During my freshman year, a small group of us from the Evans Scholars discovered that part of Ann Arbor west of Main St. We came across Mr. Flood’s Party, a small narrow establishment with a stage for live music by the front door. We would listen to Dick Siegel and his Ministers of Melody, Steve Newhouse?, the Steve Nardella Band and more than I remember just now. It didn’t hurt that the legal age for a beer back then was 18.

Re: The student body (March 2009): Ah, Yes! Like many others, I, too, stood in “the naked mile” in Waterman Gym for that freshman physical. Mine was in the fall of 1952. The thing I remember most was being handed a rather small paper sack and being told to “take everything off and stuff it in here.” It was fun to peek through the curtains at the folks registering down below…filling out the dreaded “railroad ticket.”

Recollections of U-M: Getting to AA and finding I was (as a male) registered in a women’s dorm. Couldn’t have the luck to follow thru on that one.
Attending J-HOP with Tommy Dorsey on one side and another major band on the other. With our dates staying at the fraternity and ‘evicting’ us for the evening.
Enjoying a (non-legal) preprandial ‘beverage’ at the fraternity house, while listening to L. Orphan Annie and Jack Armstrong in the 1/2hour before dinner.
Watching my wife, Virginia, playing goalie for Collegiate Sorosis as part of the annual Homecoming Mud Bowl. Having a toga party before it was “popularized” in the movies.
And graduating in the University’s shortest, rained-out graduation ceremony in the stadium when the rains came after the notice bell wasn’t rung.
And yes, registering with the ‘train tickets’ then used at the Waterman Gym.
Ah, these wonderful memories!

Re: The student body (March 2009):
Not only did I register at Waterman Gym in the Fall of 1945, I had a very memorable U-M date there.

The Paul Bunyan Dance may have been more famous for the Sigma Phi Great Dane fighting with it’s Sigma Chi brother on the dance floor – you can imagine how hilarious it was with neither of them being able to gain any purchase on the slippery floor – but I remember it for my one and only date with A__. I picked her up and asked her to jump on the handle bars of my bike – which she very sportingly did. Fortunately, Bud H___, a brother Sigma Phi and a “townie”, picked us up at the first corner in his parents car and drove us to the dance with the bike in his truck. A___ was too tall for me in heels, so the Paul Bunyan was one of my few opportunities.

A__ is still married and I’ve just celebrated our 59th with Gamma Phi Bebe Cole.

The pictures of registration in Waterman Gym (The student body, March 2009) brought back so many old memories. Surprisingly, it wasn’t the horrible experience one might imagine; for pre-computer days they had it so well organized that it was relatively painless. One thing that needed mention, though, was the “railroad ticket,” the long strip of perforated little cards that had to be filled out and then surrendered at strategic points in the process.

Re: The student body (Feb. 2009): I played basketball in Waterman frequently as a senior living on Catherine Street near the Old St. Joe. Wonderful memories of my inflated abilities as a hoopster playing with one of my apt. roomates who was 6’9″ tall.

I also stood in long lines for class registration one year in Waterman that I can remember. I recall the lack of air conditioning well.

Waterman was a grand old lady and it was too bad that she could not be preserved.

Re: The student body (Feb. 2009): There was a mezzanine-like track around the perimeter of the Barbour gym upper level that is visible in the picture of the girls playing basketball.
This was curtained off for two days and all incoming freshmen of both sexes were given a brief physical exam by 20 or 30 selected senior medical students under the supervision of the staff. It was divided into stations, e.g. one for ears, one for heart and lungs etc. These were mostly healthy young people, but once in awhile someone would find something in an ear, or a thyroid nodule, or a heart murmur, and all the med students nearby would gather around to check it out.This was a great experience for the Senior Meds, and it gave some incoming freshman girls a chance to meet some single senior Med students. (In a couple of the pictures you can see Med students [short white coats] loafing around on the track.)

I was very blessed to have one of the greatest professors in my chosen profession of Naval Architecture. Professor Harry Benford was in my estimation the student’s professor. He was very concerned for his students and anything that could impede their development. He believed that his students should have a rounded education but at the same time have a firm understanding of the profession they were about to enter. As an example of his concern for the individual, when my father lost his job, Professor Bendord came to the rescue. He found me some student jobs that would supplement my daily expenditures and then was instrumental in finding me a scholarship that would pay for my final semester at the University. “Harry,” as he is affectionately called, was a mentor to many of his students and is fondly remembered by many of the Department graduates. Without doubt, I consider him as my favorite professor.

My U-M student career had an inauspicious debut when it appeared I was going to be late for my first class on the day classes began.

I was in graduate school at the U and my undergraduate education was completed at EMU where the classes convened at the top of the hour.

So, at 10 a.m., I was still trying to find a place to park on campus for my 10 o’clock class.

Suddenly, an open spot appeared and I hurriedly parked. When I reached the door to the classroom in the old Frieze Building, I saw an unexpected sight.

Milling around in the classroom in conversation was Professor Martin and the other members of the class. I thought, is this a new methodology of life-long learning?