DEBORAH CROMBIE: There's been a lot of buzz in the news and on social media lately about college students having "luxury" dorm rooms, some decorated by professional designers, that cost their parents thousands of dollars. My granddaughter started 4th grade this week, so I had to send my daughter a link to one of the pieces with a note saying, "Are you ready for this? It will be here before you know it!"
Wren is going to absolutely rock 4th grade!!!
But this got me thinking about my one semester in a dorm. This was the year I turned eighteen and went off to a state college, where I failed so miserably at everything that I went home at Christmas with my tail between my legs, never to return. At least not to that school! When I did eventually enroll in what became my alma mater, I lived in a ramshackle garage apartment, decorated with zero money and a lot of help and energy from my parents and an aunt and uncle. It is still one of my favorite places I've ever lived.
What people are spending now on dorm rooms would have paid half a year's tuition at my private liberal arts college, and I'm still wondering just how you can spend $5000 on half a room with a single bed...
In my limited dorm experience, I don't think I took more than a single bedspread, sheets, and towels. The building was round, so the rooms were pie-shaped and arranging anything comfortably was impossible. Who thought that was a good idea, I wonder?
I certainly think that kids going away from home for the first time, moving into a room that they may live in for four years, should feel comfortable in their space. But I'm wondering what happens when one student's parents spend such big bucks on their child's half, but the roommate's parents think bed-in-a-bag and an anglepoise lamp are all their kid needs? Sounds like a recipe for conflict to me…
So, dear REDs, did you live in a dorm? Did you like it? And did your decor consist of more than blu-tacked posters on the walls?
JENN McKINLAY: I did two years in a dorm in the late 80’s and my entire floor was on the same page. We all showed up with a fluffy comforter and matching sheets, a hot pot, REM, Duran Duran or The Police posters for our walls, hot rollers for our hair and cases of Aquanet hairspray. Pretty sure Gen X put the hole in the ozone layer. Eek!
When the Hooligans moved out, they skipped the dorms and went right into student apartments, which meant their furniture was donated from various family members who wanted an excuse to upgrade their own furniture. If there is an aesthetic that includes piles of laundry everywhere, a television as big as the wall, and chairs built for gaming, that would be theirs.
RHYS BOWEN: I had three years in a women’s residential college ( the British equivalent of Vassar etc). There were several dorm wings but also former private houses in which I spent two years. The rooms were furnished— just. We brought our own sheets, comforter and decorations. Also lots of shilling coins to feed the meter for the gas fire! We ate in the very fancy dining hall with high table and lots of quaint customs.
I loved every minute, sitting in someone’s room having coffee after dinner or gathering for late night study. I am meeting my college friends in October for our annual get together. About 12 of us have stayed close all these years!
LUCY BURDETTE: Rhys, you’re so fortunate with those old friends! My school was all male right before I started, so the main challenge was finding extra long twin sheets to fit the long, narrow bed designed for young men:). I also brought a thin cotton spread from India and an old stereo in a wooden case with tall legs. We listened to a lot of Cat Stevens.
Our daughter Molly stayed in her sorority for 3 years. All the girls slept on a big sleeping porch with bunk beds. Shhhhh! If you wanted to chat, you either went downstairs or to the dressing rooms, designed for 4 girls with bureaus etc. I would be so mad at the parents spending thousands of dollars on decor!
HALLIE EPHRON: I lived in a dorm for three years. The first, with one of the sourest people I’ve ever had the misfortune to meet. I did not get off on the right foot with her when I encountered her, day one, as she was commandeering the bed she wanted and the better bureau. I thought she was my roommate’s mother.
That first day we walked to Woolworths (Broadway and 110th) and bought matching bedspreads. And a little rug. That was it. Our “honeymoon” period was brief.
And I cannot remember furnishing my daughters’ dorm rooms. It just wasn’t a “thing.” And I’ve got a few more years to find out what’ll be up with my grand-girl and, as I need to keep reminding myself, it’s not my problem.
JULIA SPENCER-FLEMING: I was in a dorm with a computer-assigned roomie who became my best friend for life (she’s arriving Saturday to spend a week with me!) It was the early eighties, and we had everything Jenn had, along with a bunch of Ramone albums (me) and an artistic bong (Rachael.) We decorated by painting one accent wall chocolate brown and putting up our own art work with that gummy stuff - this worked better than you might think because Rachael was an art major.
No decorating when Victoria went off to her first year single at Smith or Spencer to Trinity. But when Virginia went to U Maine! Oh, the texts were flying. She and her roomie agreed on a pink, white and black scheme, since they both already had items in those colors.
I realize the Insta/ Tik-tok/ YouTube images of decorated rooms are totally OTT, but let’s face it - you’re going to be buying new stuff anyway (unless you already have those extra-long twin sheets at home…) and with a little coordination, the girls can be living in a pretty, pleasant place that’s nice to come home to after a stressful day. Note I say girls; my experience with boys’ rooms is that no matter what you start out with, at the end of the semester it’s become the Black Hole of Calcutta.
HANK PHILLIPPI RYAN: I, too, went to an all-female college, it was very exclusive, and the total number of students was 400. My freshman year, I got a school-assigned roommate who was perfectly lovely, but with whom I had nothing in common. She did not like the Beatles. Or reading. And she would be asleep at 9PM while I stayed up–well, for instance, once I spent hours affixing an array of glow in the dark constellations to the ceiling. She also ate real food, while I went through a phase of eating only tea and oranges, like Leonard Cohen’s Suzanne. It was a relationship that was not meant to be. Besides the Pleiades and a record player, I cannot tell you one thing about that dorm room.
My sophomore year, I was the luckiest person in the world to have a room of my own on the dorm's third floor, with a dormer window and a slanted ceiling and everything. It was perfect. I spent all my time there on the twin bed I pushed against the wall and added bolsters and pillows to look like a day bed, and pretended I was a serious person. I read SO much, but only books that had not been assigned in class.
College was dreadful for me, though, and my mind is blank as to the rest of the decor.
These days? I think decorating a dorm room should be a moment where a student can finally have whatever surroundings they want, whatever that turns out to be. Parents stay away.
DEBS: This is all fascinating! I am envious of those of you who made friends for life and had late night chats. I remember my roommate's name, and that's it. But just in case I sound like too much of a weird loner, I'm still best pals with my best friend from 3rd grade!
I wonder if Wren will still be hanging out with her bestie a few decades from now...
How about you, dear readers? Did you live in a dorm? Love it or hate it? Did you pull out the stops on the decor?
I can't say that I remember much about the dorms at college . . . yes, we brought sheets, blankets, and such, but we didn't do much in the way of decorating.
ReplyDeleteI spent my first year in university in a co-ed dorm. Shared a room for first 1/2 semester with a roomie, Francine. But she left after Christmas for her first co-op job posting so I had the room to myself in the second semester. I don't remember much about the decor except cheap wall posters I bought on campus.
ReplyDeleteAs an only child, it was jarring to share bathrooms with 50 other girls & all the co-ed partying.
And I gained weight, the famous "freshman 15" from all the dorm meals & snacks!!
P.S. i got my own apartment for the next 4 years (yes, it was a 5-year bachelor degree co-op program at UofWaterloo). I could afford to do this since I had a scholarship that paid tuition + well-paid co-op jobs every 4 months.
DeleteCo-op programs are great! Some of my engineering friends did that. I missed them the semesters they were gone, but somehow our group stayed together.
DeleteUofWaterloo has the largest co-op program in Canada. I got to work different jobs for 4 employers, including Environment Canada (fed gov't) and the Ontario Ministry of the Environment (provincial gov't) & obtained lifelong job skills. And in my case, Environment Canada offered me a full-time job even before I graduated. The only negative was that the starting pay for a physical scientist (level 1) was less than what I earned as a co-op student!
DeleteI love these stories! I lived in a dorm for one year, and was lucky to land Peggy as my roomie. We were had a room full of plants and played Cat Stevens (Lucy and I are the same age) and Gregorian chants on the record player, while the rest of the floor were silly girls into silly things. That year I also met other new friends and four of us women moved off campus to a house at the beach (Balboa Island, if you know the Newport Beach area). Down the same street were two other houses full of friends, one men, one women. I loved college - it was such a happy time full of exploration and stimulation.
ReplyDeleteDecor was always hand me downs, stuff purloined from home, whatever we could come up with. I did not spend money except on those extra-long sheets and maybe comforters on my sons' dorm rooms, either. I think they each took the quilt my mom had made them, which brightened things up.
I should add that I'm still friends with several of those pals from Onyx Street, and saw them in California last year.
DeleteFor new things, I had a little orange gooseneck lamp that I bought with Green Stamps (remember those?), and my HS graduation present of a portable typewriter (not electric).
DeleteS&H Green Stamps were the secret to stretching my household money as a young married. And buying our gas at stations that gave you "free" glassware and/or stamps.
DeleteThere was a lot of competition between gas stations back then, Karen. I got my first set of dishes for my first apartment, plate by plate form one of them.
DeleteMy first father-in-law managed a Sohio station, which had designer glasses that I loved. I don't remember the competition aspect, Judy, since we only bought our gas at his station during those years.
DeleteOh, Green Stamps! My grandmother saved them. I think some of the things from my first apartment were bought with Green Stamps!
DeleteHeck, my first set of glassware as a young bride in 1996 was from a gas station collection!
DeleteWith the eye-watering prices on Balboa Island now, I can’t imagine there are many students living there, unless they are still living at home.
DeleteLisa, we only lived there during the school year, because the summer rents were exorbitant, but we got to come back to the same house the second year, and so did our friends.
DeleteI lived in the dorms all 4 years of college. Freshman year I arrived with one suitcase, a laundry basket which contained my old bedding a shower bucket, and an electric typewriter. I brought my winter coat and boots later on.
ReplyDeleteThankfully, my children went to college in the bed in a bag era and not the HGTV room makeover era.
Yes, mine, too!
DeleteLived in a dorm, single room, all four years for the last four years that the college was “for women” (1964-1968). Molding hooks so not to damage walls hanging things, No need to bring sheets or towels, linen service weekly…piles of laundry outside dorm doors, because who wanted to get up early enough to meet the 7 am linen collection deadline. And in those pre-device days, just these electrical things: desk lamp, typewriter, hair dryer, and a “forbidden” pot to heat instant coffee water. And from what I’ve read, room decor now would cover a semester tuition payment and at least some of the books. Elisabeth
ReplyDeleteNo dorm living for me; I went to night school for a year after high school. The Police Science program was at the two-year tech school, an artifact of the and the GI Bill and the need for trades. Needless to say, there were a bare handful of women. I lived at home until I got married and moved to Cincinnati.
ReplyDeleteMy three kids had really different experiences for college: the oldest shared with other girls in apartments, with from-home castoffs, most of which got left behind with every move. The middle daughter lived in dorms, first at Ohio State, then at the brand-new Olin College. By the time she graduated she had segued from being the only student on campus in a single (with pretty linens and matching pillows) to living in utter squalor in a quad room with three other nerdy women--all still close friends. My youngest, at the Citadel, lived in a literal regiment, with nickel-bouncing inspections for tightly made beds, and enforced study hours, and required uniforms that changed by time of day or activity. Her "decor" amounted to what would fit on a 2' square corkboard.
My grandson had to be driven to college in two cars, he had so much stuff, including cooking equipment and dishes so he could cook in the kitchenette in his quad. Now he is in an apartment with castoffs from home--so retro, and starts cooking school on Monday. I introduced him to the wonders of Costco yesterday!
I am loving following your grandson's culinary school experience, Karen. Please keep us posted on how he's doing!
DeleteThanks, Debs. Please wish him luck. It's a challenging program, and his second run at college. Like his mom, he resisted majoring in his real passion at first, and like her, required a reboot. The two-car dorm move was to his first school in Michigan. Now he is about to go to Cincinnati State.
DeleteNo dorm living for me as my college was a train ride away. I didn't even know my college had dorms (which were several blocks away from the school) until my sophomore year.
ReplyDeleteDid you feel you missed out, Dru, or were you glad you didn't have the dorm experience?
DeleteI was better off not having a dorm experience.
DeleteKathy Lynn Emerson/Kaitlyn Dunnett here. I lived in dorms all 4 years, assigned roommate as a freshman, with a friend as a sophomore, and in a single the last two years. Bates College in Maine provided fresh sheets every week so we only had to provide blankets, throw rugs, and curtains. I don't remember adding much to the decor, not even posters. We weren't allowed hotplates and the like in the rooms and I don't remember anyone having their own TV before senior year (1968-9). I don't think the simplicity bothered anyone. We were much too busy to spend much time in our rooms anyway. The best room was sophomore year when we were in the basement of the dorm with bunkbeds . . . but we had our own bathroom!
ReplyDeleteOHHHHH shared bathrooms--I forgot all about that! And hey, so wonderful to see you!
DeleteHi, Kathy! Lovely to see you!
DeleteMy twin and I lived on different floors of an experimental Co-op dorm at our private liberal arts college. The idea was that the students that lived there would do their own cleaning and use the money that would have been used to pay the janitorial staff for dorm activities. The cleaning that got done left quite a bit to be desired. It was a coed dorm--we had a hard time getting the guys to do their chores, imagine that. The activities were great. We did dorm dinners, movies, and some memorable dorm retreats--to the coast, and to Timberline Lodge.
ReplyDeleteMy first roommate was great, and we continued to be friends throughout college, but she dumped me as a roommate after one term. She was a sophomore and a friend of hers came back from overseas study and they lived together. I had nothing in common with the person I ended up with, so that was hard. I also had two roommates my second year (they are both still friends, wonderful women). That second year, we had two dogs in the dorm, which led to more problems with cleanliness as the dogs would get into the garbage or go into someone's room and eat their care package. My son ended up living in the same dorm for one year and it was really trippy to walk the halls and remember the mostly good times.
My decor was posters and that's about it. We brought sheets and towels and bedspreads. Nothing fancy. That dorm did have walk-in closets, so that was very nice.
In another dorm on campus, they had Japanese baths in the basement of each building. We used to go hang out there at night sometimes. We had to fill them each time, but it was fun to go soak together--that's when we weren't climbing the fence to swim in the outdoor pool after hours.
DeleteI flew to college with my typewriter and a shopping bag of books I couldn't bear to leave behind. Mom shipped bedding, a rug, and a striped India cotton bedspread. That was it. I acquired a pair of overalls and clogs and lived in a three-room suite with three roommates. Someone was always crying or having a chat with the Dean about her academic priorities. The swimmer draped wet tank suits on the bunk beds. The botanical artist taped pen and ink drawings on the walls and tended to her plants on the wide windowsills. I spent many late nights in the dorm dining room typing term papers. After freshman year, I lived in a single.
ReplyDeleteI had a striped India cotton bedspread in my garage apartment. Reds, golds, and purples, and the rest of the decor done around those colors. I loved it.
DeleteAnd I love that your roomie taped her botanical prints on the walls!
I lived in residence for three years while attending nursing school (.1969-1972).
ReplyDeleteRoommates were assigned and I was fortunate to be paired with a high school classmate We were roommates for all three years and remain best friends. . Our rooms were very basic with beds, built in desks and book shelf and a closet each for our clothes and belongings. Bed linens were supplied; the first week my roommate and I both put out our bedsheets for the weekly laundry to find we had made a boo-boo. We were supposed to put out just our pillowcase and bottom sheet as the top sheet was to rotated to bottom! Neither of us had ever seen this done before.
I still shake my head at that…..
We were not allowed to decorate the residence rooms so all rooms had only a few personal touches on our book shelves.
For the full three years it was 10:30 pm curfew and lights out at 11:00 pm with a house mother making rounds to make sure rules were being followed. Imagine telling young women of 20/21 yr. today they had to be home 10:30 every night. Definitely another era…….
I loved my three years in residence….the camaraderie, the shared laughs and tears. Our class was a close knit group and apart from a handful we all know where our classmates are living, if they married etc.
I also lived in a more liberal women’s residence while attending university for a post grad course. It was a totally different experience but I did have a pleasant young woman as a roommate. I do not remember anyone going overboard decorating their dorm rooms. And, I still have a very good friend I met in that dorm.
Dianne Mahoney
I remember as a kid doing the top to the bottom sheet. White muslin sheets. I couldn't wait to be able to have matching sheets, top and bottom. The bottom sheet would be fitted, of course. I realize now that back then doing the family laundry was quite an ordeal with the wringer washer that we had. But still, those bottom sheets got washed every week.
DeleteI'd never heard of the top-to-bottom thing! Frugal, yes, but still, ewww.
DeleteCoincidentally, in today's NYT there is an article about furnishing dorm rooms! https://www.nytimes.com/2025/08/20/realestate/college-dorm-influencers-decorating-momfluencer.html?unlocked_article_code=1.gE8.0E_N.3lIPjMUI0Kd-&smid=url-share
ReplyDeleteWhen my youngest was graduating from The Citadel the wife of one of the college administrators told me about the almost immoral waste that happens at the end of term. Students throw away perfectly good stuff, including computers and other electronics, rather than haul them back home, or to wherever they will live next. She started a volunteer group to rescue such items from being discarded, and they sell them and use the proceeds for scholarships. And that is a school without fancy dorm furnishings. Imagine what gets pitched at most other schools.
In Boston people go sidewalk "shopping" at the end of the term. There are so many colleges and so much discarding.
DeleteWhat great ideas, Karen and Edith.
DeleteLet me say that every year was an adventure when it came to roommates, but I'll just tell you about freshman year.
ReplyDeleteI left for college in September 1965 and was (I can confess) immature, overwhelmed and out of my depth. My freshman dorm room was in an old dorm on the edge of campus, meant for agricultural students. The influx of baby boomers had the administration scrambling to house all the students who were admitted. One night the aggie guys in the dorm next door, put a goat in one of our hallways. They staged pantyraids. Their girlfriends lived in our dorm and one never knew when an assault would occur.
My freshman roommate was a beautiful girl from a small town in Massachusetts where she had been one of the popular set. A twirler. (Baton.) She was as kind as she was beautiful. She had brought posters of snow and ski scenes to hang on our walls. One pink poster had written on it along the top and the bottom, "To the winter wonderland...on the German Central Railway." She told me that she had never met a Jew before. About a week into our semester, I told her that I had a nightmare about that German train taking me away. Later, when I returned from class, the poster said, "To the winter wonderland." She had cut off the bottom of the poster. We laughed. No more nightmares.
She was studious, smart and sought after. She pledged Kappa and after freshman year, she lived in the sorority.
How kind, Judy.
DeleteNo dorm rooms--my first foray away from home to college was to a roominghouse--that lasted one quarter, then thereafter to apartments. These furnished with castoffs from family--nothing new, sheets and towels brought from home, as well as a motley collection of kitchen essentials. We had a fairly put-together home--so much so that in our first term in one apartment--roommate had gone home for vacation and I'd gone on a camping trip--someone broke into our apartment and intended to strip it bare, furniture pulled out, prints taken down from walls and stacked, they helped themselves to our wine and the beef in the freezer. Between the thieves' looting trips, a friend stopped by to water the plants and discovered the intrusion, called the police.
ReplyDeleteWhat a story! They were very organized thiefs!
DeleteSo much fun reading about everyone’s experiences! I lived in dorm for 2 years with 3 different rooms and 4 different roommates. Communal living was a learning experience. My very first roommate and I stayed in touch and she even came to my wedding several years later. I belonged to a sorority for 2 years (Sigma Delta Tau) and am still friends with my first roommate there (although she lives in Alaska and I in Massachusetts.) Decor? Posters on walls, occasionally rugs. Perhaps we painted? More important we’re stereos, records, hot pots, toaster ovens and renting the Penguin Jr.tiny refrigerators in the dorms.
ReplyDeleteI didn't have a fridge, but my daughter did, and it's now in my upstairs office, still chugging away.
DeleteI was 17 when I went off to live in a dorm two hours away from the only home I knew...and the only one from my high school to attend this college. I ended up meeting my forever friend. The walls were cinderblock and my roommate's father bought us a can of lavender paint and we painted the crusty gray walls a pretty purple (we had to repaint it white after the year was over). I snuck my mother's old toaster oven under my bed that was against the rules which became the hottest spot for late night munchies. What a rebel!!! We didn't burn down the dorm. With both of my girls off to college, I am astonished at the posh dorms and apartments. No rock posters for these gals but about $200 worth of 4x6 photos and fairy lights. I wouldn't have changed my humble beginnings for any of this. Love reading everyones' stories!
ReplyDeleteMe, too, Cindy! And I love the fairy lights trend--wish I'd had those!
Delete*This is a bit NSFW* My first college residence was a former convent. The alcoholic pastor of the parish had kicked out the nuns, the convent became a whorehouse/junkie haven, and the city was going to condemn it. The priest decided to do a minimal cleanup and rent it to female students. I was lucky enough to get the former dining room, with large windows and an enormous crystal chandelier. (It also came with insistent queries from former clients of Yolanda who lived there before me and was definitely not a nun. I learned fast to open the windows from the top only!) The priest became convinced we were letting men live in the convent and barged in one day to find them. When a housemate and I tried to convince him to leave, he turned and said, "You're nothing but a bunch of lesbian pig whores!" Ah, you have to love an Irishman's way with words! (We called the diocese about his rampant alcoholism and they ignored us, but the next year he died while on a fishing trip with other priests, so maybe they did take care of it?)
ReplyDeleteThis is hysterical!! Well, not that the priest died, I suppose, but what a situation. Cinematic!
DeleteMy garage apartment belonged to an enormous white Victorian house which was lived in by the college's young, good-looking philosoply professor, my landlord. Oh, the parties! And there was definitely more than alcohol being consumed.
Rhys, our university was small and very much in the Oxford tradition. We had Formal Meal every evening meal where we all had to be dressed properly – no pants for girls, shirt, tie and jacket for boys. All of us wore black undergraduate gowns. The doors remained closed until 6, when they opened, and we took our seats, sitting according to year. We stood until the faculty came in, the student President said Grace in Latin and we were allowed to sit in anticipation of the soup course. There was no food choice – what was served was it. Following dessert and announcements, the end of the day prayer was said, again in Latin, and we all filed out in reverse rank – faculty on down. That tradition was discontinued a few years later to once a month with no clothes restriction, and now to a few random times a year, where there is usually a theme. Beach clothes under the gown anyone! Such a mockery and such a shame.
ReplyDeleteOh, such a shame! I've only had the dinner in "hall" with "high table" experience when visiting at Oxford, but I adored it.
DeleteAlso sherry in the common room!
DeleteWe had 'high-faluting sherry in the home of the President twice a year. You had to dress, wear your gown, and drink this horrible Dry-sac. I imagine a lot of his plants were watered that night by most of us, other than by the kids who just came for a free drunk!
DeleteDEBS: Love that photo of Wren. She looks like a mini you. At Uni, I lived in a women's house (yes, it was a sorority, though the Greek system was unpopular). I remember many of us had lots of clothes and there were two small closets in each room, so there were "crates" from Dollar type stores for the extra sweaters. Like most of the JRWs, we just brought sheets, cover, and pillows for our beds. I remember bringing my portable Teletypewriter for the Deaf (TTY) and putting it on my desk. The rooms were already furnished with a bed, a desk with a lamp" and a chair. I remember buying a typewriter from a typewriter shop on campus because my professors required that we type our papers. Typewriters were cheaper than buying an Apple computer at that time.
ReplyDeleteHank, the first year at Uni, I slept a lot! I did not always have a Sign Language interpreter for my classes (this was before Americans with Disabilities Act in the late 1980s). There were times when I had to rely on lipreading and that took a lot of brain work. Luckily, my roommate learned some sign language.
Thank you, Diana! I wasn't nearly as cute, or nearly as confident and put-together, I promise you.
Delete1967 – 1970. Room was for 2, and came with a single bed each, and a dresser and a desk each. All were movable so the room was often ‘redecorated’ until the right layout was discovered. There was a shelf running the length of each wall. We all came with trunks – the steamer trunks were still a thing. Mine was an antique of wood and metal, and became the table for the room, while the rest were eventually put in the trunk room in the basement. This was where all our stuff stayed in the summer. The trunk held the record player, which in year 2 became a ‘stereo set’ – wow! There were 3 groups of 2 roommates who amazingly were luck-of-the-draw selections and who became friends for life on our floor, and each of us contributed the records. Saturday afternoon, if we collected up enough coinage, was a trip to Sam the Record Man’s emporium to invest in a new album – I think in 3 years we each bought 1! Year 2 we were bored and more daring so I brought in an old aquarium (no pets) which we set up on a table purloined from somewhere. I also brought a rocking chair, where many an hour was spent by all of us gazing at the fish. Goldy was a favourite. One of us thought a hamster would be good (they were not allowed either). He escaped and got into the walls, where we could here him running about. We did get him back before Clark-babes (witch in the room next door who was Dean of Women) found out!
ReplyDeleteThe best part was the last year when Joannie managed to get the one ‘suite’ in the building. It had a bathroom! Since the drinking age was 21, and none of us got there before graduating, we were pleased to have a bottle of Manischewitz wine/sherry hidden behind the curtain next to the window to keep it cool. Joannie’s father who was an Anglican priest kept us well supplied with church wine.
Oh, my daughter went to the same university in the late ‘90’s. The rooms were exactly the same! Can you imagine the dust in those heavy damask curtains…
At least you had curtains, Margo!
DeleteI am going to a reunion in Sept with 8 friends I met the first week of school 55 years ago! At Geo Washington U in DC, we were the few non-hippies who joined a sorority. We had quads built for 2 and I don’t know how we ever slept. We had much fun and angst, boyfriends and projects around town. Pre-electronics age seems so ancient but we had fun together with our family cast offs tho Sue tells me she was jealous I had new matching orange towels (super sale)! Moved to shared house and apt after 2nd year, also furnished with hand me downs.
ReplyDeleteSuch fun!
DeleteIt's so hilarious to see what we do--and don't --remember...
ReplyDeleteSelective memory, Hank!
DeleteI spent 4 years in on-campus housing in college (1991-1995), but not the same room every year:
ReplyDeleteFreshman year: started with 2 other girls I'd met at orientation. Picture a triple bunk bed three desks, a wardrobe, and a closet in a room with toothpaste-green walls and orange shag carpet. We covered those walls with posters. After fall semester, things had become so tense I moved to another dorm. Bigger room, girl who seemed normal, but after a couple weeks she divided the room with masking tape on the floor and told me I couldn't leave my half. Problem: the door was in her half of the room.
Sophomore year: Stayed in the same dorm, but got a computer-assigned roomie, who was an incoming freshman. She was a great roomie, but we didn't stay in touch.
Junior year: Went into an on-campus apartment with five other girls, two to a bedroom. Started okay with rules about division of food and chores. Didn't end well since half of the others decided the rules weren't for them.
Senior year: Back into a dorm, this time by myself. More toothpaste green walls, but no shag this time.
Part of the reason I was always in a dorm was that my scholarship stipulated I'd live on campus. If I moved off-campus, my scholarship would be reduced by the amount allocated for housing. But I didn't mind because campus was small, it was easy to walk everywhere, and all my friends lived in the same buildings I did. The only things I took were comforter, sheets, towels, and a bookshelf stereo system that I could plug my CD Walkman into. And associated CDS, of course.
The Girl spent her freshman year in a dorm, but she got a single. I sent pretty much what I took. There were no "thousands of dollars" in decorating spent. From her sophomore to senior year, she lived in an off-campus apartment (because that's what happens at Pitt), but it was definitely decorated in an "early relative" style.
For the year and a half The Boy spent at college, his experience was kind of the same as mine except his sophomore year he wound up in a single room.
I'm all for being comfortable when you go off to college. But spending more than I spent to decorate a room in my house is ridiculous.
Liz, I can't imagine a triple bunk! That is probably the reason for the tension, too: three girls. Whenever there are three, one gets left out.
DeleteIt's probably a minor miracle when roommates actually become friends.
And I had the middle bunk!
DeleteYes, having an odd number of girls in a room is usually a disaster. It is one area where the guys seemed to handle it better.
I do keep in touch with the girl I shared the room with in the apartment. She's a teacher in Alaska now, so we message on Facebook. Same with one of the girls from that freshman triple. Last reunion we agreed that perhaps the wrong roommate (me) moved out.
This link Karen posted above from the NYT is fascinating! I love these entrepenurial women! https://www.nytimes.com/2025/08/20/realestate/college-dorm-influencers-decorating-momfluencer.html?unlocked_article_code=1.gE8.0E_N.3lIPjMUI0Kd-&smid=url-share
ReplyDeleteI think the piece that I read was in the Washington Post.
I may not have time to answer everyone's comments this morning, but I wanted to be sure to say how much I'm loving everyone's stories! They make me more than a little envious, although I still don't think I'd have traded my garage apartment for anything. It was in the prettiest part of my college town, between two streets of beautiful old Victorian and Arts and Crafts houses. I had a hammock beneath a huge crepe myrtle in the back yard, and fig tree grew half over the fence. That was the first time I'd ever tasted a fresh fig!
ReplyDeleteBefore I get to my college living experience, I have to tell you, Debs, that I tasted a fresh fig for the first time three days ago when my husband brought home a bag full of fresh fruits and veggies gifted to him from one of his clients’ garden! I really liked it!
ReplyDeleteI went to college with two sets of bed linens and towels, my clothes and an electric typewriter. My first roommate was a kinda friend from high school. (My older sister had gone off to college with a hs friend so I thought it was a good idea.) We shared a small room (that nowadays houses three people!) with built-in desks by the window, two twin beds and two small closets. I don’t remember having dressers, but maybe they were in the closet. Donna and I got along fine, but she was “in love” with her former youth pastor who was in law school so she was preoccupied with him. I didn’t think it was a real relationship, but damn if she didn’t change schools sophomore year to live in the same town as he was. They later married, had three kids and then she tragically died of cancer at age 34.
On a happier note, the young woman who was my RA became one of my lifelong friends, is my son’s godmother and lives about 45 minutes from my son and daughter-in-law and sees them every six weeks or so. There are also four other dorm friends with whom I’m still in touch. (I only lived in the dorm my freshman year. Two of my dorm friends and I moved into an apartment sophomore year and after that I lived in my sorority house and then an off-campus apartment with a sorority sister.)
My son’s dorm wasn’t ready for occupancy when he arrived (brand new building) so they put three guys in the exact type of dorm (down to the red brick exterior) I lived in 40 years before for the first six weeks of the year. Once he could move into his “real” dorm, they tore down the red brick buildings and built an aquatic center. He took a little more stuff than I did, but not much. — Pat S
P.S. My college is STILL using the same dorms I lived in in 1974-75!
So is mine, from the same years, Pat.
DeleteMy first year of college I lived in an off-campus student apartment building, with six other girls. Three in my bedroom, and four in the other bedroom. The college provided linens. We put posters up on our walls, and that was the extent of the decorating. We had no living room furniture, so we hung out around the kitchen, or in the bedrooms. In the basement of the building there was a washer and dryer, a TV, and a couch and chairs. In the first month of the semester, there was a dryer fire that extended into the wall. When the fire department found out how many students the college assigned to each apartment, the administration was told it was in violation of local ordinances. I think there were a couple of other violations, too. Starting the following year, there were fewer students assigned to each apartment.
ReplyDeleteFor my second year, I lived on campus in a regular dorm room. Again, little decorating except for posters we may have brought ourselves. Linens were provided. I transferred to another college after my sophomore year, and commuted to school.
DebRo
I'm still besties with one of my college roommates and in touch sporadically with the rest. It's definitely one of the more significant times of my life. Because of Covid my sons didn't have the same experience and I feel like that's a shame but at the same time, they're crushing it so whateves...
ReplyDeleteWhat a great topic! I lived in a dorm-like setting. I shared an apartment with three other women. We decorated using our used furniture from home and whatever thrift store buys we could afford.
ReplyDelete