@MIZZOU ASKS YOU

Apartment Adventures

@Mizzou readers share their off-campus living adventures…

My senior year was spent in the first-floor apartment of an old house right behind Mark Twain dorm, which was, at the time, still a private dorm. Now, I’d seen all manner of college partying, but when my roommates and I hosted a party (complete with keg), I saw some of my most conservative friends let loose. Although tame by many standards, the belly slides down the house’s curved staircase were a big leap for my low-key buddies. Freedom!

Later that year, I made the horrific discovery that, even in the most neatly-kept apartment, cockroaches like brown paper bags. On a stormy night that played like a Wes Craven horror flick, I pulled stack after stack of Schnucks’ paper bags out from where I routinely tucked them between the counter and the refrigerator — they were crawling with roaches. My roommate, who cowered in her room screaming, called me Bwana, Great Hunter, as I sprayed THOUSANDS of roaches with bug spray. The nightmare didn’t end until months later when more roach larvae than I cared to count hatched and were exterminated in the carpet where the bags had been stored.

That house held some wonderful memories for me, but I didn’t shed a tear when I learned that, a year or two after graduation, it was demolished to make way for Mark Twain parking. I have to believe that as the building came down, the crazed whoops of belly sliders and the screams of countless dying roaches echoed in the air.

— Juliet Byington Holden, BJ ’83

As a confirmed dormie, and finally a personnel assistant (as we were called back in the mid-1960s), my peeks into off-campus living were brief, but colorful. In the summer of 1965, my successful campaign to redeem a disastrous spring semester found me living in a basement coal bin north of Stephens College. After repeated cleanings, the rubble stone walls remained completely non-reflective, so awakening at night with no lights simulated death – though when your eyes adjusted you could see starlight through the gap in the foundation. Rainstorms produced a soothing sound of trickling water along the base of the wall, so the bed linens had to be made up short on that side.

After I graduated, my roommate and good friend Herb Britt stayed to finish his doctorate in chemical engineering. Visiting his duplex apartment in the early 1970s, I noticed he had dribbled toothpaste on the vanity and had missed wiping it off. Trying to do him a favor, I found the toothpaste to be rock-like and could not chip it away.

My younger brother’s first off-campus housing, in a Paquin Street basement, had 4.5 feet of headroom. The shower had been created by lining the end of a hallway with Weldwood paneling over the crumbling plaster. Later, he moved to an old trailer north of I-70. The oven was reduced in size considerably by crusted grease, which started a roaring fire the first time he lit it.

— Jim Swinford, BJ ’68

I stayed in Johnston Hall while I was at MU. My first apartment experience was during a summer internship in Texas. I rented a furnished one-bedroom. I remember complaining that I was paying more for the one-bedroom apartment than my father was paying for a four-bedroom house (with a double backyard, across from a park, and one block from UMR). My downstairs neighbor, to whom I was complaining, was ecstatic over how much less rent she was paying compared to California.

— Jean Babcock, BS IE ’80

I was late enrolling for my junior year. It was too late for fall rush and the dorms were full, so I had to settle for a room in a house on North Garth. The owner was a seemingly sweet elderly lady who had tenants upstairs and in the basement; she had one room left to rent. I took it even though I had no car and it was quite a walk to campus. I soon discovered that the woman was an alcoholic. Every evening she would sit by the front window, accompanied by her ancient dog, and drink bourbon right out of the bottle. She stayed drunk a good part of the time. One day I came back from class and found that without asking me she had canned all of the apples that my parents had brought me from Stephenson’s Orchard in Kansas City. Any food I kept in the kitchen was fair game to her. She also regularly went through my closet and bureau drawers. At the semester, I went through winter rush and moved into a sorority house. I never went back to that house on North Garth.

— Nancy Tucker O’Shea, BS Ed ’64

My first taste of off-campus housing occurred winter semester 1966 after leaving the very crowded Edwards House. I rented a room – actually it turned out to be a glassed-in back porch on the second floor of a house on Sanford Place (I believe it is a parking lot now). Redd Fox and his son lived in better! All of the inhabitants shared a kitchen with two refrigerators in the basement. The basement also served as a nice place to go for warmth because the furnace was there. My room was only big enough for a single bed, a desk and a dresser. I had to rely on the occupants in the adjacent room to leave their door open for some heat, and I didn’t have an electric blanket. Thank God the Newman Center would open early so that I could find warmth, bathroom facilities that would not stop up and water that would actually flow freely. It made my move to Town and Campus during the following semester fantastic.

— Bryan Donnelly, BHS ’70

After spending my freshman year in Hatch Hall, I decided to move off campus with several of my friends for my sophomore year. We moved into a basement apartment in a house on University Avenue, a block east of College Avenue.

Well, after the apparent glamour and freedom of moving out of the dorms, I found that when it rained, water would run into our basement apartment, we had to shop for food, do dishes, clean the apartment regularly, and go to a Laundromat to wash our clothes. Likewise, we didn’t have the convenience of a cafeteria, snack bar, laundry, recreation space, and being around lots of friends, like we did in the dorm. As a break from the normal pattern, I decided to move back into the dorm after the first semester. I enjoyed the convenience of dorm life and being around so many friends that I decided to stay in the dorm again my junior year. In fact, my junior year in the dorm was my favorite year in college, when I had the most fun, and when I earned my highest grades.

Unfortunately, in the fall of my senior year, I had to student teach in another city. When I returned to Columbia, I ended up living in another off-campus housing unit.

My first off-campus living experience taught me that dorm life was actually pretty good in comparison to apartment life. It was a place where I made lots of friends, had a good time, did well in my school work, didn’t need a car to get to classes, and nearly everything was convenient.

— Tom Tobben, BA, BS Ed ’72, MA ’76

I rented an apartment out on the edge of town when I came to Columbia in 1990. I couldn’t believe how huge it was – four big rooms for only $215 a month. After a few days I figured out the catch: the place was crawling with roaches. I called the landlord, who ignored me. I couldn’t stand it. I went to the student union and made an appointment with the lawyer who worked there helping students. I can’t remember her name, but she was brilliant. She helped me write a really strong letter to the landlord with some key legal terms scattered throughout. I typed up the letter and put it in the mail. Two days later, the landlord was at the building, spraying the entire place. I ditched the apartment a couple months later anyway, but I have very fond memories of the student union’s free legal services.

— Lisa Kremer, MA ’92

My first off-campus apartment was at the convenient location of University and Hitt streets, Apt. 1B. We had three roommates in a two-bedroom apartment. Despite the fact that we provided the landlord with three checks for $70 each (utilities included) on a monthly basis, the landlord didn’t tell us until late into our senior year that we could only have two people in the apartment. Apt. 1B is the basement apartment on the University-side facing the Art Building. We had a little grill that cost about $5 and would “grill out” most Fridays at the top of our stairs on the sidewalk. It was quite an ice-breaker for conversation. Even if we only had just fired up the charcoal, having liberally soaked it with lighter fluid, most comments would be, “that smells great.” Pork steaks were our featured choice due to the low cost.

The best story related to our close-campus living came from my roommate. We were all in Marching Mizzou and would play in the pep rally at the local bars on Thursday nights during football season. We were not yet 21 years old, so it was a way for us to get into the bars. We would always get our hands stamped to show we were under 21; however, beer was the best substance to remove the ink. We would always end the rally at the “Vu” (Deja Vu). My roommate got tanked by the end of one night. But, he knew that to get home he would need only walk out from the Vu, head to the Columns, then take a left turn, go past the Chancellor’s house and the Laundromat, then he would be home. So, he left the Vu, looked for the Columns and walked to the Columns. Unfortunately, when he got there he looked up and only counted four of them.

How could this be? Remember, the street is called Avenue of the Columns. At the south end are the six Columns on Campus, on the north end are the four columns at the Boone County Courthouse. When he looked up, he said, “Holy Schnickeys” (not really, as Chris Farley was still in High School in Madison, WI, at the time), then turned around and found his way home.

— John Thiel, BJ ’80, JD ’86

My first rental house was on Gentry Street, right about where the tiger is across from the MU swimming pool [the area, now called Tiger Plaza, boasts a bronze tiger statue and fountain]. South Side Sub, the Shack and GCB were within two minutes of my door.

I woke up one Saturday to the sound of voices in the backyard. Tailgaters were setting up! It was awesome. It was cute a girl who lived there the year before and her parents. After they explained who they were, I said okay. And of course, I left the backdoor open when I had to leave.

— Rick Willis, BJ ’84

I lived in the attic in an old house on Paquin St. Three, and sometimes four of us, shared this small space. We slept in metal bunk beds all in one room. If the top person sat up in bed, she would hit her head on the roof slant. The kitchen was tiny with the table in the window dormer. Watch your head there also!!! The eating table doubled as a desk, of course, and we had one large table in the bedroom for study. We used the landlady’s washer (wringer-type) and hung the clothes outside. If one of us went home for the weekend, we would try to bring food back. If we were cooking a roast or something, my generous home economics teachers would let me run home and turn off the oven (2 blocks away).

The best thing about the house was that the house next door had all BOYS, and we had great times playing softball and going on trips to “the creek.” The worst thing was the night the palmetto bug came out of the closet – a monster that must have come from Florida in someone’s luggage (not ours). We were up all night. He could fly or run, and his eyes moved to watch us.

College was great then. Our rent was $15 a month, and those roommates and
I still keep in touch and remember the crazy stuff we did.

— Audrey Deatherage Amthor, BS HE ’55

1976 was a long time ago, and it was during that year that I moved away from my parents’ home in Columbia to an apartment. A girlfriend and I managed a four-plex for some out-of-town owners. For mowing the lawn and picking up the rent checks, our rent was reduced from $150 per month to $110 a month for the entire two-bedroom apartment. Let’s see, there was no cable to buy, electricity was under $50 (split two ways) and water and trash pickup were somewhere in the vicinity of $10.

In those days, two grocery sacks of food generally cost $20 or less, cigarettes were 50 cents a pack, gas was 50 cents a gallon and tuition was a flat fee of about $250 per semester. We lived pretty cheaply in those days. Times sure have changed.

My daughter is starting at Mizzou in the fall, and I don’t want to consider the costs right now.

— Sue Popkes, BS ’80

When returning to Mizzou in the mid-1960s to pursue a degree in business and public administration, I decided to live off campus with a friend, Gene Modugno. We rented a second-floor apartment in a converted single-family residence, which was across the street from Mark Twain Residence Hall on the southwest corner of Sixth and Conley. This building had been converted from single-family to multi-family usage, which resulted in an interesting configuration of the second floor. Our kitchen was in what had previously been a closet, and even though small, Gene would cook up a big pot of his mother’s secret pasta sauce on a regular basis, as well a prepare great meals.

But what really set this place apart was that our bathroom was across the hall. It wasn’t an issue for two guys, but when we had guests, it was. Trips to use the facilities could be quite interesting because there was another apartment on the second floor, and you would meet up with visitors coming and going at various hours. Obviously we had to be properly attired for the trip. I will always remember a very large football player who, when encountered in a darkened hallway, was startling.

Interestingly, that building is still standing and is still being rented to students today. I suggested to my daughter, who is a student at Mizzou, that it would be a very convenient place to rent for next year. You can imagine the response I got from that suggestion, particularly after telling her the stories of my time in the house. And of course my wife, Bonnie Winter Jackson (BS Ed ’63), put in her views since she had lived there one summer when attending graduate school after we got married. It was a great experience, but one that makes you thankful for what you have today.

It was at least 40 years ago that we rented that apartment, and it was already old when we were there. One can only speculate as to how much rent has been collected from that one building over that period of time. Maybe I should have invested?

— Emory Jackson, BS Ed ’63, BS BA ’66

Winter memories that were sent after the Feb. 2004 issue of @Mizzou was published…

I went to MU from 1976-80. It was so cold at times that we would walk in one end of a building and out the other just to get warm for a couple of minutes. I later learned three of those four years were among the coldest years on record in Missouri. I knew I was freezing.

— Denice Lordo McGregor , BS BA ’80

In rotten weather when going from the engineering building to the white campus, I would go through the library, which was the better part of a block.

— Jack Hodges, BS ChE ’54

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Last Update: November 15, 2007