Part 4: Mimosa Dormitory
My parents told me I'd have to pay for college myself. During my two years as a dishwasher at Brookdale Community College I'd saved more then $2,000.
It was enough to pay my tuition and board at Glassboro College and still leave me with ample spending money. I knew enough to know I'd be terribly shy
so I decided to move into a dorm. And so began a very happy time of my life.
I was on my own with my own money. For the first time I was beholden to no one. And I met wonderful people, Donna Gallagher, Styx, Mike Caputo and the mysterious Mr. Silverman.
I got to party and my classes seemed almost ridiculously easy.
A Mimosa story, if you will. Donna had a friend named Joe Klein. Joe claimed there was a body in the sewer. So Joe, Donna, Mark, an unnamed girl and I decided to investigate.
When entered the sewer via a drainage tunnel. When we got to the side tunnel where the body was Mark and I crawled in leaving Joe to guard the womenfolk. The body
turned out to be a pile of leaves. Rather then leave we decided to fire up a joint and party a bit. After all, who knew when we'd get to be in a sewer again. We decided
to sing campfire songs but the only song we all knew was The Ballad of Gilligan's Island so that's what we sang. When we got back to the entrance, there was a security guard
waiting for us, so we ran back to the dorm. He chased us and made inquires about us but he didn't find us. Pretty heady stuff for a shy kid from Keansburg. In many ways
my time at Mimosa was the happiest time of my life. And I'd never want to go back.
A few weeks ago I was in Jubilee Gardens in London with Mrs. Silverman. We were sitting on the grass and the kids were off somewhere. On our left was the London Eye, on our right
was the Palace of Westminster and ahead of us was the Thames. I was supremely happy. I've had several moments like that since leaving Mimosa and I expect to have one or two more before I die. Mimosa was my first time on my own and if it taught me anything, it's that there are always adventures to be had. Of course, the other thing it taught me is that I'm not a good roommate. The only roommate I ever really got along with was Kevin Mate, the guy I shared my dorm room with. And he left college after four months so go figure. I like living by myself and I'm not the easiest person to get along with in close quarters, as I'm sure Donna and the kids would verify. Next time, some roommate stories..