Lincoln Hall Project
Lasting Friendships and Simple Pastimes
By Arthur Dale, BS ’61, science and letters
I met Aunt Alta when she was 80 years old in 1956 as I entered the University of Illinois and roomed at her house for men students at 507 E. Healey, Champaign. Her house had 12 rooms for men, so with double occupancy there were about 24 men living there. Aunt Alta lived in a two-room efficiency in the house and there was also a three-room apartment. About half of the students were American and half were foreign representing six inhabited continents. Aunt Alta was a mother away from home for her student residents. During my first semester I shared a room with a foreign student, Fadil Hassan Zuwaylif, from Iraq. We had a disagreement and he moved out after a week. However, we remained friends for many years. After Fadil moved out, Ahmad Qureshi from Pakistan moved in with me. I shared a two-room arrangement during the second semester with Americans, Charles Laury from Danville, and Bill DeLacy from Chicago. Deanna and I were married after my freshman year and then rented Aunt Alta’s three-room apartment. The house was only two blocks from the Quad and a block and a half from Deanna’s work place at Illini Studio on Green Street.
Our years at Aunt Alta’s and the U of I were wonderful years. I got a good education, gained a knowledge of foreign relations, and enjoyed great socializing at the house and at the U of I.
One weekend after Deanna and I were married, Chuck Laury went home to Danville and caught a lot of largemouth bass on his family’s farm. He came back Sunday morning with the fish already cleaned. Deanna fried the fish for Sunday dinner. Those enjoying the excellent dinner were Chuck Laury, Dave Dickmeier, Bill Cripe, three former Cerro Gordo High School classmates of Dave and Bill, Aunt Alta, Deanna, and myself. Some of us ate on the front porch on that beautiful sunny Sunday afternoon.
Dave and Bill often spoke highly of two of their Cerro Gordo classmates, Gary Lonnen and Jan Vulgamott, who were high school sweethearts. After high school Gary went to Millikin University and Jan went to EIU. Dudley Jones, my lifelong friend from Bridgeport, also went to EIU. One Saturday, Dudley brought a date up to our apartment for lunch and a U of I football game. I’ve said many times it’s a small world and yes, you’ve guessed it, his date was Jan Vulgamott, a stunning beauty. Later, Jan was back with Gary and they were married.
Some Friday or Saturday nights several of us from Aunt Alta’s walked to the end of the Quad to the Auditorium to watch old movies for 25 cents. This was good entertainment for a price we could all afford.
Many Friday nights Deana and I went to the apartment of Joe and Judy Brooks Shaffer. Their apartment was called a parade ground unit about the size of a small house trailer complete with coal-burning stove. There were a lot of these units across the street west of Memorial Stadium. They had been put there as temporary housing for the many veterans returning to school after WWII. We usually had Pepsis, chips, good conversation, and relaxation after the busy week of studying and working. Joe was on the GI Bill. Judy was a telephone operator for Illinois Bell. Deanna worked for Illini Studio and I worked part-time at the University for two professors in their homes. In the University job I worked at two antenna labs where the signals from Sputnik were recorded. At the home of Professor Eugene Rabinowich I built several bookcases for him and cleaned house for his wife. He was the world’s foremost authority on photosynthesis. He and his wife left Russia when the communists took over in 1919. I cleaned house for Professor Sabotka. She was also Russian and taught Russian language. I did anything legal for a dollar. In the summers I had a good paying job painting steel structures at USI in Tuscola.
My organic chemistry professor was the world renowned Reynold C. Fuson. Only about five years ago I learned that he grew up just a few miles north of where my Dewhirst ancestors lived in Richland County, Ill. His brother, Merle, a high school chemistry teacher in Mattoon, was married to my second cousin. Yes, it’s a small world.
Getting back to socializing, two of our good friends at the U of I were Fran and Carol Dohme from Carlinville and Mt. Olive. Two consecutive years the four of us went north of Danville to the dairy farm of Dr. Laury (father of Chuck Laury) at Christmas time to cut our Christmas trees. The second year we started too late in the day and got to the farm at dark. We had flashlights so we started for the pine grove anyway. Our little dachshund, Ginger, could not make it through the deep snow so we started carrying her. Before we got to the grove Fran stepped into a pool of runoff from the dairy barn. He was wet up past his knees. We gave up and hurried back to the car. We drove back to Danville with the car windows down because of the terrible odor on Fran’s trousers. Fran went into a gas station restroom and tried to wash off some of the mess. When Fran came back to the car, the attendant opened the restroom door, looked in, and then turned around and looked at us as we drove away. We stopped at Price’s bakery in Danville for donuts, coffee, and hot chocolate but didn’t stay there very long because people were giving us sour looks. We continued back to Champaign with the windows cracked.
On Sunday in 1957 we rented a trailer and went down to Bridgeport to pick up a bed for our apartment. Aunt Alta went with us and visited with my grandmother, Nellie Dewhirst. Aunt Alta enjoyed the visit and the 240-mile round trip.
During my freshman year one of my friends was Joel Jan Hall from Kankakee. He was a member of Acacia fraternity. One day we went to Sigma Pi to visit one of his friends. In the foyer at Sigma Pi was a large portrait of a man who looked to me like Byron R. Lewis from Bridgeport. I asked one of the members about the portrait and he told me that it was Mr. Lewis, founder of Sigma Pi. The first chapter was at Vincennes University and the second at the U of I. I learned about 10 years ago that Byron Lewis was a first cousin of my grandmother Dale, therefore he was my first cousin, twice removed. I wish I had known more genealogy back in those days.
We spent a lot of time with Lee Hsien “Pat” Lu from Taiwan. He left the China mainland with his family when the communists gained control in 1949. Another good friend at Aunt Alta’s was Abdul Jamil Ahmadzai from Afghanistan. Jamil later changed his name to Roger Jamil Allen. He finished his studies and left town about a year before I did without saying goodbye. Aunt Alta had his new address but would not give it to me since Jamil asked her not to give his address to anyone. Aunt Alta was completely honest and reliable. She felt bad about not giving me his address but could not break her promise. One Saturday morning about a year and a half later when I was living and working in Chicago, I was in the entrance to a restaurant, Mr. Adams, on Broadway and Wilson or Lawrence, using the phone. Jamil walked in and his lower jaw dropped almost to the floor. He was so glad to see me and I was glad to see him. I told him that Aunt Alta would not give me his address in order to keep her promise to him. He said he didn’t mean she couldn’t give it to me. We have remained friend for many years.
During the fall of 1960, my last semester at the U of I, I saw presidential candidate John F. Kennedy, when he made a campaign speech at the entrance of the Auditorium on the Quad.
Yes, those years at Aunt Alta’s and the U of I were wonderful and we have many great memories, too numerous to mention. Taking some words from an old song, “Those were the days my friend. We thought they’d never end....”
The views expressed in Storyography are not necessarily those of the College of Liberal Arts and Sciences or the University of Illinois.