My junior year at Hamline I lucked out getting no roommate at the Sorin Men’s Dormitory.   The guy just never showed-up.  I really got into enjoying time by myself thinking and reading.  My favorite book junior year was The Arrogance of Power by J. William Fulbright and my favorite thing to do was smoke pot with a towel under the door.  Our intramural fall football team wasn’t a repeating champion because Kenny Berkenwall, our quarterback, had dropped out of school.

By spring semester I knew I wanted to also live solo senior year and the only way to guarantee not having a roommate was to become a Resident Assistant (RA), so I applied.  Every dormitory floor has one RA to help the Head Residents (usually an adult married team of graduate students) maintain order and account for all students staying alive, if not attending classes.

The problem was that Kenny Berkenwall all the sudden showed up one night with a lady friend he had met in Taos, and after a 24 hour car ride in Kenny’s burgundy Mustang convertible, she really wanted a shower.  So being the considerate and chivalrous gentleman that I am, I posted myself as the look-out at the men’s shower room down the hall while she showered.  Unfortunately one of the other guys on the floor walked in and I had to shoo him away, all of which escalated into a big incident that had to be reported to the Dean.

and I didn’t even peek

That, the Dean explained, despite my protestations that I was only doing the responsible thing, was enough to can my application to be a Resident Assistant.  But good fortune struck late that summer.  One week before fall semester started and while the Dean was off to Europe, the Head Residents at co-ed Drew Hall, the Blazers, learned that the person they and the Dean had picked to be the RA on the male side of the fourth floor freshmen wing was suddenly not returning.  After poring over the rejected applicants, and unable to reach the Dean, they called and asked if I would accept the job.  (It did pay a little, in addition to living alone.)

Tomorrow:  A Moderation of Moderation