Dorm Life (Men)
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Kirk Hall’s man-made icicle
Remember the time we created a giant, colorful icicle in one of the Kirk Hall archways? We rigged up a large trash container with a tiny hole punched in the bottom and let the water — colored with food coloring — trickle down a rope. After several days it probably weighed 200 pounds and was clearly a danger that the Administration wanted removed. We argued there were no house rules against icicles, which caused some deans apoplexy, but in the end we knocked it down to the dismay of many admirers!
Bruce Ward
A lesson learned from Alan the artist
One night in Kirk Hall, I watched Alan Caine ’58 working on an art project. The magic of his work awed me. I asked, "Why can you draw like that and I can't draw stick figures?" Alan explained, "That's because you 'look at things' while I 'see things.'" When I asked, "What do you mean?" Alan asked, "What does the tree outside our dorm door look like?"
Surprised, I responded, "What tree?" I went down to discover a 30-foot elm tree right in front of our door. When I returned to Alan's room, he had completed a detailed sketch of that tree.
The next morning, I decided to try 'seeing things.' From the time I left the dorm, I concentrated on seeing everything I could — shapes, colors, lines, etc. I went on a three-day high with no hangover.
Whenever my Swedish depression genes have kicked in, I learned to concentrate on seeing outside myself. In most of the classes I’ve taught for 41 years I've told my students of this experience, concluding with the lesson: "When you're down in the hole and everyone is dumping on you, there is only one way to look — up." (By the was, Alan created a painting about Zen for his final project in David White's Oriental Philosophy class. I bought that painting which still hangs in our house 50 years later.)
Charles (Chuck) Swanson
Mousolite always spoiled those water fights
Celebration of the arrival of Spring with Kirk Hall Commons water fights. With Kirk organized into living Sections it was a natural for instant team creation. Just when things really got good, Dean Peter Mousolite would show up. Not a real warm and friendly kind of guy.
Don Olson
Introduction to Television
TV still had not made it to Watertown, S.D., by the fall of 1954 so the very first television I ever saw was in the dingy, smoke-filled room in Kirk Hall’s basement where the black-and-white screen flickered at one end faced by rows of chairs. There was a wastebasket up near the TV set, the frequent target of still lit cigarettes that were shot in its direction. Not that I saw much TV. Indeed, never having seen it, I wasn’t quite sure why one would watch it. Also, I always had to go to the cafeteria for early supper just when most guys went to watch TV. I kind of remember Chet Huntley and David Brinkley, i.e., that they were on TV and very good at what they were doing, but not to watch them. What I watched as often as possible was less complex. This was the nightly five-minute installment of Crusader Rabbit (view episodes), a not very animated cartoon. But, interesting. The five-minute sequence consisted of two minutes of recap as to how the story got to its present point, one minute of new developments, and two minutes of speculation on what might happen in the next installment. After that I did a dash to the cafeteria, gobbled my dinner before the doors officially opened, and went about my tasks for the evening.
Thomas E. Johnson
First encounters with curry
Somewhere near the TV room was a small kitchen. I think there was limited access, but Surrender Singh from India often used it on a weekend, as we all knew from time to time when curry — a strange, very alien smell to us at the time — wafted up to the rooms up above. It was unimaginable to us what he was doing down there or how he could eat the results.
Thomas E. Johnson
"Evicting" Hugh from our room
I remember when Bart Mueller, John Schulte ’59 and I moved Hugh
Wooldridge ’59 out of our dorm room (lock, stock and bed) until he "shaped up."
Larry Stotts
The memorable antics of Tom Nagel and David Wise
Two of the most memorable characters in our class were Tom Nagel and David Wise (deceased), roommates in Kirk Hall. Dave was as nearsighted as can be, clever as heck, and generally reclusive or introverted. He invented a “weenie cooker,” which probably has since been outlawed. It consisted of two nails mounted on a board, each connected to an electric wire. The wiener/frankfurter had one nail inserted at each end and then the device was plugged into the electric socket, electrocuting the wiener. Faster than a microwave oven and more interesting! The lights in Kirk Hall dimmed every time Dave powered up. Dave is also the guy who, having a car, one time took a load of us back to Kirk Hall from The Green Mill jumping the curb and using the sidewalk most of the way instead of the street.
Tom Nagel was the inveterate storyteller, and quite the opposite of withdrawn Dave. Most of Tom’s yarns were based on Chatfield, his hometown, which seems to have been inhabited from end to end with memorable characters. Tom didn’t need much of an invitation to launch into a story or two and, since no one could match his gift of gab, the initial stories often were followed by numbers three, four and so on. I can’t remember an occasion when he ran out of stories.
Thomas E. Johnson
Not necessarily the safest way to cook a hotdog
Someone in our section came up with a novel idea on how to cook hotdogs in the dorm room. Two nails were driven into the back of a drawer. Then, the bare ends of an electrical cord were attached to the ends of the nails. Finally, the hot dog was attached to the nail points the cord was plugged into the socket. Fortunately, no serious incidents resulted from this scheme.
Dale W. Turnham
Our secret refrigerator
When we were seniors in Kirk we smuggled a refrigerator into our dorm room. To keep it hid we covered it with a portable closet. Bud Anderson, the "dorm father" discovered it a week before we graduated and we had to take it out.
Dale W. Turnham
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