(not)Walkabout Thoughts #97d - A Teen's College Tales from 1973

Still on the strength training. 91 degrees here today.

Yesterday, I kind of went down a rabbit hole that took up most of my day. I found a blog I wrote in 2010 about my experience at the UW in 1973, in trying to get in there, taking my SATs, and time I spent the night before at the Zeta Psi frat over Christmas holiday vacation, with the frat's president and treasurer. I'll never forget it.

One night in 1973 at a UW Frat house

Zeta Psi Fraternity, University of Washington, Seattle

I jist thought I'd read it to see if I had forgotten things. I'd forgotten a few things. This is why after all, we write, film, or document our lives so we can remember what really happened. 

So I thought I'd edit that 2010 blog, add some things, and repost it.

I knew I had taken photos back then and thought I'd update the blog and add those photos. So I went through my old photos today and found them. I scanned them in, they have always been pretty foggy or not great due to bad lighting. I enhanced the photos as we now have the capability to enhance them in ways we did not have in the 70s.

I put them in the blog. When I looked at them, I was quite pleased.

I had been wondering when I had gone to the UW to take my SATs. Something I had never planned on, never studied for. In looking at the photos, however, I solved the case. Christmas decorations were up at the frat house. I was leaning toward thinking it was the Thanksgiving holiday, but apparently not. Case solved. 

I find little things like this very rewarding. 

I've never been a "tech bro" or a "frat boy" type. I'd never have considered joining a frat. It wasn't my idea as the blog attests to. But once I got involved, and checked it out, it seemed to my 18 year old self a pretty interesting idea. An adventure. 

I've always been into adventures. It's how I got into Civil Air Patrol Search and Rescue in junior high. I think all the sci fi books I read when I was young. Those my grandmother used to read to me before I could read. I was just into the adventure. Into an alternative to my boring life in 1960s Tacoma, Washington. I could do more in life, I wanted to do more.

Actual friends from the screenplay  ©1973 me

In my true crime/drama screenplay, "The Teenage Bodyguard" people (the producer & interviewed directors) who kept misunderstanding the main character's orientation that: "He just wants the girl," or "it's about sex", or "it's a teen romp", were the typical orientations. However, it was actually just about, boredom. Seeking adventure. Escape from a boring life that kills a person's life. The photo above has the protagonist on the right (the "teenage bodyguard"), and his friend on the left. 

The problems as I've experienced it in life weren't the adventures or even the dangers, but the misadventures. 

But that's part of the charm. Escaping the boredom into adventures, even "adventures" many perhaps wouldn't label as such, escaping from the dangers, or misadventures the adventure can turn into. Often because of ignorance, Selective Ignorance (there is good SI and very bad SI: MAGA), ill will, or simply the stupidity of others. Much as we see in politics today. 

And that's the issue. 

Anyway...it's an interesting blog on an late teen's adventures into the university and fraternity system.

Cheers1 Sláinte!

One night in 1973 at a UW Frat house