HOME ON THE RANGE

In my third-year I lived on the East Range in a room that I returned to for the next four following years. “Home on 14 East Range” (1938-1943). Marty was still living in Randall Hall but later on moved to a room in a private house.

Although we were each still dating a specific town girl, we also dated various student nurses. In 1939, Sternkopf had married his Elma and was living in an “apartment”. They introduced me to one of her friends who dated for a long period until a certain earth shaking incident which I will reveal in the very near future.

The East Range rooms along with the Lawn rooms were part of Jefferson's original “University Village”. Each was for one student and opened directly to the outside covered passageway, colonnades on the lawn, but brick arches on the ranges (East and West). Because each room opened directly to the outside, the students living there enjoyed a great deal of privacy.

The East Range, my room was at the far end.

Each room was large enough to contain any single bed with space for an easy chair, usually one recycled from the secondhand furniture store, and a desk in front of the window overlooking the back. Centered on the other wall was a fireplace with two small curtained alcoves on either side one, served as a clothes closet, the other contain a wash basin with hot and cold running water and a small shelf for toilet articles. A steam heat radiator heated the rooms. Except for the wash basin, the bathroom facilities were in a basement room entered from behind the end of alternating units. The resident had to go outside to use the toilets and showers. One bath facility served two groups of rooms. In the wintertime, this could be very cold. It is rumored that there were two types of lawn and range residents; those that admitted they used the washbasin as a urinal and those who denied their actions.

Students usually bought a cord of firewood in the fall, which was stacked outside by the door. The fireplaces were functional and gave heat. We all had radios and a favorite program for students studying at night was Cincinnati’s WLWL’s mood organ music program, “Moon River”, from 11pm to sign off time. This was also the era of the Big Bands, and at night, you could listen for hours to one after another. I remember tuning in on the Orson Well's broadcast of “The War of the Worlds'. Since I had not listen from the beginning I was amazed to learn the next morning about the publics' reaction. Even today, the panic and terror seems unreal.

There was an active trade in “moonshine” from the countryside. Some students were known to keep two kegs of “corn” in their rooms. One to be aged was under the rocking chair, the obligatory seat for a visitor, . A “cured” keg was available for drinking. Except for Sloe Gin Fizzes which were popular in my first year dormitory, the favorite spring time drink was the “Mint Julep” made in a mason jar by crushing mint leaves and pouring in a pint of cheap whiskey, then filling the jar with cracked ice, and after wrapping the jar in a towel shaking it well to make a refreshing beverage good to the last watery diluted drop. One of the students whose mother was president of the Norfolk WCTU chapter could not bring his college year book home since it contained a large picture of him drinking out of a mason jar at Lambeth Field.

A great advantage of my Range room was its location, a “roll down the hill “to the Medical School entrance. I could also go quickly to one of the drug stores on the “corner” that served a light breakfast or have my “Dr. Pepper” and “Nabs” before classes.” The entrance to the Medical School was right across the street from the stores.

Edgar Allen Poe had lived on the West Range. His supposed room has been restored as a museum.