The envelope please: What are two musical artists and one band friends introduced me to in the late 70s and early 80?.
From the fall of 1978 until the spring of 1982, I attended college at the University of Missouri in Columbia. During my years at Mizzou, I had my musical appreciation expanded.
Let me explain.
Today, when young high school graduates leave their homes for college, full of dreams and aspirations, the experience is different from mine.
Most colleges did, and still do, require that first-year students reside in student housing or dorms.
I noticed one difference with my three children is how colleges handle roommates. Today they understand how important that first year is. Universities do everything they can to make sure roommates are compatible.
In my daughter Abigail’s first year, all the students on her dorm floor were science majors.
Months before moving into her room, she was given the name of her roommate — Amelia. They connected through Facebook and decided what colors they would decorate their room.
Those two girls lived together — from the dorm to an apartment — for their four years of college.
My experience was different. When I made that fateful trip to Columbia my freshman year, I had no idea who my roommate would be.
We got along fine that year decorating one wall with empty beer cans. Unfortunately he decided not to return to college the following year. So, in its wisdom, the university choose a new roommate for me.
This is where I learned to appreciate the English rock band Genesis. My roommate during my sophomore year loved to listen to Genesis every night with his stereo turned up to level nine — you could hear the music throughout most of the dorm. He did this while smoking marijuana in his glass water bong.
Mike (not his real name) was frugal. He grew some weed in our dorm room, not wanting to purchase all his pot on the street.
Our room was a popular place to be with a certain crowd each evening — the kind that doesn’t care much about grades.
Mike was also a big fitness guru. He was a bodybuilder, always lifting weights in the gym. Mike would often admire himself in the mirror while listening to Genesis and smoking weed.
One of the classes he took that semester was scuba diving.
As a requirement for that class, you were not allowed to smoke cigarettes, let alone pot.
To me, this seemed like a conflict of interest — weight lifting, scuba diving and smoking pot.
I did what any sane person would do. I studied in the library and moved out as soon as possible.
The only habit I picked up from Mike was an appreciation for Genesis and then later on the music of Phil Collins.
After Christmas break, I moved in with; we’ll call him Steve. I cannot remember his real name. That shows you how much he impressed me. Maybe I want to forget that period of my life.
Steve did not have an obsession with weed or Genesis. But he DID have an obsession. It was with Barbara Streisand (BS). He had everyone of her albums. Steve also had posters of BS on every wall in our room.
Posters of singers on the wall are what girls do. Guys at that time usually had posters of Farrah Fawcett.
I don’t know how I made it through my sophomore year. Although BS has a beautiful voice, I don’t own any of her music.
For my junior year, I moved into an apartment with three friends, Richard, Randy, and Ed (their real names).
After leaving Mizzou and getting a job at the Hannibal Courier-Post I started dating Connie — who was still in Columbia at Mizzou.
Connie was a typical young college girl. She had posters of Dan Fogelberg on her wall. He was a pop-rock musician, songwriter and composer who is best known for his hits, including “Longer” (1980), “Leader of the Band” (1981), and “Same Old Lang Syne” (1980).
Connie had all of his albums.
I learned to love Dan Fogelberg’s music, and of course, I fell in love with Connie.
We still have all of his albums.
