Nancy From Drexel

In the spring of 1976, I was a freshman in college.  I had just bought my first motorcycle and discovered the wonders of Duluth’s Skyline Parkway.  A 40 mile scenic drive along the crest of the Duluth hill.  I was busy in school and every moment that wasn’t spent in classes or studying was spent on my new bike.  Mostly toodling along on skyline parkway.

Due to such a “hectic” schedule, I hadn’t been to the student center with my friends in weeks.  One day, my friends Mark and Mike snagged me coming out of the dorm and dragged me down to the Student center for pizza and a beer at the Woodroom. (on campus beer bar back in the days when 18 was the legal drinking age :D )

Now, a slight sidebar here.  UWS (University of Wisconsin - Superior) is known to the inhabitants as “Tundra Tech.”  Anyone who has spent a winter in the Twin Ports will understand why.  At the time it had a student population of about 2,600.  Seemingly, about 1,000 of which had been recruited as foreign students from Nigeria and China.  Who, for the most part (male and female) kept to their own heritage when it came to making friends.

And, with a male to female ratio of 3:1, this made opportunities for potential romance at Tundra Tech, rather slim.  Particularly for a 19 yr old in his sexual prime, busting a nut just wanting to get laid…  Every guy in my circle was a walking case of blue balls.

So, back to my story.  Mike, Mark and I walked to the student center.  And on arrival in the lobby, lo and behold, there was a magnificent creature behind a folding table, pimping a new sorority she was trying to start on campus.

Nancy was visiting from Drexel, to start her new sorority.  Well, I had to go chat her up…  She was charming and beautiful and well, I wasn’t a frat boy or dating a girl who wanted to be in a sorority. So I got blown off.  I meant to get back to her and work her a little harder, but it just didn’t happen.  I was busy.  And well, there was my new bike to ride…

So a month goes by before I get dragged back into the student center, again.  And there’s Nancy!  She’s STILL there.  I could have been working that all month!  And I was wasting my time on my bike!!!  Fool that I am.

So, I go over and she seemed delighted to see me.  Which gave me hope.  Come to find out, it’s Thursday, and she’s leaving town on Sunday.  OMG, it’s make your move or die a loser day.  So, I says, “You’ve been here a whole month and I’ll bet Dollars to Donuts, not one of those frat boys you’ve been working on have offered to give you a tour of our beautiful cities.  Taken you up on Skyline drive or anything remotely close to entertaining you or showing you a good time. “

(note to the young people in the audience… this was back in the day when you could get a half dozen donuts for a dollar… Hence the significance of the bet, Dollars to Donuts...)

Nancy confirmed the truth in my wager and said she’d be delighted to go tomorrow afternoon.  A date was made.  

Friday afternoon, Nancy and I took the bike on a leisurely and delightful cruise along skyline drive.  It was gorgeous.  She was radiant  and charming and we had a blast.  Especially when we climbed to the top of Enger Tower to see the view.  (Enger Tower is a 5 story observation tower on the crest of the Duluth hill.  The view is stunning)

At the north end of Skyline drive it winds down to lake level on 7 bridges road.  Winding back and forth across Lester Creek as it tumbles and falls to the lake, nearly 800’ below.  There’s a ½ dozen beautiful spots to stop and photograph your best girl by a waterfall, a rapids or a rocky outcropping.   Truly to this day, one of the most beautiful places I’ve ever been.  Sadly, I didn’t take my camera.  No photographic memories of the beautiful Nancy.  It’s not like everyone carried a camera in their pocket or anything.  And two people on a dirt bike does not for a camera bag make...

 We had a nice time.  Arranged to see her at the Woodroom in the evening.  

So, 9 o’Clock the appointed time comes around.  I get to the Woodroom and she's playing darts with frat boys.  Says hi, blows me off, tells me she's "working"    My friends, sitting in the opposite corner of the bar,  give me holy hell all night for getting blown off for a frat boy.  All night long.  From 9-midnight, I’m their whipping boy for getting blown off for a frat boy.  Of course, they weren’t going to get laid either.  But no one seemed to notice that...

Come midnight (closing time) she's sitting on my lap and invites herself up to my room to watch Midnight special.  Why yes.  Yes, I would love to...

Now, I've never been a "make the moves" guy.  If a girl wants to be with you, she bloody well lets you know.  So, we go up to the room and watch Midnight special and start watching whatever movie comes on after. Yakking the whole time.  As it happens, our dorm rooms had no furniture except two beds and two desk chairs.  So, we plopped down on my bed.  Since I had a single room, both beds were pulled together to make a double.  And since I wasn’t the kind to make moves, I plopped down a respectable distance from her.

Eventually, she tells me she's cold.  I got up and closed the window.    She tells me she's cold again and I got her a quilt.  

So finally, there's a pause in the conversation.  ( I was having a great time, just talking with her)  and she says, "Are you Shy?"

Well, I've been accused of a lot of things, but I've never been accused of being shy.

But apparently, being cold is a signal that girls want to get cuddled or something more drastic.  Just an FYI to anyone who’s paying attention.

It turns out, she's a grad student in Psych.  (I was a freshman)  She feels compelled to analyze my lack of making the moves on her.  After about 20 min of that discomfort, I asked her, “So, are you going to stay and do something about it or are we going to talk about it all night?”  By this time, it’s pushing 0230

Finally, we get down to it and she's got a tampax in.  I playfully tugged at it and asked if it came out?

She gets super embarrassed and takes care of business and then we get down to the serious fun.  

Next morning, I'm walking to the showers, bleary eyed and dog tired and I meet my friend Chris coming down the hall.  Odd, he lives on 4th and I'm on 2nd.  What's he doing down here at this time of the morning?  As we meet and pass, he says, "Are you shy?"

Oh My God!  That fucker listened in on our conversation for 2.5 hrs to see if I was going to get laid!!!

The kicker is, we were both RAs and being technologically adept, I figured out how to listen in on any room in the dorm.  Never thinking that it would be used against me, I shared that info with my friend. Chris, was also an RA... D'oh.  (IE had a key to the intercom room)

The best part about that story, I left out, because I was trying to be brief.  Our long and winding conversation that led up to the Are You Shy moment, included her asking about all my friends.  All of which by the way, had made a clumsy try for her.  Which she shared and we giggled about.

Sadly, in my way, I was as candid and observational about them as I am about everything.  And apparently they were all there, huddled around the intercom desk listening... oops.

I immediately had an image of 10 guys crowded around the intercom desk getting pissed as I talked about them.  After I got done with that moment of sheer embarrassment, I laughed my ass off.  If you think about it, the whole fiasco was my own damned fault.  I showed Chris how to do it FerFuckSake.  Also, I realized I had gotten massively laid last night, while they got pissed off because I spoke candidly about them.  With a girl, they had ALL taken a run at...   And failed.

 I win.

So, it was kind of icy for a while with the boys…

The epilogue to that story is, we spent all day Saturday and all of Saturday night together.  It was Grand.  She was a delight and we suited each other well.  A month or so later, she called from Houghton MI.  She was up at Michigan Tech.  (“only” 200 miles away)  Could I come up for the week?  Sorry, it’s finals week.  I can’t.  Instead, she came down for her last weekend and we had another lovely weekend together.

As I write this, 44 years later, my 18 yr old son is preparing to leave for Drexel, where he will begin his  college career.  I hope he meets Nancy’s Grand Daughter...



-- Much Love