Georgie Porgie, puddin' pie, kiss the girls and make them cry (Calvin College, 1981)

Vintage children's book illustration for Georgie Porgie.

In 1981 I was a freshman at Calvin College in Grand Rapids, MI, living in Bolt Hall (the first year Bolt was a men's dorm). I was the suitemate of the RA, which meant I got pulled into a lot of mixers and fielded calls and visits from other RAs and troubled floormates.

(The mixers weren't too bad, but I wasn't any more inclined to parties then than I am now, so was always a wallflower. When you're old enough to smoke and drink, you can go find a dark corner and watch everyone else get stupid, but when you're a freshman in college, you have find some awkward way to participate. I quit smoking a long time ago, and drink very little now.)

So happens one night, I was in my loft trying to sleep and the phone rang. And rang. And rang. I thought if I just let it go long enough, the caller would figure out no one was home, but the caller had an agreement with the RA to let it ring, perhaps because he was often down the hall, and so it rang, and rang, and rang.

I finally got out of my loft, picked up the phone, and angrily said, "This better be bloody important!" Those were my exact words. And she burst into tears.

I have no idea if she had an emergency, if she thought I was the RA she was calling, or was maybe already upset about something else.

And I felt horrible. I still do.

[2014-12-02]

c0

Why does my iPhone ask me if I trust my computer, but my computer doesn't ask me if I trust my iPhone?

[2014-12-04]

c0