Chapter 58: What\'s Old is New Again

August, 1983, Chicago, Illinois

I slept later than usual on Monday, deciding to forgo my usual run in favor of an extra two hours of sleep. When the alarm rang at 7:30am, I bounced out of bed, ready for the challenges of a new school year. I showered, dressed, and went downstairs to make myself some breakfast.

With seven people in the house, the kitchen was going to be much busier than when it had just been Elyse, Stephie, and me, but right at the moment, it was empty. I hadn't checked everyone's schedule, but I did know which classes we shared. My first class of the semester was American Government, which Stephie and I shared. After lunch I had Computer Networking with Cindi and Katy and my last class of the day was Introduction to Psychology, though none of my friends were in that class. All of those classes ran on Monday, Wednesday, and Friday.

On Tuesday mornings I had Systems Engineering with Cindi, Dave, and Julia and on Tuesday afternoon, Computer Graphics with them as well. My Thursdays would be completely free, except for lunch with Becky. I planned to put up tutoring flyers, and I'd use Thursdays to do that, though I could certainly offer some on Saturdays or an evening if someone couldn't manage Thursday. I had a good reputation with the department, and it wouldn't surprise me if Doctor Bauer directed some students my way, as he had in the past.

As I was finishing breakfast, Stephie and Julia both came into the kitchen. I got up from the table to rinse my dishes and Julia asked if I could give her a ride to campus.

"Sure. I'm assuming Stephie is riding with me, so there's room for two more. Jackie and Cindi both have cars, Elyse walks, so that just leaves Katy. Has anyone seen her yet this morning?"

"She had an 8:00am class and got a ride from Jackie because Jackie needed to buy books for the semester," Julia said. "An early class like that is going to make it tough on her without a car. She'll have to take the El, I guess."

"Yeah, most likely, unless somebody plans to go in early." I said. "I guess we should have talked about this beforehand."

"You can't think of everything, Steve!" Stephie said.

"It'll all work out," Julia said. "We just all have to get used to being about 15 blocks from campus instead of basically just having to walk across the street."

When the girls finished breakfast, the three of us grabbed our stuff and went out to my car for the short drive to IIT. Stephie and I headed to our American Government class and Julia to her French class. As much as I liked languages, I was happy that I wasn't taking one because it required a lot of extra work and time, which I simply did not have.

Stephie and I were early enough that we could take our usual seats at the front of the class. I pulled out the textbook, a notebook, and a pair of mechanical pencils, then watched the other students file in. I saw a couple of computer science majors who I recognized, but for the most part, everyone else in the class was unfamiliar.

The last student to come into the room was stuck with the chair to my right, the only one left. He was about 6' tall, with black hair, dark brown eyes, and he wore glasses. By his looks, I guessed American southwest, but it was hard to be sure.

"Hi, I'm Steve Adams," I said, introducing myself.

"Jorge González," he responded. "I'm a Freshman in the Electrical Engineering program."

"I'm a Junior in Computer Science. This is my friend Stephie Grant, she's a Chem-E."

"Hi, Jorge," Stephie said. "You from Chicago?"

"No, Puerto Rico. I've been here just a couple of days and it's totally crazy!"

"It was like that when I got here from Dawsonville, Georgia. It's a small town and nothing like Chicago. But I met Steve here, and he helped me adjust."

"You're from Chicago?" Jorge asked.

"Sort of," I grinned. "But here comes the professor. We can talk after class."

The professor was a middle-age man in a tweed jacket with elbow patches and a pipe sticking out of one of the pockets. He wore silver-rimmed glasses and sported a neatly trimmed gray beard. The first thought that popped into my mind was 'Hippie'. He opened his grade book, called the roll, and then introduced himself.

"I'm George Pleasonton. I have a doctoral degree in political science from Harvard. This course is American Government and we'll be discussing not only how it works, but the philosophical underpinnings of our system. I'll expect you not only to understand the mechanics of the system, but why things are the way they are, and how the Constitution, as a living document, changes to fit the needs of the people."

It was all I could do to keep quiet at that point. This professor and I were going to cross swords for sure. The very idea that the Constitution was some sort of 'living document' grated on me, because that meant it could easily be twisted to say whatever somebody wanted, making it of no real effect. I'd had debates with Mr. Yockey and Mr. Roeckers in High School along those lines, and it looked as if I was going to have them again.

Doctor Pleasonton handed out the syllabus, and I quickly scanned it. Several things immediately caught my eye, most notably a reference to 'one-man, one-vote', which was actually antithetical to the principles enshrined in the Constitution. It wasn't going to be crossed swords; it was going to be pistols, or maybe howitzers. I cautioned myself though, because I wanted to maintain my straight A's. This would be an interesting class for sure.

Doctor Pleasonton wasted no time in beginning his lecture, starting with the principles of separation of powers. I had some quibbles with some things he said, but I'd really have to wait until we got to classroom discussions or he asked questions, because I was pretty sure that interrupting his lecture would start me off on completely the wrong foot. Two things were blatantly obvious to me — he was a liberal, and he was adamantly opposed to Presidential power.

Neither of those surprised me, especially the issue of Presidential power. His examples, mostly drawn from the Nixon administration, were things with which I could agree, though he was careful to defend Roosevelt's actions, even though there were clear parallels. I made notes of things that I wanted to remember to bring up, but also made sure that I wrote down his opinions on things. If it came to that, it wouldn't be the first time I had to repeat back things with which I completely disagreed for a better grade.

When class finished, Stephie invited Jorge to join us for lunch. The three of us walked to The Bog where we were meeting Julia and Dave. I introduced Jorge to them, and then explained that I was originally from California, that my parents had moved to Ohio and that I'd moved to Chicago before school started. We got our lunches and sat down.

"Do you live in the dorms, or did you pledge a fraternity?" Jorge asked me.

"Actually, I have a house down in Hyde Park near the University of Chicago. Stephie and Julia are housemates of mine."

"I'm at Sig Eps," Dave said. "If you're interested, let me know. Next week is Pledge Week, so if you want to think about moving out of the dorms, you should consider us. What's your major?"

"Electrical Engineering."

"We have several Double-Es in the house, so you could easily get some help from them. Of course, if you need help with the required computer classes, Steve here is your absolute best bet as a tutor."

"Thanks," Jorge said. "Both girls live with you, Steve?"

"Actually, there are six girls who live in the house with me," I said.

"Six? Six girls?" he asked, clearly astonished by what I'd said.

Julia and Stephie laughed.

"Steve has lots of female friends, but Julia is Dave's girlfriend and we do all have our own rooms," Stephie said.

"Well, that's not quite true," I said. "Cindi and Jackie share a room, but otherwise, yeah."

"How's your roommate?" Julia asked.

"Some Chinese kid," Jorge said. "Doesn't talk. Doesn't even say hello. I'm not the most outgoing person in the world, but that kid's totally withdrawn. Of course, I suppose I can't talk much, if Steve hadn't greeted me first, I'd have never started a conversation. How did you all end up renting a house together?"

Stephie laughed, "Steve's not renting. He OWNS the house. I met him in chemistry class Freshman year. For the first two years, he had an apartment with his friend Elyse from High School. Then we sort of all just started hanging out together and became a group. When he bought the house, he offered us rooms and a bunch of us took him up on it."

"You own the house?" Jorge asked incredulously.

"Long story, but yes. My dad and I bought it last Spring. He lives in Ohio. You're more than welcome to visit any time you want. Because you have to live on campus for a year, I'd say you should talk to Dave, or I can introduce you to my friend Mike at Theta Xi."

Dave laughed, "Oh, sure, steer him away. What kind of friend are you?"

"Just giving the man options, Dave!" I grinned. "Jorge, why don't you plan on joining us for lunches?"

"I would, but I need to eat in the cafeteria most days, because that's how my meal plan works."

"Ah, yeah, that makes sense. Dave doesn't join us often because he usually eats at the Sig Ep's house."

"True," Dave agreed. "Julia will join me at the house most times. If you join the house, you could eat with us every day."

"I'll think about it," Jorge said, but he didn't sound convinced.

We finished our lunches and headed for our classes — Dave and Julia walked with me, but we split up when I went into my computer networking class. Dave was taking a second Operating Systems class and Julia had decided to take that with him. We said 'goodbye' and I walked into the classroom and saw Cindi and Katy sitting about halfway back. As usual, the seats in the front row were empty, and I sat down front and center. I heard Cindi sigh and a moment later they had moved to the front row, sitting on either side of me.

"The front row?" Cindi asked, sounding annoyed. "Really?"

"Always," I replied. "I have a sneaking suspicion that I'm going to need glasses at some point, and this makes it easier to read the board. Not to mention it helps me not to be distracted."

Cindi smirked and leaned over, showing her cleavage, "You mean like this?"

I sighed and Katy laughed.

"You know," Katy said with a twinkle in her eye, "even I know Steve well enough to know that he prefers my size to yours."

"Yeah, but he's actually SEEN mine!" Cindi teased.

Just then Doctor Bauer walked in, so we quit horsing around. He was the department chair, and all three of us absolutely wanted to stay on his good side. The word was that if you got a letter of recommendation from him, you were guaranteed any job you applied for. As usual, Doctor Bauer simply wrote his name on the board and called the roll. He was always no-nonsense in class, though I had seen him in The Bog on a few occasions drinking beer with other professors and joking and laughing.

"Mr. Adams?" he said.

"Here!" I responded, even though he knew me by sight.

"Do you plan to tutor again this semester?" he asked, interrupting his calling of the roll.

"Yes, Sir," I said. "Thursdays again, though other times by appointment."

"Thank you," he said and continued calling out names.

When he finished, he handed out the syllabus and launched right into his introduction.

"We'll be covering the history of networks, starting with the telegraph and the telephone, and working our way forward through SAGE and SABRE to the most recent developments from the Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency, or DARPA, and Xerox's Palo Alto Research Center, or PARC. We'll spend most of our time on modern networking systems and protocols, such as X .25 and finishing up with TCP, which is just being implemented for the first time."

He went to the board and sketched out some lines and boxes and began talking about point-to-point systems like the initial telegraph systems which had covered the country before telephones and computers were invented. He pointed out the various problems and potential solutions that were proposed and how each step built on a previous one. I quickly realized that this was going to be an interesting class.

When class ended, I said 'goodbye' to Katy and Cindi, stopped at the vending machine to get a can of Coke, then headed to the building where my Introduction to Psychology class would be held. I was a bit early, so I took my usual front-row seat and pulled out the textbook for the class and started reading. Psych was Bethany's major and given everything that's going on in my life, it made sense to at least have a passing knowledge of the field. Twenty minutes later, the classroom had filled up, and the professor came in. On my left was a pretty young Oriental girl, who I guessed was most likely a Freshman, and to my right, a guy who looked like he could play linebacker for the Bengals.

The professor introduced herself as Doctor Rhonda Becker, handed out a syllabus, and then called the roll. The young woman to my left was Wen Zhao, who asked to be called 'Wendy', and the guy to my right was Cleveland Robinson. Unlike my other classes, instead of launching into a lecture, Doctor Becker asked each student to introduce themselves, say where they were from, what year they were in, and what their major was.

Wendy was originally from the People's Republic of China, but her family had moved to Thailand. She was a Freshman computer science major. Cleveland was from Houston, Texas, and was a Freshman in the nuclear engineering program. He also said he was in the Navy ROTC program. The rest of the class was a mix of Freshmen and Sophomores, with only one other Junior like me. There was a wide mix of majors, with most people being in engineering programs.

Once everyone finished, Doctor Becker began her lecture, starting with the history of psychology and defining terms that she said would be part of our first weekly quiz on Friday. There were a number of groans about the weekly quiz, but I always found those valuable because they didn't count for a huge part of the grade and would give me an idea of exactly what to study for exams.

After class, I went to meet Julia and Stephie at my car. They arrived just about the same time that I did, and we drove back to Hyde Park. Julia offered to help with dinner, so once we put our books in our rooms, she joined me in the kitchen. I seasoned some chicken breasts and put them in the skillet to fry while Julia prepared a salad. While the chicken was cooking, I steamed some corn and peas.

"What's up with you and Dave?" I asked.

"You mean because he didn't spend the night with me?"

"I figured by now it would have happened, given what I know about your histories."

She smiled, "You are probably the only guy I know who could get away with asking me that question!"

"Sorry, I really shouldn't have said anything."

"Nah, you're so open about everything you just assume everyone else is, unless they make a stink about it like Katy does. Of course, she's making a stink because she's scared to death of what will happen if she lets her guard down even for one second! And that she'll be hooked!"