JUST A HIPPIE GYPSY

WELCOME TO THE JUNGLE


ADDICTED TO LOVE (part six)

I applied to several colleges and Murray State University (a colossal 350 miles to the west)accepted me. That is the only reason that comes to my mind when I try to remember why I choose Murray! I began this journey into adulthood without any buddies with me. I barely knew three people who attended school there. Yet, this worked to my advantage. Rather than trying to cling to what and who I knew as familiar, entire new worlds were open to me.

I majored in having fun, drinking, going wild, shunning sororities, joining a fraternity as a little sister, going "South" every night that I could, and going to as many Hairy Buffalo parties that I could squeeze in (one being pictured above), smoking cigarettes, sleeping late, skipping classes, dating dating and then dating some more, and meeting people from such exotic places as New Jersey!

I blossomed into some wild party animal of the female variety and was having the time of my life. I flunked out in three semesters and was banished home.

I would never be content living under my parents roof again. I longed for The Cotton Club, that smoky dark square concrete bar across the Tennessee border where the legal drinking age was 18. I missed my fraternity brothers and the marathon card games we played. Every time I approached a soda machine, I looked for the Budweiser button. And not finding it was a stark reminder of the predicament I had placed myself into.

I had to go back. I worked my butt off as an operator at GTE 60 hours a week to raise enough money to pay my own tuition. And to return.

My heart was in Murray.