus for about 75 cents or less or I would get the 'Blue Plate Special' at the same diner downtown. Dinner was typically whatever snack I could buy for what I had left over. A box of Ritz crackers lasted several evenings. Yes, I did lose weight, down 15-20 pounds in 3 month’s time.