Laugh Loud and Often

This was supposed to be a very simple post, but it got out of hand. I did a complete rewrite after I realized it was going to end up several screens long (even with the smallest font!) and would have amounted to just rambling. So, this is actually the first in a series with "Uncle Charlie's Summer Camp" somewhere in the body. I have a backlog of "posts" to work on, so this series will likely not appear in linear order ... welcome to the ADD-afficted mind-in-action.

This is "The Flying IUD" at my alma mater. Though not pictured here, it's match -- "The Standing Diaphragm" -- was also a campus treasure. Meeting a date by either famed sculptures sent a clear signal: Your dorm or mine?

I went to a liberal arts university, liberal even by California standards! I am an alumnus of the University of California at Santa Cruz ("UCSC") -- greetings to fellow alumni, current students and university staff! The university goes by many monikers, including: "City on a Hill" and "Uncle Charlie's Summer Camp". This won't be a brochure to recruit prospectus students, the university's website is adequate.

The 2,000-plus acre campus is atop a granite rock with a spectacular view of the Pacific Ocean, and surrounded by ancient groves of redwoods; historical policies stipulate that less than 500 acres would be used to build the campus. The university has been growing steadily since opening in 1965 (still within 500 acres). The weather is mild year-round, with the exception of a freak snowstorm welcoming my first winter in Northern California.

On a typical day, I could see across to the Monterey coastline and the then US Army-operated Fort Ord military-base-turned DLIFLC (Defense Language Institute Foreign Language Center). The campus was, in part, modeled after Oxford and Cambridge in that the school was divided up into residential campuses, each with an architecture of its own and an academic specialty. Years later, I would discover that bloggers amerazn and stargazer might have been at the DLIFLC while I was learning to surf in Santa Cruz.

A snapsot of my memories and experience attending UCSC, details in future posts:

• Greek Life/System Wasn't.
• Banana Slugs Clubbing Seals (Canada ain't got nothing on this!).
• A Jog through the Redwood Forest before Classes.
• Finals Week and Cow-tipping.
• Hitchhiking, not just for Getting On- and Off-campus.
• The Enchanted Forest of the Elves, "Elfland".
• Clothing-optional, not just for the Students.
• Trading Tie-Dye Shirts for Raw Herring Sandwiches.
  
• Pass/No-Pass Evaluation System.
• "The Great Succession," "The Great Smoke-Out" and Other Disobedience.
• Searching for Nurse Ratchet and The Lost Boys.
• Tips on Raiding the Dining Hall.
  

If you're a student now (the University of Life counts), then I dedicate these series of posts to you ... kallun, diadima, akh ... don't let the education system fail you!