Reflections Upon a Blessed and Exciting Life – No.15: High School Dorm Life

 As mentioned previously my 4 high school years were at a residential prep school (preparing for ordered ministry in the church). It was small; less than 100, all boys.

The facilities were sparse. I remember especially the long concrete corridor of our second floor dormitory. A favorite midnight prowl was for a student to take a big 16-pound shot put and roll it down the entire length of the corridor. The whole floor reverberated, especially in the bedroom of Dean George Beto who slept in his room one floor behind ours. I recall one night he came up to investigate. Of course, every student was fast asleep. Nevertheless he went to the end room, opened the door and screamed at the two occupants, “Steyer and Krueger, you are both campussed for next weekend.” “Campussed” meant they were not allowed to step their feet off campus.

Another very daring adventure (remember this was way back in 1941) was to sleep on the flat deck serving as the roof over the dining rom. I guess what made this exciting was that it was forbidden – and we had to pick a lock to gain access. But when we lay there on our blankets on a starry Texas night we felt daring – and maybe even romantic.

Naturally, there were no computers or cell phones then. There was one pay phone in the main hall. To make a long distance call home was out of the question, way too expensive. My memory is that I made a total of 2 calls in my 4 years there, both times calling “girls” and asking for a date. Once I succeeded. It provided me with the only real date in those 4 years at Austin Concordia.

I am embarrassed to remember that I never did my own laundry. As was the custom I placed my dirty clothes and bed linens in a cardboard laundry box and mailed it home! My mother washed, ironed and then sent me back my newly laundered clothes.

Only upper classmen were allowed to smoke.  If a freshman or sophomore was ever seen with a cigarette, that cigarette was confiscated along with any others the smoker had unsuccessfully hidden.

Showers were, of course, communal. I recall no doors on the shower stalls. As adolescent boys it was a time for much “comparison”, pride or embarrassment.

There was supervised “study period” every night from 7:00 – 9:00 p.m. I still recall how I shuddered when, one evening, Dean Beto opened the door to my room and bellowed, “Kieschnick, what are you doing?  You’re supposed to be studying!” My memory is that I was writing a message on the penny post card I was mailing to Mother the next day.

I still have some feelings of guilt about an “extra expense” I caused my parents. In my sophomore year I got a new room-mate, Mike, who now lives 5 minutes away from me in Encinitas, California. He wanted to place venetian blinds on our room windows. I agreed and my share of the cost was, I think, $8.00! This was an extravagance my parents paid with great reluctance. (I can assure you the home in which they lived had no fancy window coverings like venetian blinds.)

As I reflect now on those experiences some 70 years ago my memories are warm. I learned to live in community, to budget time and money, to develop my own set of values, to appreciate friendship, to resolve conflicts without resorting to violence and to survive the teen years in an all male environment.