@MIZZOU ASKS YOU

College Roomies

@Mizzou readers share their favorite college roommate memories ...

I was assigned a roommate my first year at Mizzou. I was a little nervous, but the first time we talked on the phone, we realized we had so much in common. When we moved in, we got along great. We lived together in and out of the dorms for three years. Now, I'm planning to travel to Australia for her wedding. I couldn't have asked for a better roommate!

— Sara Bondioli, BJ, BA ’05

I have fond memories of 600 Rollins, where the Phi Sigma Delta house was located. One of my roommates, Les Slote, had an unusual routine on Sunday afternoons. He would lie naked on his bed, listening to and conducting whatever symphony was playing on the radio. This was a sight I will never forget. The years were between 1946 and 1949.

— Robert E. (Bob) Davis, BS BA ’49

I remember my freshman year (my only time in the dorms). I lived in Graham Hall. The weekend before finals my roommate and I had our parents come in and take home most of our stuff. We just kept packing and sending. When they left, we realized all we had was a radio, a few clothes and our books. We spent the WHOLE evening on our respective beds tossing Whoppers candy at each other and trying to catch them in our mouths. We were so bored without TV or anything to “do,” and we SURE did not want to study! It was so much fun!

— Amanda DeMoss, HES ’02

I'm not entirely sure, but I think I walked into 412 Lathrop and there was Betsy. I had thought all the way to Mizzou that morning, “What will my roommate be like? Will she be fun and cool or will she be ‘get me outta here, she's a loo-ser?’” So I walk in, and she greets me warmly, and she's so fun, so cool and so totally cute! She was from Pennsylvania; I was from Illinois. She was all rainbows, 7-Up and Jackson Browne, and I was stars, Coke and Billy Joel. We were different, but really, we were the same. We were fast, great friends, right from the start. I got really lucky that first day at Mizzou, and I'm lucky today as Betsy and I are still good friends.

— Donna Bryant Minard, BA ’84

My first semester during my freshman year my roommate and I did not know each other and did not get along at all. We wrote to each other and decided on a room decor. The room was wonderful and simply decorated. While home visiting with my family about a month after school started, I returned to discover that the room had been redone in pink ruffled decor. We had pink ruffled curtains, pink ruffled bedspreads and pink ruffled pillows. I walked in and out of the room several times before I realized that she had changed the ENTIRE decor of the room while I was out of town. Needless to say, it was not a nice scene when she returned. She moved out at the end of first semester, and I then got a roommate who was kind and respectful.

— Melissa Ferguson Wittenborn, BS Ed ’78

My roommate was a zoology major, and she brought dissected animals into our room! I never saw her work on one, but they freaked me out! I made her keep them out in the hall, and no one minded until she brought a dissected cat home and left it outside our door. The girls down the hall had their own stories about “glowing eyes” following them at night. Soon after, she disappeared. One day she and her stuff were there. The next day, they were gone. I never found out what happened.

— Roz Schraier, BS Ed ’67

After living together in the sorority house for a year, my best friend Erica and I decided to get an apartment together. Living with her was more fun and interesting than living with my husband now. On the first snow of every year we would wake up very, very early and run to Wal-Mart in our pajamas to get flour, chocolate chips, and all the other cookie necessities. When we returned, we would make cookies to celebrate. One snow a year was more than enough cold for me, but I ALWAYS looked forward to our morning cookies!

— Erin West, BA ’03

William “Bill” F. Meyer and I were roommates at the Delta Upsilon House at 200 College St. in 1958-59. Although we have not seen each other since we received our undergraduate degrees in engineering and officer commissions on June 7, 1959, we have communicated by letter and now by e-mail for 46-plus years. We live about 2,000 miles apart: Bill in Pebble Beach, Calif., and I in Huntsville, Ala.

— Vaughn Yost, BS ME ’59

Thirty-four years ago I had no idea who I'd have as my roommate. I arrived freshman year from Kansas City at my room in Graham Hall and the index card outside the door said my roommate was from Joplin, Mo. Nothing wrong with that, but little did I know that he was actaully an Army brat coming from Germany (Joplin was his family's official address of record). His dad, the Colonel, had also just been transferred to Homestead AFB in Florida. We became fast friends. His dad retired our sophomore year, and his parents moved to the Florida Keys. That's a pretty good place to visit your roommate and his family over New Year’s Eve every year during college for a week or two. We roomed together all four years and are still best friends to this day. He is a very successful doctor in Denver, and we see him and his family four or five times a year and communicate often. I could share one of many special college roommate stories, but what happens among roommates in college, stays in college. Mizzou was a great time in my life, but one of the things that made it great was my roommate, Steve.

— Mark Smith, BS BA ’75

What do you do when you go to Mizzou your freshman year from out of state and don't know a soul? Well, if you are anything like me, you go to summer orientation in search of a roommate. Or should I say you and your parents go to summer orientation, and your mom searches out a roommate for you.

Yes, that's right, I was from Kansas and was the first Wiebe child off to college. So what does my mom do? She decides to hook me up with a roommate. And when she sets her mind on something, she usually gets it done. She had her eyes peeled for “potentials” at every meeting and session we went to during orientation. She even suggested a gal one time who was someone that I didn't see myself living with for an entire year. SO ... because she was bound and determined to “hook me up,” I decided I better be a little proactive myself so she didn't find me "A Single White Female" so to speak.

During a Residential Housing Meeting (where the speaker wasn't exactly exciting), I was sitting by Carolyn, another “out-of-stater,” and we started a small conversation to entertain ourselves. I liked her and she seemed to get along with me, so the next day I asked if she had a roommate for next year. She said “no” and I just jumped on in and asked her if she wanted to be mine. Well, you could tell she was a bit hesitant, but after a day or so she decided that she would try it. So we filled out the appropriate forms, exchanged addresses and continued to communicate over the summer.

Then when August hit we moved in together: one tomboy with two brothers, and another music/culture guru who had grown up a single child. And as we found out, there were probably a few reasons for Carolyn's initial doubts (her words, not mine). We struggled through matching curtains, borrowing clothes, boyfriends, sorority rush, little sister parties, freshman classes, intramurals and even working at the same job for awhile. It took time and patience (probably lots more on her part than mine), but we made it through the first year. And not only did we make it through that year, but three more years living together in the same room. We had our ups and downs and our differences, but we grew very close. I think our differences in taste, interests and even (or should I say especially) boys made us even closer.

So, I'm happy to say now that we are still very, very close. After almost 18 years I still consider her one of my best friends, and I think she does me, too (or at least I hope so). We may live in different states, have different lives (Carolyn is a free-lance writer and a mom, while I'm a single professional traveling all across the country working in sports) and even cheer for different teams now. But the Tigers will always be dear to our hearts and our days as roommates are even dearer. Our roomie days will always be some of our best memories. Well, all except for that time we got caught throwing the jack-o-lantern off the balcony of Gillette Hall!

— Renee Wiebe, BJ ’91

Memories of the Quad submitted after the September issue of @Mizzou was already published …

The Quad has so many memories for me. You start your education there walking through the Columns and are constantly around it as an engineering student. But I have a particularly special memory of it — my marriage proposal. I had met my husband in Mark Twain dorm my freshman year, and we started dating. We used to go to the Quad at night and sit and talk for hours, learning more about each other and becoming closer. Well, I was set to graduate a semester after my husband, so when he graduated in May 2003 there was the question of what would happen to us if he moved far away.

One weekend the following summer when I was in Columbia visiting, he took me out to a very wonderful dinner and then on the way home said we had a surprise stop. When we drove up to the Quad I wasn't really sure what was going on. We walked out right in between the columns under the moonlight, and there he told me how much our time getting to know each other there meant and then got down on one knee and proposed. I, of course, said "yes." Then about thirty seconds later the sprinklers turned on, and we had to go running off the Quad hand in hand.

— Nicole “Nicky” Roberts, BS EE ’03

I thoroughly enjoyed reading the Quad memories. My memory is simple. I loved walking through the Quad to the J-School in the fall. I couldn't help smiling as the bright sunshine warmed my back, and the bright blue sky made my eyes squint, while light, crisp fall air blew the leaves around. The trees would all be ablaze in red and gold and orange as students walked to their classes or lounged on the base of the Columns or played frisbee. Even today in the fall, if I close my eyes, I can relive those walks and remember how great it was to go to Mizzou. My daughter is a sophomore at Mizzou today, and I know she feels the same way.

— Nancy Willis, BJ ’78

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Last Update: November 15, 2007