Currier Hall and Registration

“Currier Hall…also known as the Women’s Building since its construction in 1914…not even twenty years old …still sparkling and eager to meet the needs of the young women of the University of Iowa.” The orientation guide droned on and on; I just wanted to get in my room and unpack. I had this vision of how my marvelous velvet quilt would look on the bed.

Finally, when I did get there, the door was closed, so I knocked on the door before turning the doorknob.

“Come in, please,” someone said.

The room was small, but well lit. A tall slender girl was sitting on one of the beds, which had a pale pink chenille bedspread on it. She smiled at me.

I smiled back. “My name is Mable and I’m from Des Moines. I like your bedspread.” Then I immediately thought that was a silly thing to say. If I had used my good manners, I would have said, “It’s nice to meet you.” I decided I’d better start remembering my manners; I was going to be meeting a lot of new people in the next few weeks.

“My name is Dorothy. You can call me Dot. I chose this bed, if that’s okay with you? I really don’t care since both sides of the room are exactly alike. What do you think, Mable?”

“This other bed is fine, Dot. Thank you for asking. Are you all unpacked and everything?”

“I sure am, and I would be happy to help you if you want me to. I can make your bed for you,” Dot offered as she stood up. “Wait, what’s that wire coming out of your blouse?”

Well, I thought, I guess we’ll get this over with right away. “I’m hard-of-hearing. It’s my hearing aid. I wear it in my brassiere; it clips on, and the wire goes up to my earpiece. See?” I pulled my hair back from over my ear and showed her what it looked like.

“Why, I never would have known. Your hearing aid must work well. Can you hear anything without it?” she queried.

“I can hear a little, but I always wear it except for bathing and bedtime. Oh, and swimming, too. Lower voices are easier to hear. Higher pitched voices, like women’s voices, are harder to hear. Men are much easier. I lip read a little bit, also,” I explained. She seemed pretty interested, so I continued, “I must admit I am a little nervous about making new friends here. It’s really difficult for me to hear when I’m in a crowd of people who are all talking at once. I don’t hear very well at parties and places like basketball games.”

“Oh, don’t worry so much Mable. You are obviously a really nice person and you will make friends. Do you have a boyfriend?”

That seemed a little personal, but I had just told her about my hearing loss, so I thought this might be a good time to start getting to know each other. I decided to turn the tables on Dot.

“Not a boyfriend kind of boyfriend, but my best friend is a boy, if that counts. How about you? Do you have a boyfriend?” I asked.

“I sure do, but he’s going to Iowa State in Ames. Don wants to be a veterinarian. He’s a farm boy, but he doesn’t want to farm. I miss him already,” Dot whined a little bit at the end. “I don’t think we will get to see each other until Thanksgiving. That seems like forever!”

“I miss Burnie, too. His father just dropped me off here and is driving him to Purdue. I’m pretty sure I won’t see Burnie until Christmas. We have been best friends since sixth grade.”

Dot was still smiling. I was thinking that we would be getting along swell as roommates. She quickly had the sheets on my bed and started looking around at what was left in the little trunk.

“Did you bring a bedspread?” she asked. “I don’t see one in here with the sheets.”

“Oh yes, I have one. It’s a bit heavier, so I put it in the bottom of my large trunk over here. My grandmother made it for me for graduation.” Somehow, I felt comfortable telling Dot more. “She just died in a house fire last month.”

“My goodness, Mable. God rest her soul! I am so sorry to hear that. It’s so sad. What a horrible thing to have happen. Was this in Des Moines?”

“No, it happened in Steamboat Rock. We just got back to Des Moines a week ago. I barely had time to pack for school.”

We sat down on her bed and talked about all sorts of things. She told me she was going to study business, and I shared that I was going to study journalism. She was really curious about what it was like to go to a city high school in a big town like Des Moines. Her father was a banker in Mason City and she had two brothers. I told her that I was an only child and that my father died last year. She sat down on her bed, her hands full of my wooden hangers from the top of the big trunk.

“I am so sorry to hear that,” she spoke very gently. “You must have had a very difficult senior year. And your mother; she is going to miss you terribly, isn’t she?”

I thought for a moment how to answer her. I decided she didn’t know what a practical family I came from and how my mother was such a strong woman...who wanted me to go to college more than anything.

“Yes, it was a shock when my father died suddenly, and of course, no one expected Grandmother’s house fire. School is very important in my family, and that was always a priority. Senior year was very busy for me. I was sports editor for our school newspaper and I was on the swim team and basketball team. My father was always encouraging me in all my activities, and Mother supported me, too. She always said nothing was going to stop me from going to college, so here I am,” I explained it all in as much of a nutshell as I could.

“But, isn’t she going to be terribly lonely now?” queried Dot again.

“I doubt it. She’s moving back to her hometown to be closer to her brother and the rest of our family. We only lived in Des Moines for six years, because of my father’s work. I’ll write her every week; she’s going to be busy settling back in and getting together with all her old friends in Steamboat Rock. She’ll be fine and I’m hoping to make some good college friends here, like you,” I said as I smiled at her, and picked up few hangers to put my clothes on.

“Sorry, I guess I’m not helping much. I want to get all your clothes hung, get to the bottom of this trunk, and see that quilt your grandmother made for you,” she said as she took a couple of dresses out of the trunk.

Dot and I finished hanging up my clothes in no time at all. I really didn’t have that many. I always dressed pretty simply, mixing my skirts with different blouses and sweaters. She absolutely went crazy over the quilt and bathrobe when I took them out of the bottom. I let her try the bathrobe on. She was tall like I am, so it fit her well. I hung it up and then we decided to walk down to the office so we could figure out how to get something to eat in the dining hall. We didn’t have to register for our classes until the next day, so after dinner we just walked along the river.

It was a pretty warm evening. I had not been that close to a river since the mile swim in Des Moines. I told Dot about it and she was pretty impressed. She had never played sports. She had just been interested in her school work. Her goal was to be a banker, like her father. It sounded boring to me, and it was a job that was mostly done by men, but she was excited about it. We had a lovely walk and visit. We saw some good-looking boys, but just in passing. There would be plenty of time later to meet boys at all the freshman mixers that the orientation guide told us about.

Before I went to bed that first night, I wrote to Mother. I told her all about Dot and my room. I also asked her to get me Burnie’s address at Purdue from his mother. I had to keep in touch with him, and phone calls were going to be too expensive. Burnie had told me that he would write back to me, and I was praying he would keep that promise! I started a letter to him and figured I could write a little bit more on it every night, until I received his address and then I could mail it.

Registering for classes meant getting up early the next day and standing in long lines all morning in a gigantic gymnasium. It seemed like there were thousands of students in there, and they were all talking at the same time. It was a hearing aid nightmare. I had to tell every adult who tried to help me, when I finally got to the front of a line for my turn, that I was hard-of-hearing and then they all felt like they had to shout at me. That made everyone stare, or at least it felt like they were all staring. However, the registrars were helpful, and somehow, I got signed up for all my classes. Swim practice, when it started, would be early in the mornings, so it wouldn’t interfere with any class schedules. I even managed to keep three afternoons per week open for working on the Daily Iowan, the university newspaper. I was excited! I was going to make my mother and father proud; Mable Hall, girl journalist and world-class swimmer!

Dot had also scheduled all her classes and, as we met up for lunch, we shared our registration horror stories. She agreed that it was terribly loud in there, and that she was a little intimidated, just like I was. That made me feel much better about the experience. We finally laughed about it and decided that by our senior year, we would be old pros at it, and probably be laughing at the poor little freshmen students!

That afternoon, I tried out for the synchronized swim team. It was called the Seals Club. Being on that team was a step towards the varsity women’s swim team, which is where I needed to be to keep my scholarship money. The tradition was that you had to be on the Seals for at least one year before you were allowed to travel with the women’s swim team and swim competitively. I had never done synchronized swimming before, so I had no idea how difficult it was.

There was a skills test that I had to pass in order to achieve active membership. I don’t think I was the only freshman girl there who felt like she was about to drown! It was completely different than swimming a mile in the Des Moines River! Of course, I passed the test. It was in the swimming pool, after all, and I could do anything in the pool. At least I thought I could. All those underwater moves were new to me, and really didn’t think that I did that well at first. Fortunately, I was able to laugh at myself, and the girls and our sponsor were really sweet to me. They knew I intended to swim at the collegiate level and I told them that I would learn to swim like a Seal as quickly as possible.

Most of the girls were curious about my hearing aid, and I showed them how I have to take it out right before I get in the water, and then put it back on as soon as I get out. I explained to Miss Camp, the sponsor, that most of her coaching for me would have to take place before I got into the water, and the girls said they would all be happy to point or demonstrate any instructions given after we were already in the pool, to help me out. Almost immediately, I had a swell bunch of new friends.

The Seals Club went to team competitions also, so I could keep my competitive edge sharp and be ready to win my individual races next year. Between swim team practice and Seals Club practice, I was going to be swimming a lot this semester.