to send my children off to college by these field trip experiences. Wrong. Remember these were very volatile times. There were demonstrations for various causes going on all the time. Some of them turned violent. At Kent State in Ohio the National Guard had shot and killed four students and wounded many more during a protest against the war in Viet Nam. Every institution was being challenged and colleges were no exception. Frank decided to attend Antioch College in southern Ohio. To say that Antioch is a liberal college is a major understatement. Its only dress code was a requirement that students wear shoes to graduation ceremonies. During the time Frank was a student there the campus was noted for its student activism, anti-racism, and progressive policies. Frank was right at home. I was just a bit less comfortable. It all started just the way you hope college will begin – in the first week Frank called to say he had met a pretty, smart girl and he was in love. Another call was to tell us that his roommate had
Coffee, Frank is Dead.” Herman nearly dropped dead right there. Fortunately a specialist in the disease had just returned from Africa to a local hospital. His skill and his quick response to Frank’s condition cured him completely and quickly. It was only our first scare. MORE GUNPLAY To further our parental anxiousness a protest was apparently in progress at one point and a young, black woman came to Frank’s new dorm room to tell him that he had to leave his room and find one somewhere else. Frank politely disagreed and the young woman left, only to return with five or six large men who presented a more forceful argu- ment. Frank was still not persuaded and the argu- ment was getting noisy. At some point Frank’s new roommate produced a hand gun and started waving it around. That must have cooled things off and the intruders left quietly. Frank was furious about the gun. It turned out not to be a real gun but Frank didn’t know it. Just another day at a quiet, peaceful liberal university. And to think I was worried about him going to school in New York. But the trouble Frank got in made us
been shot. Apparently Frank’s dorm had been invaded by robbers who were ransacking and robbing the place. Frank was asleep while all this was going on. Frank’s roommate protest- ed that they better not take his hi-fi system or he would scream. They took it. And when the boy ran to close the door behind them, the robbers thought he was chasing them and turned and shot him in the elbow. Only a flesh wound as they say but nearly fatal to a parent’s heart. That woke Frank up.
proud as well. He was on the right side of the social issues and working to make things better for people who had previous- ly been held down. One instance in which the whole school got involved was when a tornado wiped out the small town of Xenia,
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In fact Frank was so upset for a month he did primal scream therapy in which you go into a room and scream as loud as you can in order to release the trauma of the experience. When we inquired about the shooting no one in the school administration seemed to know about it. Even worse, when we called the police they begged off by saying they were just a two man department and didn’t have the resources to investigate. Unbe- lievable. Frank got a new room and a new roommate. Here is how that worked out. The next call I remember (actually almost a year later) was to tell us that somehow he had contracted spinal meningitis. Herman was on a plane an hour later. Because of Herman’s coffee business Frank had a professional coffee machine in his dorm room and it was a popular place to hang out. When Herman arrived at the dorm to see how his son was doing, someone had taped a note to the door saying “No
Ohio, near Antioch College. Frank and the rest of the students brought loads of mattresses into the college to shelter people from the tragedy. A FISH STORY One of the happiest days of Herman’s life almost didn’t happen. We were on vacation in Flor- ida. Lou Carraciola had lent Herman his station wagon so we could all pile in together. At the time we didn’t have a nickel to spare but Herman was looking for ways to entertain the boys. It was a bright, sunny Florida day. Herman went to a mari- na near our motel to see how much it would cost to take the boys deep sea fishing. It was just too much – way out of our range. As luck would have it, the day turned drizzly and Herman, thinking like a businessman, realized
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