Fuck it. I wore my UNI “Road To Detroit” t-shirt for casual day even though they lost. There were a few Panther supporters at work so we all played hooky from our normal duties and hung out in front of one of the big screens in the cafeteria. I thought for sure during the last two minutes that they’d be able to take the game.Understand: I’m in Hawkeye country. Everyone around here is. It’s only when you get to around Des Moines that you start seeing any evidence of the Iowa State Cyclones. But underneath Eastern Iowa’s yellow and black contingency is a substantial amount of Northern Iowa graduates. The school breeds a lot of teacher and accountants, and then you had the likes of me that was neither. It’s cool that they’ve got a football and basketball program that consistently puts together winning seasons and that it’s getting even more recognized. When I was there, the UNI dome was barely half-full, even when they were posting wins. Now, it’s not uncommon for the dome to sell out their games. And their basketball team has a new facility; they too were in the dome for their games until a few years ago. I haven’t been to the new place. The last game I saw was when they beat Iowa in the dome. It was about ¾ full for that game.
There is one reason why I went to UNI. They were the first one to accept me. A small private school called Morningside College pursued me before them-the result of an Episcopal priest calling his alma matter to advise them that I was interested in their theology program-but I balked after learning how much tuition would be. Yes, there was a moment in which I considered going into the priesthood but I couldn’t work my young mind around the entire notion of the faith required for that path. I was still questioning God at that time, and I enjoyed having pre-marital sex and smoking pot.
I then got cold feet to the point where I went to community college immediately after high school. I got really baked the night before my ACT test and totally bombed the pre-college assessment. Even though I clepped out of my English and social studies courses, I was an average math student. My shitty ACT scores affirmed this and my state of mind actually contributed to poorer showings in areas that I was supposedly good in. The experience left me a little shell shocked; I didn’t want to go off to school and immediately flunk out and have to move back home. I decided just to stay home, go to community college and get all of my math and science shit out of the way before dropping a bunch of money at a four-year institution. I got my prerequisites out of the way and in the spring, I began to send off letters of interest to four schools: UNI, Iowa, Western Illinois University, and Northeast Missouri State (now Truman University). I got a response back from UNI first, WIU second, Iowa third, and not a goddamn thing back from those fucks in Missouri.
I learned a lot at UNI…mostly off campus…and for that, I’m incredibly indebted. Not in a financial way, mind you, they received a substantial amount of money, so monetary rewards are not an option. At one time, there was a large contingency of original music coming out of Cedar Falls. Nowadays? Not so much. Instead, I lend my support behind the university’s football/basketball program, a final nod to the institution that helped shaped where I am today.
5 comments:
You missed nothing in Missouri. I went to NMSU (well, Truman the first year I started) for 2 years. Not so much fun. Out of myself and 4 roommates....4 of us transferred after 2 years.
There is a place scarier than SE Iowa and it is NE Missouri.
I went to UNI my first semester, but I couldn't get used to the whole "everyone goes home on the weekends" deal. Plus, it was a lot of really small town people and guys who would say, "I never met a girl who was into music before..." I transferred to Iowa after my first semester and flunked out of there after a year and a ton of punk rock shows later. I did eventually go back and fix things and eventually graduate. Apparently, I just have to do everything the hard way.
Ha! Love that NEMO! It's hilarious hearing people's interpretations about SEIA. I remember a pair of chicks who dated me and a friend of mine from Keokuk who got together and tried to figure out why we were both such a pair of assholes. They both reached the conclusion that it was because we were "Keokuk boys" and that it was our locale that made us such creeps.
The suitcase deal was something I never understood either. But I learned quickly that those that went home were generally people that you didn't care for anyway, and those that remained were pretty cool. Summers were even better because all of the assholes left and the college suddenly became filled with fairly awesome characters. We all dreaded August, because then the assholes came back. Another thing that blew my mind was that on more than one occasion I ended up at parties with huge football players who smoked lots of dope and were more mellow than you could ever imagine. They were treated like kings if you went down to the meat market-bypassing the line and going directly into the club-but it ultimately wasn't my scene. I began heading down to Stebs instead because the chicks there had good taste in music and were fairly easy to bang. Whenever they'd get pissed that you never called them again, you'd just tell them "I was too busy making you this mix tape."
UNI had some decent hardcore shows back in the day: MDC, GBH, Dayglo Abortions...good times. One show that I missed was Black Flag at the boat house. I was still in high school, but we heard they were coming even down in K-Town. I wish I would have gone.
I also think I missed the cool people. When a certain M. Hornyday and I were talking about our stints at UNI, it seems I missed him there by about a year.
I know that dude!
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