Franklin & Marshall College

The class of 1993 had some very special times at F&M.  After purchasing our Macintosh SE computers and heading off to college, the OA’s descended upon our parents’ cars to carry up all our worldly belongings.

We set up our checking accounts at Fulton Bank, and bought Vendacards so we could make photocopies at the library.  We were experts at Tetris.  We learned the importance of “atriating,” where we found time for “scoping,” and tried to avoid “booting” after the many fraternity parties we attended.

We were lucky enough to see George Carlin perform in Mayser Center our freshman year.  He was the one who taught us what “waxing the dolphin” means.  We also saw Manute Bol practice at Mayser.  When we did sports or aerobics, it was always in “the pit.”

We walked past “George” and “Martha,” who sat side-by-side on the hill in Buchanan Park, while walking to Stager for classes.  Sometimes, upperclassmen would call Stager Hall by its previous name, “Stahr Hall.”  We knocked everyone’s socks off at Rock-a-like, which was held in Hensel Hall.

If we needed money for extra curricular activities, we always went to Dean Drum.

We were lucky enough to be able to live in Weis, the “new” dorm, and we saw the completion of the “new” Martin Science Library.  Our junior year, a footbridge was built over Harrisburg Pike, and College Square was born.  We complained about walking all the way over there to go to the Bookstore, because it used to be in the College Center!

We quickly learned the importance of having a Turkey Hill so close to campus.  Where else would we get our supply of opaque cups for Spring Arts?  Turkey Hill was also handy if you missed out using your meal credit at the Common Ground.  We would never miss any of the barbeques by Woods Food Service on the quad, though, because they were the culinary highlight of the semester.

They told us that one day, we would be able to plug our computers into a phone line to find out what books had been taken out of the library.  Oh, how we laughed at that idea!  Instant messaging was introduced, and known only by the technical people.  E-mail??  Our contact with friends was limited to phone calls from our dorm room, handwritten letters (which cost 29 cents to mail), and messages written in dry erase pen on our doors. Some of us had “car phones,” but they were meant only for emergencies when driving to and from school.

Our 21st birthdays included a celebratory drink at either Hildy’s, Brendee’s Town Tavern, and usually one of the fraternity houses.  Maybe if we were lucky, Andy & Andy would be playing at the party.  When fraternity parties got out of hand, the Lancaster Police Department was called, not campus security, because of derecognition.

We watched the first Gulf War live on TV in the atrium, and when we were seniors, the World Trade Center was bombed for the first time.

After graduation, we all went to Myrtle Beach and met up at Ocean Annie’s.  That Thursday night, we huddled around TVs to watch the series finale of Cheers.   Cheers was a big part of our college experience, because F&M was a place where everybody knew our names.  It’s still like that today, 15 years after our graduation.  Welcome back, Class of ’93!