Registration

On my way to my office I pass through the registration area, which of course is a zoo the first week of school. And yet it's not close to the chaos of registering at UCLA in 1964 in the gymnasium. Registration tables lined the walls, thousand of students shuffled about looking for the right table for their class.

The chaos contributed to my taking classical Greek.Even though I had been a Russian linguist in the Army Security Agency, the dumb powers that be decided I was ONE unit short of my language requirement. I had to take something. I'd been in Germany and learned some barroom German, I begrudgingly decided I'd take German.

Well, the line to the German table was winding all around the gym, it was so long. Next to it was an empty table. I went to the empty table and said, You're not German, by any chance, are you? Nope. Classical Greek. I looked at the line and decided on the spot.

Serendipity. This got me into Phi Beta Kappa! Having been a linguist, I was pretty good at Classical Greek (I'd also taken Latin in high school). My professor loved me and tried to turn me into a Greek major. No thanks. So I go on a graduate with a B average, mainly because I took an overload each term, taking one or two courses for C's in order to do the reading in a structured environment. I was hungry for knowledge ha ha!

And how does Phi Beta Kappa figure in? I go to grad school at the U of O and near the end of the first year get a letter from UCLA. I have been accepted into PBK a year late! They want me to march with the U of O seniors. This is nuts, I think. You don't get into this high falutin club with a B average. But I go ahead and march, with not a clue to what's going on. Until I get my certificate of membership. And there is the signature of my Greek teacher, the president of PBK! Turns out she liked me so much she was shocked I wasn't on the list of nominees, she snooped on her own, found out I was taking 21 credits a term, 3 or 6 for C's (didn't have pass, no pass in those days), that without those I had damn near an A. She lobbied and got me in!

Isn't that a nice story? True, too. I used to wear a PBK pin on my baseball cap until some asshole stole it and I never replaced it. By the gods, I should! I should wear it on my hat again. I think I'll look into that right now.

p.s. Too spendy!