It Was In The Cards

A WINNING HAND

This story will be hard for contemporary readers to believe. I vow that is entirely true. The time and location of my undergraduate schooling must be understood. The time was 1959-63 and the location was Purdue University in West Lafayette, Indiana. My dearest friend at Purdue was a Catholic fellow from Chicago. Ray Halbert remarked that there were more Catholics at Purdue than at Norte Dame. All of these factors help establish a framework and foundation for what follows.

Dress standards were very strict. Girls were not permitted to wear slacks to class. A shirt and tie, with clasp, were required to enter the Cary Hall dining room at supper. A suit coat or sports coat was an additional requirement for the Sunday noon meal.

The Four Cardinal Sins in Cary Hall, which would lead to immediate expulsion were:

1.   No females beyond the main lobby sitting area

2.   No fireworks in the dorm

3.   No alcohol in the dorm

4.   And No playing cards in the rooms---There was a single room adjacent to the TV room for cards. The room was to close at 11pm each night.

During my sophomore year I was elected representative of the Cary Hall East student council. Four students were caught by an RA playing Bridge after the 11pm closing time. This was a bending of the rules not a violation of the a Cardinal Sin. The “guilty” foursome was turned over to the dorm student council for adjudication. 

A student named Joe Post was a hardliner---“let’s kick ‘em out.” I thought the entire incident was a waste of time and a much lesser punishment was warranted. I jokingly called our deliberations the “Nuremburg Trails.” After a couple of weeks of testimony and discussion, a vote was taken and the guilty foursome was restricted from the card room for a month.

The rest of the story: Two of the guilty later flunked out.

My special friend Ray died about 10 years ago. Just recounting this event makes me very sad. Ray was a special man in many ways. His life mattered. One of his daughters was in the Air Force when Ray died.

Glenn <><
Just West of Yesterday