Some of you know, most of you don’t, that Roger and I grew up as pals, almost brothers. What you don’t know, is when I was about eight or nine years old, my mother sat me down and quite seriously told me, “Michael, you’re becoming the kind of little boy I don’t want you to play with.” Hey, I wasn’t that bad. I grew up with 5 sisters. There were no boys in the neighborhood to play with. Lucky for me, I found Roger.
I had a lot of adventures and naturally a bunch of them include Roger and one or two, Melinda. A friend of mine has been incessantly bugging me to write some of my stories and also explain why my mother said what she did. Wen I read Melinda’s latest update email, I decided to write some of those stories. And, I figured one about Roger was a good place to begin.
Oh, and Roger, it did happen this way despite what your memory tells you. For the rest of you, sorry, I didn’t take time to edit.
How Roger Met Melinda
The storm ravaged… No wait. There was no storm. A gentle rain… Ah, no rain. You know, I’m supposed to be a writer. And sometimes I teach a writing class and spend time mentoring young “wan-a-be” writers. One of the things I teach is don’t start with the weather. What am I doing? This story happened over fifty years ago. It was a point in time closer to the invention of television than to the internet. My memory of the Computer Dance and how Roger met Melinda is still a favorite . When I call it up, it always makes me smile.
It was towards the end of 1966. Roger and I had graduated from White Bear Lake Senior High School. There were a couple tings high on our “Things That Matter Most” list. They were water skiing, spending time at the cabin and girls. Two of those things were well under control. One was not. Thankfully for us, part of the registration process at the University of Minnesota was the freshman Computer Dance. It held potential for helping with number three.
It might seem trivial now, but wow! You used a #2 lead pencil to fille out a form. The form was a questionnaire where you filled in a little box to indicate your answer. A machine scanned your answers and created your profile on an IBM punch card. The University of Minnesota fed your card into a computer big enough to fill a room. After a few minutes, the computer shuffled out a female freshmen’s punch card. The computer program guaranteed its choice was female, also a freshman, and a potential date for a dance.
Okay, enough computer nostalgia. What about Roger and Melinda?
Signup and registration for the dance was mid day at the Coffman Memorial Union, a kind of general purpose and hangout building on campus. Roger and I got there a little early. Taped to the wall and mixed in with notices abut drama club sign up and “roommate wanted” signs was one that announced the Computer Dance. A few other students milled around the lobby area, checking their wristwatches, and waiting, like Roger and me. Well, kind of like us. You see, there is this thing that drives me crazy and influences me in a very bad way. It’s called “boredom.” I got bored then had an idea.
We took down some of the notices from the walls and carefully removed the Scotch tape that had held them. At one end of the foyer, was a small folding table and two chairs. With Roger thinking I was crazy, we slid the table to the center of the main wall and then added the chairs. I flipped over our thin pile of posters, “Just follow my lead,” I told Roger. On the back of a blank notice, in big letters I wrote, “COMPUTER DANCE SIGNUP.” I taped it to the front of folding table. Next to it I taped another one that read “BOYS SIGNUP 2ND FLOOR ROOM 210.” I knew there was a second floor but had no idea if there was a room 210. Roger grinned when I made a third sign with an arrow pointing to the left. “GIRLS. PRINT NAME, PHONE, MEASUREMENTS. LINE UP ß”
The boys headed for the stairs. The girls started chattering among themselves but began filling out the requested information and lining up.
Holding my pile of papers again, I walked along the line of girls, looking each one up and down as I scribbled notes and asked a question or two.
About then, the inner doors swung open when four upperclassmen entered, holding big boxes, very large and colorful posters, and a big sign on a chrome pedestal. The big sign had a picture of an IBM Punch card and large gold letters that spelled out “COMPUTER DANCE.”
The mixed laughter, tiny screams, and increased chatter from the girls, signaled it was time for Roger and me to depart.
We went somewhere (ran), waited, and came back to Coffman to sign up. It was another week before the adventure continued.
We eventually both received a letter with the results of our computer matchup. The letter didn’t have much information for us. It gave a name and a phone number. The idea was, the you called the girl, introduced yourself and invited the girl to the dance or to meet or whatever.
I can’t blame being bored, just skeptical about newfangled computer matching. My dad worked for the telephone company, so having the girl’s phone number actually gave me some ideas. Remember, this was closer to age of the dinosaurs than smart phones. It definitely was not the time of smart freshman.
Back then, we didn’t need area codes. There were only three for the state. Roger and I were in White Bear Lake, MN. At first, all White Bear phone numbers were “Garden-1234.” Then the phone company dropped names and went to a prefix system. “Garden” became “439.” So now Garden-1234 was 439-1234. Why all this? Remember, we had the phone number for our potential computer date!
Based on the prefix for Roger’s date, we knew what neighborhood she lived in. We found her in the phonebook, so now had an address. We checked the map and found the nearest high school and public library. A short car ride and we were getting closer. I can’t remember if we used the public library or the high school library. Either way we asked to see the High School Yearbook. A quick index lookup and wow! Roger hit the jackpot, a goldmine. We had Melinda’s picture. Back then we would have called her a “real babe.” In todays terms, she still is as she was back then –“HOT.”
So, Roger called her. Invited her to the dance and married her, in that order.
