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and create a small lake. We often walked by the lake when we used the
shortcut to get to our house from the main campus. Instead of going all the
way around the hill along the roadway, we just hiked up the side of the hill
alongside the lake. When we reached the top of the hill, we would be almost
to our house. We, and others, had done this so much that a regular path had
been created.

Living on the backside of the college campus was not perfect, though. The
farm had been close to the college classrooms and to the downtown area,
but this house was on the far backside of the campus and adjacent to the
dairy barns. From this house, it was a good 20-minute walk, up and down
steep hills, to the main center of the college. We were, however, about five
minutes from the men’s dormitory and five minutes, if we took the shortcut
through the open fields, to Harris Hall, one of the college apartment buildings
for teachers.

The men’s dorm, “Phraener Hall”, was just around the bend in the road and
down the hill. It was on the curve by the men's dorm, just as you start down
the steep hill, that I fell out of a car and rolled into the ditch. I can recall it
vividly even to this day. I was not yet four years old and was riding in the
back of a car while my mother was driving. I had seen the grown ups press
a shiny lever to open the back door, and I thought I would try it. I pressed
down on the lever just as we rounded the curve and began the downward
trajectory. Well, the combined momentum of both those actions caused the
door to swing wide open and me to spill right out of the car onto the
pavement below. The rest I do not recall; however, our cook/housekeeper, told
me that I had “broken” my head wide open. In reality, there were only some
lacerations on my head, which my grandmother cleaned and medicated. I
ascribe to that incident all the idiosyncrasies with which I am now afflicted.

Since we lived in such an isolated location, we did not have many friends to
play with but my mother made a big deal about our birthdays and she would
invite all the professors’ wives and their children over for parties. She would
give us all one of those silly little hats with the rubber band that keeps it on
your head. These parties helped all of us kids to be acquainted. Most of the
families on campus had children of nearly the same age as the two of us.
Overall, at times we could muster up a couple of dozen kids on the campus.
Although, there were some children moving away and others moving in, in
general, we grew-up with a stable group of friends.

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