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| University of Minnesota 1964-1969 |
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| The Scholarships | I was given two. One from the AFL-CIO and one from UofM by a fellow named Johnson. We recepients met with him. A flash affair being served tea in china cups. We each told a little bit about ourselves and what we planned to study. Tuition was $126/quarter. | |
| The Orientation I | Orientation Week. Aug 6, 1964. The first day we had to say where we were from and what we were studying. A couple girls, Carole Johnson and Jeanne McCabe, said they were from Golden Valley so I said I was too (just a block or two away). So naturally when we had a break one, Jeanne, asked me why she didn't know me from high school. We spent the rest of the day together and I gave her a ride home. We were taken to organize our classes and explained what we would be doing each the following days. | |
| The Orientation II | Aug 7, 1964. 2nd day of orientation and I was pretty much bored of the whole thing, so I left early and never went back for the rest of the week. | |
| The Counsellor | In theory we had to see this person each term to discuss what classes to take working toward my goal. Since I didn't have a goal and he didn't seem too interetsed other than being a rubber stamp I never saw him again. I had his signature and could duplicate it when needed. | |
| Born To Be Wild | Once in a while when it was Tom Sullivan's turn to get us to school, he would show up on his little scooter - not exactly the most powerful motorcycle in the world. He was engaged to Peggy and wasn't out for the macho look. I would hang on with one arm and hold our books in the other for the 20-30 minute ride. It wasn't my favorite way of getting to and fro. | |
| The Parking | Tom Sullivan and I drove each other to school - well, I did most of the driving which is always an advantage in these situations. The first day my car ran out of gas just short of the entrance to the car park. He sat in the car while I walked to get gas and got stares from all the cars passing him. Parking for ahwole day was 25¢. |  |
| Born To Be Wild II | Tom's sister's boyfriend, Ron Saxton, began at the U a year after we had and he became part of the carpool. He had a souped up car and he liked to "whip shift" on the one-way going home, hitting all of the lights while accelerating up to 90mph. We always got home faster than on Tom's scooter. | |
| Stat Attack | Part of my degree required two statistics courses. I scraped through the first but the second, tougher, one made no sense to me at all. I am sure that the Pakastani instructors were speaking English but I couldn't understand them and trying to read the books was beyond me. So for the only time at uni I dropped a course and took it again when it came around the following year. And even though I had no idea what I was doing I actually passed, albeit with a "D". To the right is a page of notes. |  |
| West Campus | This was on the other side of the river and there was a covered walkway. I can recall having two classes over there, Logic and Scandanavian history. Depending upon where your class was on the main campus, it ended up being a very long walk at times. You really couldn't schedule two classes in a row without having difficulty. One thing I recall is that on finishing a class there I would buy a bear claw or more than likely a long john from a vending machine to eat while I walked back to the main campus. |  LJ  |
| The Hang Out | I spent more time in the basement of the Engineering Building hanging with friends than I did in classrooms. They were mostly the Richfield gang with some De guys and even a few girls. There was a Mexican fellow who sat by himself and amused us with match stick tricks/puzzles. |  |
| The Date | Feb 24, 1966. There was an ad in the U Daily for Computer Dating. We tricked Olson into filling out the form. All the guys chipped in (10¢ each) and then sent it in. We're buying him a date. | |
| The Band | Apr 22, 1966. It was in the Engineering room that "The Poor Boys" band was born. But they were origianlly called "M.D. & the Interns". Gary on bass, Norm on drums, Keith on guitar and Mel on organ (had to turn his mic off). They practiced in Olson's basement and I became a roadie. Got a real manager, Jim, who organized them a spot in Hopkins. They were very good. Got out a twelve-string for "Hey Gyp" which Olson was lead vocals. Found out that there was already a group called "The Poor Boys" so changed the name to "The Poor Souls". Played a couple times at the Hopkins VFW. "Little Red Book" was great and Norm was fantastic on drums. Unfortunately, Norm got drafted in August and that ended the band. |  |
| The Stomp | Dec 16, 1966. Norm, Keith and Gary wanted songs to for the band to play. So we went to a used record shop in DinkyTown near the U. I asked the guy for "Bongo Stomp". He asks me which one and brings a box labelled "Bongo Stomp"!!! By the way, he had the version I was looking for by Little Joey and the Flips. | |
| The Battle | Aug 3, 1967. Up very early to drive to Souix Falls, South Dakota for Battle of the Bands to support "The Poor Souls". I drove my convertible with top down; Sue Olson, Stephanie, Mustain and Lyle had to suffer the wind. Got there at 11:30AM and listened to some of the bands. We found the guys and they were having nothing but trouble and didn't to play until 5:30PM and by then there was hardly any people around. There were a few mistakes but thought that they were still the best group there. We hung around with them until 10PM to find out they didn't win. Great band with horn section from Kansas City won (they did best version of "Land of 1,000 Dances" I ever heard). On the long drive back in the wee hours everyone slept and I listened to the Monkees who had taken over KDWB radio station in Mpls. I got home around 3AM. |  |
| The Babes | Between the buildings was a vast parklike area where jocks would throw footballs to impress the girls. We geeks (Tom Kelley and me) rated the girls who went by (1 to 10). | |
| Chem Lab | I hated these two hours at the end of the day. The room was overheated and I was so tired. The smell of chemicals got to me I usually got a headache. | |
| Physics Lab | I remember one experiment where I damaged a large and sensitive galvometer that hung on the wall, so I fudged the results. The measurements we did were so accurate that we had to include the height of the second floor lab. | |
| American History | One lecture a week in a hall with about 1000 students. We then attended a tutorial group of around 20 to discuss the lecture and readings. The tutor blew up at me one time because I never contributed. I was there for the facts, not whether something was right or wrong. I had no personal opinion. It was a history class, not a philosophy or legal class. | |
| Scandanavian History | Had a very interesting lecturer and that helped me stay awake. My term paper was on The Winter War. | |
| Latin American History | We had a laid back Latino who got worked up when telling us how so many Latin countries were screwed by American corporations. Viva Che. | |
| Astronomy | The professor (Karlis Kaufmanis) was from Riga, Latvia and spoke with an accent. He loved the topic and tried to get that to rub off on the students, but it was "just the facts" for me. And were there ever facts. Probably more than any other subject I took. | |
| Simple String? | I had a physics/maths class on the properties of a fixed string (standing waves - harmonics). Even came with a small book. Very complicated formulas were developed. To this day I have not been able to apply any of this knowledge to my life. | |
| The Apartment | Jul 1 1968. Darrell and I moved into an apartment at 418 Erie St SE just a few blocks from campus. It was $132/month. Two furnished rooms. Bunk bed and a double bed in one. I can see in the photo that mom let me have her flamingo mirror. I brought my desk and we had a TV. |  |
| The Visitors I | Jul 5, 1968. Steve and Gail over to see the apartment. Beat them twice at buc uchre. We stuck an umbrella skeleton in the middle of the road. | |
| The Room Mates | For awhile we had Darrell's future brother-in-law, Chuck (photo) with us. For a longer period David Narlock with his hair and aftershave invading the place. |  |
| The Poker | Jul 11, 1968. Les and Judy with baby, Michael; and "Rusty" (Carlton Nelson) over for poker. I was the big winner. |  |
| The Visitors II | Aug 2, 1968. Kincy on leave from army with arm out of cast, but now he has a broken jaw and his mouth is wired shut making for some interesting conversations. Steve brought him over to see the apartment and to play some poker (I lost 14¢). |  |
| The Visitors II | Aug 2, 1968. Kincy on leave from army with arm out of cast, but now he has a broken jaw and his mouth is wired shut making for some interesting conversations. Steve brought him over to see the apartment and to play some poker (I lost 14¢). | |
| The Visitors III | Aug 3, 1968. Mom and Chris over to check out my university apartment. She left Chris to stay the night. We walked around the campus and did the Museum of Natural History. We played cards. Darrell came home early from Rusty's wedding. | |
| The Vet | Our roommate Dave's one leg cousin (Viet Nam), Bob, spent two days with us. Had a good time with them - both being good ol' boy beer drinkers. Played some mean checkers. | 
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| The Cribbage | Soon after moving in Darrell and I began a cribbage game to 10,000 points. | |
| The Smoker | Sept 13, 1968. Went to Jim's "Smoker" (stag party - I spent $5.70) at Theodore Wirth Golf Club with Les and Darrell. Mostly card playing - buc and hearts with "Curly". His brother Joe was a riot. Talked to Denny Johnson. Leroy was his usual self. | |
| The Picnic | Sept 15, 1968. Let Darrell use my convertible to impress his date, Patty, when he brought her to the picnic at Honeywell Park. I went with with Les and Judy. Also joining us were the Klybergs, Phil with his "vet" and Darrell's sister, Patty with Chuck (he roomed with us a while). Played softball. I played horseshoes with Les. | |
| The Wedding | Sept 22, 1968. Usher at Jim & Pat's wedding. Went to Gloria's and fixed up the marriage car with John and Jerry. Then to Hopkins House for drinks at Don's apartment. I had to pick up Sandy, Pat's sister, and drive her around to Sears to get their gift and get it wrapped and bring her to the reception. I sat with Snooky. The bridesmaid, Bea, didn't like the best man so she asked me to dance the first dance with her. From then I was very popular, dancing quite a few with: Snooky, then Sally (Tom Jeffrey's [ed. - a guy from De days] girlfriend's cousin), Bea again and two with Joan Dulac. I also drove Bea home (since I was sober) - but she has a boyfriend!!! | |
| The Christmas | Dec 24 1968. I went home. Bob came over for dinner and we opened presents. I got a bowling ball and bag (never used - finally sold for $10 in 1975) from Bob; sweater and ties from Angi; electric shaver, and steak knife set from Mom and bar kit and Neil Diamond album from Chris. Finished off at Leroy's and had lot of fun watching the oldsters goofin' off. | 
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| The Date | Dec 31, 1968. Brought Terri over to my apartment for a steak meal. Showed her my artwork. Around 10PM we went to a party in Richfield where we played chug. I recall having to drop my pants to show what kind of underpants I had. At midnight I had my very first kiss, with Terri. We then crashed another party. Terri was very affectionate and all over me. A fellow there told me I was a lucky guy (apparently he didn't know that I was a good Catholic boy, eh?). Long story short - had to come to end and I did get a goodnight kiss. | |
| The Date II | Jan 1, 1969. Terri and I went tobaganning at Wirth Park with Chris, Darrell Johnson, Janey, Bob S. Jim M, Les, Don & Shelby and Chuck & Patty. After 3 runs Terri wanted to go. I got a little upset with the situation and anything I said just made it worse. So it looks like it was a very short revival of our friendship. | |
| The COLD | Jan 11, 1969. I went ice fishing with Darrell and his father. Worst day of my life??? We had to be on the road before dawn broke. Drove to Lac Milles and into their fish house on the lake. There was a small wood burning stove for heat, but I soon froze and stayed that way. The other two would go outside and fish - maybe because it got too warm inside. I remember my feet freezing through my rubber boots. No special gear for me. And then to top it off I picked up a migraine on the drive home. | |
| The Farewell II | Mar 16, 1969. Farewell party for Steve (Navy bound) at Newstrom's. Nick, his uncles Frank and Phil cousins Al, Denny and Kathy and his grandmother. We played 500 with Frank and Kathy. | |
| The Farewell | Mar 18, 1969. After work I went to Newstroms. Farewell Steve with champagne and a game of 500 with his folks. |  |
| The Supper? | On the way to the apartment I would pass a Red Barn restaurant (never ate there - $$$). But, after working in the computer lab until late, I would often stop in at a small store where I would buy a large Coke® and a box of doughnuts (powdered sugar or cinnamon). Don't recall if they were a snack or my supper. | |
| The Bookie | I once had a door-to-door encyclopedia guy (young one) give me the pitch at the apartment when I was a uni student. Since I knew how these things work, I led him on as he slowly kept sweetening the pie as he thought he was reeling me in according to his training only to be shown the door after a good hour of "Selling". Still feel sorry for the guy. | |
| Only A | Took a math history class and loved it, so much so that I aced it - unfortunately it was only for one credit. I kept that textbook and managed to use it when I was teaching. | |
| The Lost A | I took a course on Matrices. Since I had learnt that in high school I skipped the lessons and only showed up for the final exam which I aced. But I was given a "C" because I hadn't taken the mid-term exam and therefore failed it. | |
| Blue Books | Every exam, no matter the subject, seemed to use the standard "blue book". I guess these days things are moving to electronic exams because handwriting is getting so bad. |  |
| The Computers | First class I had was machine code which is basically moving bits into an address one at a time trying to get the machine to add two numbers. I hated it. Then we moved onto Fortran which made more sense to me. But it was time consuming since we had to type our own punch cards, turn them in, wait for them to be run and get the results. Many errors so many iterations. I actually moved to an apartment a few blocks away so I could spend more time in the computer room. | |
| The Grad I | Jun 7, 1969. Graduation ceremony at University of Minnesota. First Malecek to get a degree. Held in the football stadium with about 4,000 of us in cap and gown on the playing field with a stage at one end. About 30 Mathematics grads in my group. And about 10,000 people in the stands. I could have paid someone to attend it for me and no one would have known. |  |
| The Grad II | Jun 8, 1969. Combined graduation (me - university and Chris - St. Anne's) / birthday (Mom and Angi) parties with Bob and Donna J. Had a professional photographer come to the house for it. He didn't take this one. |  |
| The I Do's | Jun 14, 1969. I give Mom away at her and Bob's wedding - a small affair in a house. I believe the minister was Anderson, a friend of Bob's. |  |
| Freshman | Fall: Math 21 (Calc 1) B, Physics 11 C, English 1B (Composition) C, English 1B (Literature) C.
Winter: Math 22 (Calc 2) C, Physics 12 D, Physics 12A (Lab) B, Eng 2B (Composition) C, Eng 2B (Literature) C, Philosophy 2 (Logic) B. Spring: Math 23 (Calc 3) C, Physics 13 D, Physics 13A (Lab) B, EG 25 (Eng Graph) C, Eng 3B (Composition) B, Eng 3B (Literature) C | |
| Sophomore | Fall: Math 31 (Calc 4) D, Physics 14 D, Physics 14A (Lab) C, Chemistry 14 (Principals) C.
Winter: Math 32 (Calc 5) B, Physics 50A (Lab) B, Chemistry 15 (General) C, Sociology 1 (Man in Mod Soc) C. Spring: Math 33 (Calc 6) C, Physics 50 B, Math 14 (Lab) A, Sociology 2 (Comm) B. | |
| Junior | Fall: Stat 131 (Theory) D, Physics 100 (Mech/Elec) D, Math 130A (Analytics) D, Hist 23 (American) C.
Winter: Phil 1 (Problems) C, Physics 102 (Mech) C, Hist 24 (American) C. Spring: Phys 51 (Interim) C, Physics 104 (Mech/Elec) C, Astronomy 11 C. | |
| Senior | Fall: Math 173 (Elem) F, Math 147 (Vect Analysis) C, Econ 1 (Principles) C, Soc 3 (Problems) C.
Winter: Econ 2 (Principles) C, Stat 132 (Theory) D, Math 151 (Adv Calc) C, Hist 119 (Scandinavia) B. Spring: Math 153 (Calc) D, Stat 133 (Theory) D, Hist 120J (Scandinavia) B, Hist 147A (Latin Am) B. | |
| Senior | Fall: Math 142 (Vector Theory) B, Math 164 (Programming Module) C, Math 173 (Elementary) C, Geology 1 (Physical) B.
Winter: Math 143 (Vectors) C, Math 174 (Differ Eq) D, Math 165 (Programming) C, Geology 2 (Hist) B. Spring: Math 166 (Programming) C, Math 175 (Partial Diff Eq) B, Math 180 (Group Theory) B. | |
| Stats | A - 1 B - 17 C - 31 D - 12 F - 1
202 credits 419 Grade Points GPA = 2.078 | |
