Interview with Tonya Peotter, 11/21/2016

SO: Alright, so this is Stephanie Olejniczak and I'm conducting this interview for the University of Wisconsin Oshkosh Oral History project with Tonya Peotter?

TP: Peotter.

SO: On November 19, 2016 at 9:30 am at 2950 Lost Valley Ct. Alright, so let's just start with where did you grow up?

TP: I came from Green Bay. I have two sisters both were older. My oldest sister chose not to go to college and my middle sister, so my older sister's name is Tina, then Tracy and Tonya, so my parents did three T's. It's funny. But my middle sister went to Eau Claire. Did not like it and transferred back and went to NWTC to be a correctional officer. And then there's me. So the difference in age is 7 years and then between Tina and I and 3 years between Tracy and I. We 00:01:00grew up on the west side of Green Bay where, kind of where Home Depot is on Taylor, but it's actually Burns Avenue where I grew up and my mom still lives there. I went to a private grade school, K.A., it was called St. Agnes Holy Family at the time and then after eighth grade I transitioned to Southwest High school which was public 9 - 12. When I was done, and all of my sisters went through Southwest, so we, obviously, my sister, myself, parents, we were all from Oconto and that's where my family is from, and we moved to Green Bay when I was three years old because my dad worked for Schneider and he was commuting every day so he kinda got sick of that so my parents decided to move us all to 00:02:00Green Bay. So from three on and it's still the same house that we moved into.

SO: Can you kind of tell me what kind of work people in your neighborhood did?

TP: Sure. Well, for a while, my mom stayed home and then she decided to go back to work and she became a travel agent. My dad worked for Schneider for thirty-three years. He put satellites into the semis so that they could track them. My neighbors, like the prominent neighbors that stayed worked for Wisconsin Public Service, I mean, it was definitely a middle class neighborhood. Let's see. One of my neighbors was a teacher, actually two of my neighbors were teachers. So when we moved in, all but about two houses, the neighbors all 00:03:00stayed the same. Nobody moved, everybody knew everybody, was pretty safe, definitely middle class.

SO: So on a general basis, people went to college, usually?

TP: Yes.

SO: Yes? Did your parents emphasize college for you?

TP: Yes. More so than my sisters, more so than my oldest sister, I should say. By the time I was ready to go to college, there was such a push for college with kids anyway versus when my oldest sister got out of high school, my parents offered it to her but she was not interested in going to school. She wanted to get out and work. My middle sister, they definitely gave her the option. I mean, that's kind of interesting. And then my middle sister, Tracy, she tried it, the 00:04:00four year college, didn't like it, and ended up going to community college and also had a very good job. But I probably had the most push just because by 1992, that was the major push is to go to college and not into the workforce. It was more so you went to college than you did into the workforce.

SO: What kind of values did your family try to teach you growing up?

TP: Definitely. Honesty that would be one of the biggest ones. We were a very hard working family. Each of us had certain responsibilities that we had to do. When my parents chose the house that we moved into in Green Bay, it had an in 00:05:00ground pool, and it still does, and so, we all had our chores that we had to do. And it's a lot to take care of an in ground pool. As my sisters got older and they got jobs, they still had some responsibilities but their main focus was job. None of us had cars. My parents did not purchase cars for us when we turned sixteen so we either took the bus or we found someone who had a car. Honesty, definitely hardworking, respect was a huge component that our parents instilled upon us. I'm trying to think. Dedication and I think that's where I got my push 00:06:00to actually, truly finish what I started, like college, or anything that I did. And, my parents always said if I, or us kids make mistakes, it's gonna happen, just be honest, don't try to cover it up or lie, and my parents were really supportive about that. Those are the ones that stick out the most. One other thing was family. It was always, make sure that we always continued as a family and, you know how sisters fight. So, we would fight but as long as we would worked through it at some point in time, I mean my parents weren't hovering over us saying you must work it out yourselves.

SO: Going back, you kinda mentioned something about each of you having chores to do. Could you kind of go a little further into that?

TP: Oh, sure! I will tell you exactly. So, my oldest sister Tina, she was in charge of the bathrooms, and we were each in charge of our bedrooms, although my sister Tracy and I shared a bedroom for a very long time until Tina moved out. So, we had to keep our bedrooms clean. Tina had the bathrooms. Tracy had the kitchen, dining room. I had the living room, which meant dusting, picking everything up, and then I vacuumed the whole house, but everyone was responsible for their own bedroom. Laundry we all had to help out with, so if my mom did a load of laundry we all helped with that. And then cleaning up the dog poo because we had a dog, a little dog. And then, until I was old enough, my dad and 00:08:00my sisters had to vacuum the pool, which even today, takes about 3 hours to do if you want to do a good job because it's very deep. And then, the lawn mowing, was my dad, it was everybody until, sorry, it was everybody, including me when I got to be the right age, the only one that didn't mow the lawn was my mother. And cooking, both my parents did.

SO: What kind of values did you learn from your community growing up?

TP: I loved going to the private school because we had, during that time, there weren't divorces. I think there were two kids who divorced amongst forty of us. So, we always had that family unit being shown to us as mom and dad, family. And 00:09:00I had to go sleepover at my friends all the time and it was the same thing at their house and our house. And then the parents would have to get together and do fundraisers for St. Agnes to raise money. So what they did is that they had a Packer booth. So all the parents would come together. So we grew up with that closeness of seeing moms and dads working together, not arguing, and getting things, you know, working with other couples, other families and even sometimes and even with the parents that were divorced. I have one friend whose parents were divorced, but they actually remained friends. You didn't see quite the hostility that I see sometimes today in families, poverty as it is now was not 00:10:00how it was then. I will say that family unit, that was huge, and working together, coming together, making a little mini community. That's definitely what I learned.

SO: So what kind of values did you try to teach your children?

TP: My biggest value that I teach my children right now or as they grow up is definitely honest. And I have given the words of my parents to the words of my children. If you do something wrong, you own up to it, let's fix it together, and move on because if you lie, you have to try to remember what you lied about, and then lie you said and another lie to cover that lie and it keeps perpetuating. My kids have been very good about that. Dean and I, if they do 00:11:00something wrong, and they come to us and they are honest about it and we can fix it, maybe they'll earn a little consequence, or something like that, but our biggest thing was showing the value of being honest because that's you, you're representing yourself if you're not honest. So that was one. The other one was respect. Always respecting the adults, anybody, elders, respecting your peers. Something that really sticks out for my children is because my niece is severely autistic. So she's severely, and I, oh, I think you've seen Amanda out here, or maybe you're mom has, but anyway, a lot of times, kids with disabilities are teased and people stare and they look and they're like "eww"-type thing and, you know what, I'm gonna change that because I think it's tolerance is what I've 00:12:00taught my kids. By that I mean that my kids had to grow up with understanding that they had a cousin that was different and so, when people made remarks or they did stuff, my, Jenna, I guess, per se, more, Brennan is kind of going through the cycle now, but Jenna understood that some people are not nice, but that she has every right to stick up for her niece if she wants to, but as long as she's appropriate about it, and she really, her circle of friends, it was probably the best experience they ever had being around Amanda because they had a better understanding of people who had autism, people who have cerebral palsy, people who are in wheelchairs and can't think for themselves. It's truly not something that they can help. Tolerance is definitely something and then, 00:13:00something more so with Jenna, because she's seventeen and getting ready for college, that is to stand up for herself. I have always, always, always since she was young, told her she is never a doormat, nobody ever treats her poorly. I've instilled that upon her because as she gets older and she gets into a relationship, I don't ever want her to feel that it's okay that somebody belittles her, be it her husband or her boyfriend, or something like that. I have absolutely zero tolerance for that and I think that's probably something that she has grasped almost. I do tell that to Brennan, as well, being a boy, and he gets it, but I just really wanted Jenna to know, and I also want her to 00:14:00know that she can, that there is absolutely nothing that she can't do.

SO: So now I'm gonna another turn and go back into your childhood and ask what kind of activities did you participate in as a child?

TP: Sure! Ok. So. As a child, I tried gymnastics. I guess I have to tell you a little bit of history there. The reason why I tried gymnastics was because my middle sister Tracy was huge into gymnastics and then she went all over the state and so my mom kind of, you know, my mom kind of thought "oh, let's try Tonya at this." So, I tried gymnastics, I did not enjoy it. I think I only did it for one year, you know, when I was young. My thing that I shined at was basketball. In the private sector, I was playing a grade ahead. So, I had some 00:15:00good talent. So that was my number one. My dad used to come outside and shoot hoops with me for hours, but fun, he would give me tips, or something like that, because he used to be a coach. Then my mom would come out and she'd sit on the porch or something and we'd make my mom shoot some baskets which was very, very bad. I did not get my talent from my mother. Basketball was number one. What else did I do? When I went to Southwest, I was also on, like the pep--?

SO: Pep band?

TP: No, just the pep assembly, where you got things going. You got activities. I did that. But then when I was sixteen, so basketball was my main thing that I 00:16:00did and then when I turned sixteen, I got a job, too. That took up a lot of my time. I was part of the homecoming staff, I wasn't on homecoming, but I was a part of the homecoming, and then like getting the dances all ready and stuff.

SO: So sticking with the education kinda thing, where there any teachers that you liked growing up or that inspired you somehow?

TP: Yes. There was, like do you want elementary versus high school?

SO: However you decide to take that question.

TP: Ms. [Vandyken?] and Ms. [Meanhouse?] were two at Holy Family that stuck out to me. They just always were funny, however, you knew where that line was, so 00:17:00you only pushed so far. I do remember in eighth grade we had a new teacher come into science, teaching sciences for us in eighth grade, and the class treated her so terribly she quit.

SO: Oh my gosh!

TP: So there was shenanigans played and there was a lot of the boys that did that and I didn't partake in that per se, like how, to drive her out, but if there was something going on and it was funny, I might just add a little two cents in here and there, but when I look back, my friends and such were so mean. She used to cry and it's funny, because you know I'm a teacher, so I think about that kind of stuff, and I'm like oh my gosh, we were so bad to her! So then she quit. In high school, Mr. [Koenart?] was his name and he was like our sociology 00:18:00professor and he used to let me come in there, me and another friend of mine, for study hall because we were always so bored, and so I would all kinds of tasks for him. We would just take and he would ask me what my aspirations were and things like that. So it was just in the classroom, then he would let me, I would do all the correcting for him, so I was kind of like an assistant type thing. Maybe once or twice I would let a friend's test, if they had a couple wrong, maybe I kind of looked it over, they kind of got a little bit of a higher grade that they were supposed to. Then I saw him probably five years after I graduated and he was retiring and he remembered me and I'm certain he probably knew, but it wasn't like I cheated, per se. And then there was one other teacher 00:19:00that really stuck out; it was Mr. [Atabush?] who was my phy-ed teacher. There's a really interesting story that goes along with that. I'm not sure if I can tell you?

SO: If you want to tell it then go for it.

TP: Again, I told you that me growing up in Green Bay, perse, pretty safe. Same thing, you go downtown and it was starting to get sketchy and things like that, but Mr. [Atabush?] always pushed me because I was in basketball and being a phy-ed teacher, going into sports, he was funny, and he joked, but there was one tragic thing that occurred when I was in his phy-ed class and I will never forget and that is my friend and I, I had one other friend and it was helpful 00:20:00because Southwest had a pool, so I mean you had to go swimming, and this was really helpful to have someone else because otherwise you were late for class and things like that, but going back, we had this boy and he was really weird, I would say. In weird, I mean he was shy, he was quiet, he would say weird things or he would wear slippers to phy-ed and Mr. [Atabush?] would allow it, or just whatever. So one day, he wasn't there and the next day he came back and his eyes were all bloodshot and he was acting very, very, very weird. Unfortunately what happened was he had murdered his girlfriend the night before, came the school the next day and was arrested in the middle of my phy-ed class. Across the street from Southwest are Birch, is it Birch Apartments? Well, back then, they 00:21:00didn't have all that build up, so across the street from Southwest, it was just straight field until you saw that building which was the YMCA for a while, but it used to be a school for girls. If you went across, in the yard, across the street from Southwest, to the right, it was all woods, well that's where he took her and he killed her. So you want to talk about an eye opener. And then for police to come into your class, and we were all just standing there and even though some of those people, kids that I knew went to public school all their lives, so they had bigger classes and stuff, where I went to private, it was such an eye opener because it was like, oh my god, we were amongst a murderer. He is still in prison today and they actually did a 20/20 story on it. So, off topic that I got, Mr. [Atabush?] was the teacher at the time.

SO: So knowing about that kid after the fact, did that change your perspective on the classes, like, that made you think oh my gosh, we're not safe, how did that affect you personally?

TP: No, I didn't necessarily feel not safe, it just opened my eyes to the part of anything can happen anywhere. Maybe I had a little bit of I was naive. In the community in the years growing up thinking that everybody kinda had the same household I did because in elementary school, that was true when I went to that private school. But when I got to high school, things did change. Then you saw four kids with parents that were divorced and Southwest, which was a humongous school. I didn't necessarily feel more worried, or anything like that, it just opened my eyes, and I was like, okay, things aren't always rosy.

SO: We kind of talked about the teachers growing up, what kind of subjects were your favorite growing up?

TP: Hated language and writing and it showed it on my report card. Hated it. Hated it. Hated it. One of my favorites was a media class we took and we used to, she taught us how to pick apart movies and how they put the special effects in. Now, remember, we didn't have technology like we have it today, so we're talking reels and things like that. I really enjoyed that. To tell you the truth, I was not the best student in high school. So how I ever managed to just. 00:24:00When I went to college, of course, it's a whole different entity in itself, but high school was not the best for me because, coming from a private school, I felt everything was a lot harder. I did not enjoy the language arts class, but I enjoyed math. Algebra. I hated geometry. Algebra, I shined, over 100% in there, but in geometry, I ended up, and this is my junior year because I didn't want to take, I just wanted to take the minimum because I wasn't quite sure what I was going to do. I went in almost every single day for lunch with my geometry teacher and I passed with a C- just because of that because I didn't understand the concept. I'd put it on the test and I'd forget it because I was just like 00:25:00ugh. Social studies was okay. Hated science. Still dislike science to this day. Loved phy ed, of course, I was very athletic. That was just what I liked to be in. The four cores, I guess you could say, the language-- But I will say this, it's funny because my senior year I took this writing class and it was just creative writing and it was just you could write stories. But I loved that. But when it came down to writing a specific type of paper or something like that, I always mixed my present and past tense together, and sometimes I still do today, 00:26:00so I always have to have a friend, a fellow teacher, proof read it, like if I'm sending a letter to a teacher, or something like that. It's funny because it's like, now that I'm a teacher, I teach math. I taught science for a little bit. I have never taught language and writing because I'm a special ed and we have to cover all the cores and so, I've always said nope, not teaching writing language. My fellow teachers would always take it for me because I just didn't enjoy it and I thought if I didn't enjoy it, I knew somehow, not willing, or not knowing, I may instill that upon them. But I loved reading, I loved reading books, so I read aloud to the students. But, oh, that writing business is what hurts.

SO: I know what you mean about the whole geometry thing. I was terrible at geometry.

TP: Yes! But, algebra, I kick butt! But I teach math now and it's funny because 00:27:00once you teach it, you understand it better.

SO: I know that you said that college was emphasized. What about high school? How was high school pushed on you or treated?

TP: It wasn't really. It was just go to high school, you go to school every day and that's what you do. It's that unspoken routine. You didn't, like today, when I look back to today's kids, some of them just drop out because they want to. That just wasn't a choice. Did we have kids that maybe dropped out? I'm sure. I don't know of them. I tried to look back at my year book and there was three 00:28:00kids that were not pictured that I remember dropped out. But other than that, it just... You went to grade school, you went to middle school, you went to high school. That was just the way life went. And then, like I said, with my sister's generation, it was primarily work. Although a lot of people did go to college, it was primarily you're done, now you're eighteen, you're out of the house. When my middle sister came along, it's like college was starting to become a little bit more important. My parents, they pushed it on her a little bit, but it was her choice. But when I came along, it was college, college, college, college. You need to go to college to do something with your life. Not that my parents, they would have been disappointed if I didn't go to college, they wouldn't have 00:29:00been "Tonya, get out" or whatever or stuff like that. But my mom and dad, I just remember them, when I got that Oshkosh letter, and I have it in here, and I got accepted, it was just like, it was a dream for everybody. Because I was actually on my dad's side, I was the first to ever graduate from college. All my cousins, my aunts and uncles, anybody.

SO: What were your goals and aspirations growing up?

TP: I wanted to be a veterinarian, like every kid wants to be until you find out you have to give the dog shots and then I no longer wanted to be a veterinarian. I did have the goal of going to college. But when you're young like that, you're 00:30:00just like "oh yeah, I'm going to college." You really have no idea truly what college is. When I got into high school, I still wanted to go to college but my grades were not the best. My freshmen year, my grades were the best. I very much struggled with private to a public school so freshman year, my grades were not good. I struggled the rest of my high school career, trying to get my grades back up so I could make it into college. I wanted to go to college. I did. I wanted to go to college. I babysat so much, especially to the lady that was across the street from us, she was a teacher. Maybe that's where I got the idea 00:31:00to become a teacher pushing me to where I wanted to go. But my ultimate goal was to go college but I didn't know if that was going to happen because my grades were so low.

SO: Was there any goals that your parents wanted to see of you?

TP: Well the goal for my parents was to go to college, too. They wanted me to be successful. They wanted me to understand that everything took hard work and that I worked at [Cook?] Foods which is no longer around except for Madison, I think there is one store, but I worked there for almost eleven years because I came back from college at certain times and work and stuff like that. My parents 00:32:00always wanted me to know that it took hard work and if you put in the hard work, it would pay off in the end. But they also wanted me to understand that I needed to have fun. So, because if I became too serious then there was no balance and if I was too fun, then that hard work that I was looking for, there was no equal balance and then I may fail at what I was doing because I was worried about having too much fun. And, yes, all the nicknames for Oshkosh when I was going there. I think that's what my parents definitely wanted for me.

SO: That's really cool. So you mentioned what your parents said of college, what did your friends, and the community, and teachers let you know of college?

TP: Teachers in high school definitely pushed college. Like I said, it was that 00:33:00turn. In '92 when I graduated high school, 90% of my classmates were going to college whether it be the four year or tech. There was maybe 10% that did not on with schooling and it's funny because you look back on it and that 10% were, and I don't mean to stereotype or categorize, but yet, I look back and at that time that 10% that didn't really want to go on to college were the ones that went across the street and they were the heavy smokers and they were known as the hard rock crew. They were great people, I was friends with some of them but they would skip or skip classes and they had no desire. Some of them were lucky that 00:34:00they even graduated but that's kind of the crew that I think about. But the push was college.

SO: So what interested you specifically about college?

TP: Well, I wanted to be a teacher, so I knew that right off the bat. I knew to be a teacher, I had to go to college and Oshkosh, being the baby of the family, Oshkosh wasn't too far away but it wasn't super close where I still had to hang on, not hang on, but cling to my parents a little bit because I definitely was the baby of the family and treated as the baby of the family. My sisters would tell you today that I was treated 100% differently than they were treated, but 00:35:00then I say you guys paved the road for me, because my sisters always you never got in trouble. No I didn't because everything you guys did was six times worse than what I ever did. I knew that I needed to go to school and Oshkosh offered everything that I wanted and the girl that I played basketball with in high school, we were friends, but we were not super friends. We'd hang out, and sometimes we wouldn't and I think that's why it worked for us in college being roommates is because we were not super great friends in high school. But in college we grew so close and we were so much alike because we had such a laid back personality. Now, don't get me wrong, there were times I irritated her and she irritated me, absolutely, but, because a lot of times they say don't room with a friend because it could ruin your friendship, and I've seen that happen. 00:36:00But, for us, we just decided, I keep putting off your questions.

SO: No! It's really interesting!

TP: Okay. So, for us, it was just go with the flow. If something happens, we'd just be like "oh, well! Can't change it now." It worked well for us.

SO: So you mentioned how Oshkosh offered everything for you teaching career. Was there any other colleges that you considered looking at?

TP: Nope. I didn't. No. Oshkosh was the only one. My roommate received a scholarship to play volleyball there and we had, throughout playing basketball together, we had kind of talked about, maybe our junior or senior year kind of started talking about colleges. One day we were just kind of talking, we should be roommates and kind of just went from there. But I knew Oshkosh was a teaching 00:37:00school and she's like a sister to me, so my parents best friends, their kids, we grew up together, my parents grew up together, she went to Oshkosh for teaching and so she was the one who said "hey Tonya, you should go to Oshkosh. It's great and you'd meet a lot of really great people there." It's small but it's big. And the greatest thing about Oshkosh is that, the location. I did not want to go to GB because GB at that time was known as the boondocks up there. If you didn't have a car, you could get nowhere. Oshkosh was really, nope that was it.

SO: What did you know about Oshkosh when you were going in, other than being a teaching school?

TP: Oshkosh was a party school. Lots of nicknames. People would call it UW Zero, 00:38:00Sloshkosh, oh, what are some other nicknames that Oshkosh had? I had... Call it what you want. What was the question again? Sorry.

SO: What did you know about Oshkosh?

TP: Okay, so, party school, teaching school. I knew that they had a really good nursing program. Other than that, seriously, I did not know that much. I did go to basketball camp there and I did like it. That was perfect. That's really all I know. I knew that it was big, but I knew it was small enough for me. Like Madison, I wouldn't have had the grades to get into Madison, but Madison was its 00:39:00own community, and I knew that I would get lost in something that that.

SO: Can you describe how move-in day was like that first year?

TP: Sure. Moving day. Oh, what a nightmare. You've got... So I moved in to Fletcher and I was on the third floor and we tried to get there early but that was everybody's idea was to get there early. Cheri was already moved in because she had volleyball so she already had her stuff up and whatever. It was madness. Craziness. But it was funny. We laughed a lot. People would be trying to stuff these big chairs and trying to get up to whatever floor it was and it was 00:40:00maddening but it was funny. I am very thankful that I did not live in the Scott Halls which had how many umpteen floors. It was a chaotic mess but you just worked your way through it because you had to. My parents came in and we made my bed and all that kind of stuff. We set some of the stuff up and then my parents left and they took me out to eat. I think that's kind of the general ritual, per se, and then, they left and, of course, I cried. And even though I knew they were only an hour away, but I think it was just

the concept of your parents leaving and you had to grow up and it was time for you to start advocating for yourself, not that I didn't do it before, but it's a 00:41:00different kind of advocating once you're in college and there's no parent around. So, I mean, if you're sick, you had to decide how sick am I. Am I sick enough to go to and I can't remember the place where we used to be able to go.

SO: Well, the student health is called Radford.

TP: Yes! Yes. Yes! We used to be able to go there for free. Is that still?

SO: Well, you pay for it with tuition.

TP: Okay. We could go there for free. Maybe five bucks, I don't know. So, you had to decide and you had to decide if you were going to go to class or not. You decided whether or not you were going to go party. The one thing that my parents did say to me, as a rule, the first year of college I had to pay for all by myself because if I decided to screw off and screw up, it was my money and I lost my own money and if I stuck with it and I did well, then my parents picked 00:42:00it up after that. In my whole first year, it was on me. Not that they didn't help me out, not that they didn't buy me stuff so I could have food and stuff in there because the food was so godawful there! Oh!

SO: It hasn't changed! It hasn't changed.

TP: I ended by the end of the year I wasn't even eating in there it was so terrible!

SO: I promise you it has not changed.

TP: Your mom is laughing, so that makes me laugh. It was, I forgot where I am, I forgot what I was saying.

SO: Just kind of first year in general like how your parents were paying or you were paying.

TP: Yeah! So, yes! That was the rule. My sister had to do the same and then after that they would pick up my tuition. They did that for me and, but I still 00:43:00worked. I paid for my own books and stuff like that. When I moved out, then, my parents helped pay a little bit but then I had to pay more and by the end of college, I had taken out loans to finish off my college career. Now at Oshkosh, the funny thing is, which I am very thankful that they did this. At the time I was like "oh many, I can't believe they do this." But when I was graduating, Oshkosh required us to take nine credits of grad, nine grad credits. That was just part of the criteria and I was so mad because I was just like "oh my gosh, why do we have to do this," but I was so thankful because, after I got my teaching job, and I waited two years and I went to go get my master's, which is something that teachers definitely should do not only for the information but 00:44:00it's a huge pay raise, I already had those nine credits under my belt. So then I was like "okay thank you." That's the one thing, but... Then my roommate used to work on campus and she'd work. What's that center place called where they have the food court?

SO: Reeve?

TP: What was it?

SO: Reeve. It's like the memorial union.

TP: Yeah!

SO: That has the food court. I don't know exactly what the food court is called. I think it's just called the marketplace. And then there's Blackhawk, which is the commons area.

TP: They used to, across from Fletcher, here's Taylor, and here's Fletcher, and then you'd go down a little bit and there'd be a community place where you could sit and study or you could do and then the library was right here.

SO: That would be Reeve. That's right next to Fletcher.

TP: Yeah! Yes! My roommate worked at the pizza joint there, so then I'd go in 00:45:00there sometimes and she'd just get me pizza or something like that. That was fun.

SO: What did Oshkosh do to help you transition into college life? Did they have anything set?

TP: They had lots of things to do. I'm not sure I necessarily partook in anything. You know, I had my roommate there, and she had been there already because she was in volleyball. We hung out with all the volleyball girls, so we kind of knew. It was fun because, at the bottom of Fletcher, they had the pool table and the food where you could get on a Friday night. But otherwise, when I went to Oshkosh, majority of people went home every weekend. Not of my friends, per se, but when I lived in the dorms, I came home more than when I lived in my house per se because I really honestly hated the dorms. I hated it when I had to 00:46:00go in there and shower and there was no hot water. I hated the food. I loved the dorm, my dorm, per se, which with my roommate and then, across the hall, the two girls we were best friends with and we ended up rooming with them in the house. I loved that. I was on a coed floor, so in wintertime, the guys stink and they don't ever shower and they don't do their laundry. Literally, their doors could be closed but when you in, when the heat was on so no windows were open. There was this... So here's the girls section and then you go through a little walkway and then you get into the guy's. Oh my god, the stench! It was so unbelievably disgusting! We would try and walk as fast as we could to get past the guys section because it stunk that bad. I mean, all of us would literally be like 00:47:00[gasp] and we'd run. It was so bad! Oh, they stunk! They stunk! Yeah.

SO: Yeah, when my roommate and I lived in Fletcher last year, how it was, it was split. Half of it was girls and half of it was guys. And we were the last room on the girls section so we were right next to the guys.

TP: Second to last.

SO: There was one time where I went home and my roommate played a video and her mirror was literally vibrating from the music next door.

TP: Oh, I believe that!

SO: That was fun!

TP: Yeah!

SO: What were your first impressions of Oshkosh moving in?

TP: I loved it. I did. We walked around and it just like... Like I said, it was small enough that you just... You know, the people that I hung out with, everybody 00:48:00kind of knew everybody, per se. It was just so interesting because my first class ever that I had at 8:00 in the morning was in a lecture hall. I had never experienced that before, so you had three hundred students in and I was like "oh my gosh!" As time went on, people would skip all the time and just come back for test day or whatever it may be. I had decided when I went to Oshkosh, I knew what it was about the partying, and I made the choice that I would balance academics and partying. Believe me, I went to underage party, underage drinking 00:49:00parties, I went to houses where there was parties and stuff like that. But I didn't let that control me. During the week, I would study, and even on the weekends, I would study, but like I said, when I lived in the dorms, a lot of times I came home. I would work because I wanted that extra money and then I never had to pay to do my laundry because my mom would do it for me. Then we'd go shopping and they'd get me some snacks and stuff to bring back. I really feel bad because I probably didn't utilize my meal plan as I should have. It was a lot of wasted money but I could not take the food, it was so gross. I loved it and I loved the people, I loved the teachers. It was a good fit for me.

SO: Are there any classes that you took throughout your college experience that made a really big impact on you?

TP: Well, I'm not sure impact, but there is one that really stuck out. That is, for phy-ed, you have to get your phy-ed credits or whatever, and I had, so I decided to take dance with... Okay, so at that time we were in our house. My roommate or my two roommates who lived across the hall from me, her name was Steph. Her and Steph. Steph and I decided that we were going to take the dance class as our phy-ed and it was so fun! You learned everything from the foxtrot, it was the foxtrot, you know, like all of those, I can't think of..!

SO: Like ballroom dances?

TP: Yep! Ballroom dances and then jitterbug was a big one. Okay. So and I cannot remember her name for goodness sakes! But she would have a band come in. Oh, we 00:51:00learned to square dance and stuff like that. So, we had to go to this big shindig per se on a Thursday night or something of course to pass no matter what our grade was. So we went and of course we had decided that we were going to have some beverages prior. So we went to this dance and then I made sure my professor saw me and then we had to go and do all these different dances. She just walked around. She was really cool. But my roommate, we could bring anybody we wanted, and so we brought our two roommates with us of course. Cheri, my roommate, we stuck together the entire time. She chose to go up to my professor and speak to her. And she was not feeling, I mean she was feeling fine, I should 00:52:00say. I was like "oh my gosh, please, I don't know her, I don't know her." And she's like "there's my roommate over there!" But that was fun. Then there was one other class. I have a health minor. I think her name was Mrs. White. I can't remember. I think so. She made us, and this was more of an upperclassmen class, so everybody could drive. By the time, because I went to college with no car, and then when I was 21, my parents finally bought me this beater car because I needed it because then I was starting to do practicums and stuff like that so I'd need to drive to different. We had to drive out to her house and, each week, and there was a group of us and everybody had to make a healthy meal for the class. Oh my god, it was so fun! It was just interesting because you got to see 00:53:00a professor on a personal level versus your professor. It was so enjoyable. And people you really didn't talk to in class you talked to and stuff like that. The classes were not huge unless you were in the lecture hall for your general electives. General electives were always huge, but then as you started to confine yourself into what your major was they were not big classes.

SO: We're actually not required to take a phy-ed now. Unless I'm missing something. But, as far as I'm aware, we're not required to.

TP: We had to take two. Wow. That's interesting! Especially with... That's very interesting that you say that especially with, number one, with President Obama and Michelle Obama and in the health care, not the health care, but her get healthy. You know how she has implemented food, like the criteria throughout all the schools and stuff and getting in all your vegetables and all that and 00:54:00exercising. So that is very interesting to me! But, yeah, I had to take two credits.

SO: I just noticed that and had to point that out because I know that was a big difference. You mentioned gen-eds being big lecture pits, I can clarify that too. Do you remember anything else about general education that you took?

TP: I hated them to tell you the truth. Because, you know why? Oh! They made you... They were so boring! I understand the reason behind it but I had to take ethics. Plato and it was memorization. I got nothing out of that class. What else did I take as a big gen-ed? The teacher would just sit down and you have three hundred students and be like "okay!" Sociology was one of them. So she'd just put it on the board, she'd write the notes. Here you go. This is your 00:55:00assignment, this is when your test is. They lay out when the tests were. You literally go nothing. I don't feel... I got nothing out of it. I didn't like it and if I didn't like it, I didn't pay attention. Then if I had friends in there because you'd sit there and of course people would talk. There's three hundred people in there. In that trying not to disrespect the teacher or the professor, you'd whisper or something like that. I hated my gen-eds! It wasn't until I was accepted into the school of education... Those were the best because it was what I wanted to do. And I hated science and I had to take physical science and chemistry. You had to take those both. Then I had to take two languages. I will admit this though. For science, I had to take chemistry and I hated it and it just did not click for me. Nothing against this professor, this professor was 00:56:00from Pakistan, which, totally fine, but I had a really hard time understanding him as did the class. So the class as a whole. I actually got a D in there and I did not retake it. I would go into his office all the time and I will never forget, I would go to his office and be like "can you help me? I need to get my grade up." And I couldn't understand him but I still went in there and all I could smell was cigarette and peanuts. I can still smell it to this day. I knew I had to at least try so that he knew I was trying because I'm not sure I would have passed that class. But I got a D and I did not care. I was like "see ya." Thankfully, by the time I ended up graduating, I had a 3.9, so it didn't really matter in the end. Oh, I hated that class. And, I have to tell you one other 00:57:00thing! My roommate, Cheri, was an art education major and I had to take two art classes. Well I suck, so then she would self texture all my projects for me. I mean that's just life. That's just the way it went. I could do some of it. Sometimes she'd look at it. She'd be like "what are you doing?" And I be like "can you please just finish this house for me?!" And she'd finish it for me. We did those kinds of things for each other.

SO: What made you decide on teaching as your major?

TP: I babysat so much and I really had a love for kids that, I don't know, it just stuck with me. We used to play school when we were young and I was always the teacher and my neighbor, he was the student. I did not get into education 00:58:00for the summers off and all that bologna, sausage that everybody always wants to say and I don't have my summers off because I choose to teach in the summer. I just really had a love for kids. I babysat a lot when I was younger. That kind of stuck with me.

SO: What kinds of classes did you have to take for your major?

TP: Yes! I had, I was going for regular education, 1 - 6, and I decided to add a special education component onto it. And the reason why I chose EBD, it stands for Emotional Behavioral Difficulty, students with behavioral emotional difficulties. For practicum we had to do at Oshkosh, we had to go somewhere that was out of, it was in education, but it was out of the regular ed setting. I 00:59:00went to what's called [Rotherwood?] school, which is inside the Oshkosh mental health facility and I had to spend three weeks there. At that time, the kids lived there and they were the severe, the severe. There were two teachers in there, Nick and I can't think of the other one. I loved them so much and we laughed so hard, so I had to help those kids and, for some reason, from that day forward, when I was done with that practicum, I had decided I added on. So I had a double major, I had special ed EBD, regular ed 1 - 6, and then Oshkosh still required at that time, even though I had a double major, I had to have a minor. So that's where I came up with the health part of it. I thought that's interesting to me and I was really into health and eating right, eating well, 01:00:00and exercise all the time. No, I'm kidding. So I chose health as a minor and I can teach health and that's what I do in the summers. I teach the health course. That's the one thing that I think people have told me that's changed at Oshkosh is you don't have to have that minor with a double major.

SO: We don't need a minor.

TP: At all? Okay, so it was mandated and even if you had a major, you still had to have a minor. That was still mandated at that time. But if you had a double major, then a lot of times you didn't have to have a minor, but they still made me have it at the time. I chose health, which I loved and it was fun. What was I saying? I get off on these tangents and then I'm like "oh my gosh!" What was the question?

SO: The question was what kinds of classes did you have to take?

TP: I will tell you, and being a teacher now, I have had many student teachers and I have been asked to teach at a couple colleges as an ad hoc professor for behavior. The biggest thing that I think teachers need these days, who only go for regular education, is they need to go out and see what it's like in the schools now because it isn't how what I was in school or your mom or even my nephew who's twenty-five. Schools, the dynamics, have changed tremendously and there's a lot of behavior in the school systems now. We have a lot of poverty. We did not have that growing up. The percentage of schools that are on free and reduced lunch, I think back, I think it was probably around ten percent, now 01:02:00it's like sixty-eight percent, so it's the majority. And, again, the whole family dynamics: non-divorced parents and now it's like, what, the majority are divorced versus together. I think that's why I kind of chose this area to live in too. Just to say, it's close knit and I feel that my kids are safe here. I totally got off on that, but anyway... Other classes that I had to take were, we had to do sophomore practicums were out. We would go with another teacher or student who wanted to be a teacher and we'd have to teach a big lesson. Those are the classes where I learned the most. When I sat in the classes and they just talked to me that really did nothing for me and that's something I'd would like to see colleges change is have more experience in the classroom, per se, 01:03:00versus the lecture professor-taught classes.

SO: What did your advisor do to help you with directing you to classes?

TP: My advisor was awesome. I definitely used my advisor a lot because she paved the way, I wish, I couldn't find the sheet, but she paved the way of exactly what classes I had to take in order to take this next class, this next class, and she paved it all the way to graduation. That's what she did for me and if I went in there and I was having issues or with a class, like I couldn't get in or 01:04:00something and it was going to hold me back, she would help me.

SO: About how many hours a week did you spend studying for school outside of your regular classes?

TP: I would probably say, maybe three hours a night Monday through Thursday. So maybe twelve hours out. If I had a test, that was different. I spend a lot of time studying for tests. But a lot of the things, like my general-eds, it was, a lot of it was just lecture. You really didn't get assigned homework and it was test. So, for instance, when I took my ethics class, which I felt totally pointless, I took a semester exam at the end of the semester and that was my only grade.

SO: Oh, wow!

TP: So you went in there and basically whatever you got on the test, that's what 01:05:00you got for your grade. That was stressful. That was hard. Twelvish, if I had homework or something to do. If I have a lecture class and I didn't have a test for two weeks, I didn't look at the information. I went to go hang out with my friends or something like that. Tests, specifically, I really buckled down. We used to have this room out to the side in Fletcher, nobody ever used it, it was so quiet so then I'd go in there and study. Rarely used to library because when we went to the library, then you see somebody you know and you're trying to study, but they're want to talk to you about something, and you're just like "ugh!" My roommate, met her now husband down there, so a lot of times, if she was hanging out with her boyfriend, then I would just have the dorm to myself, 01:06:00so I'd study in there.

SO: What was your stress relief from studying and school?

TP: I took up running a little bit. Cheri, who is super tall, her and I would go running at night and it's my two steps to her one step. We used to laugh about that. We'd literally go a mile and I'd be like "ugh! Let's stop!" And she's like "are you kidding me?" And, also, we had the exercise room at the bottom of Fletcher. I used that a lot and that was great. And then, of course, we'd party a little bit in our dorm room. Nothing, like we never had a "party" in there, but it was my roommates or my roommate and I and maybe the girls across the hall, they'd come over. We'd watch a movie. 90210 was huge during that time. I 01:07:00even have a picture of it with a bunch of us girls in our dorm room. You just packed in wherever you could be. So 90210 was a fun night and we'd snacks and stuff like this. And there is something Cheri and I made up and it was called "carpet picnic." When we moved into the dorm, the carpet's gross, we brought our own carpet and so we would have carpet picnics. We would put newspaper down. I even have a picture of it because we did it at our house. And then we'd made something; we love taco dip or taco salad dip, whatever that was. That was our carpet picnic, so we'd have that and we'd just watch TV or something like that.

SO: Where did you spend most of your time on campus?

TP: Dorm because that's where all my friends were or Reeve hall. There because 01:08:00that was fun just to hang out at the tables. Then when we had to do group things, we'd all go to that, to the Reeve. I feel like it was called something else and I can't think, but I don't know. But that's, I'd probably say that the dorm was the most... Well Fletcher Hall had a lot to offer. They had the quiet room, they had the exercise room, they had the room where you could go have fun, they had everything that I needed. In winter, we barely ventured, but when the weather was nice, we'd go outside and stuff like that. Sit on the lawn, watch people.

SO: Can you kind of talk about the student life on campus like what it was composed of and just students in general?

TP: Sure. Yeah. There was an array of students. When I first started at Oshkosh, 01:09:00believe it or not, we did not have a huge diverse population. It was still predominantly white. That's kind of interesting. Let's see… what else? Student life? If you were in sports, you were always at what's that sports place called again?

SO: Kolf?

TP: Yeah! Kolf. Well, there's another one, wasn't there? It was right across the street from where the Radford Hall was. Oh, I saw it in the news too.

SO: Well the Kolf would be more for gymnastics and basketball and...

TP: Is that way off because I think that's where I had all my health classes. Is that by the tract or the football field or something like that?

SO: Well the football field would be across the river.

TP: Oh, yeah. Okay.

SO: And then there's the gym, like the Student Rec and Wellness. That's the one right next to the river.

TP: Okay. Yeah. That's the one I'm talking about. Okay, but there used to be another one and it used to be kind of in the center of campus and I can't think of what it was called but people would play intramural sports, so we'd go and do that. We'd go watch. When I got into my specialty classes, education, it changed because then you had people who didn't live on campus coming into there. We would have adults coming back for their certification or stuff like that. It wasn't like it was before where it was just being your college students living on campus. That changed. But like I said, tons of people went home on the 01:11:00weekends. That's why Thursday night was the party night. People were just always on the go. I felt very safe there. I will say this. So my dad, before we went to college, he purchased the Path, it was called. And at that time, you, I think I still have it and I tried to find it because I wanted to show you because I have it somewhere. But you clip it onto your pants and then you have the string. So you wrap it around your hand and a lot of times, we had night class, so that was 5 - 9. Well, you're coming home and it's dark and you're walking by yourself. We all used it. Everybody, all my roommates, we all used it when we had night class. What happens is if someone should attack you or something like that, your 01:12:00hand would whip out this pin and it was such a piercing siren. Oh my gosh it was godawful, but thankfully none of us ever had to use it.

SO: Did you have a SafeWalks, they called it?

TP: No.

SO: Okay. So what that is is, essentially, the University Police, you could just call them up and be like "hey, I'm at this place, could you just come and walk with me to wherever?" They would just... I think they would go a block off campus, within that range, and you could just call them, they would come to wherever you are, and they would just walk back with you back into campus just so you felt comfortable.

TP: Yeah. Nope. We didn't have any of that. One thing, though, is when Cheri would have to go, when she took a pottery class or something and it have to go in the kiln all day or something so then she'd have to go back late at night and 01:13:00that would sometime be at 9 or 10 o'clock at night and if nobody else... So I'd go with her. We did that kind of stuff for each other like if we had to go somewhere late and even to work on something, usually someone would go with. So I always went with her and we would drive to the art, wherever the art place is. That's the other thing I liked about Oshkosh is because people, they got it. You don't walk alone and you don't go and put yourself in a situation. We had university police, but they were, I never saw them.

SO: What were your impressions of the community of Oshkosh?

TP: When I first got there, I really didn't venture off campus, so I didn't really know, but when I moved into my house and I got a car, I liked it. The 01:14:00university is very much intermingled with the schools and a lot of services that are provided in there so I got to see a lot, which was cool. I actually ended up with a job and I babysat for a plastic surgeon, so they would go away. It's funny because if they would go away for a week, they would get a babysitter for the babysitter. I was the babysitter and they would have to get a babysitter for me because then when I had to go to classes and the boys needed to go places or stuff like that, they would get somebody else to fill in for me, but I was the primary. So when I had to take the boys to all of these different things, I got to really see what Oshkosh was about. That, I thought, was cool because I got to see. When you're in college, you don't sit there and look around and see like "oh my gosh, there's a karate" or there's this or I'd bring them to these 01:15:00tournaments or stuff like that. I got to really experience Oshkosh when I babysat for this family. I had this junker little car, so they'd let me drive their car. Oh that was fun and they had a beautiful, big home. If they would leave on the weekend, they would be like "oh come over, you can stay and use the hot tub." They had a hot tub outside, a hot tub inside, they had a huge house. I never did, I just didn't feel comfortable that way. They were so accommodating and it was cool. That is how I got to learn what Oshkosh was all, per se, about.

SO: Did you date or have any relationships while you were in college?

TP: Yep, I was actually dating my husband. I was dating Dean. So Dean would come 01:16:00down once in a great while. I did meet this one guy. I dated Dean throughout college, kind of on and off. There was this one guy that I had met, he was pretty cool and I liked him a lot, but in the end, we kind of were going in different directions. Is the opportunity there? Yeah. My roommate, she met her husband there. There's probably four other people, four other of my friends who met their husbands there and are still married.

SO: Where there any major campus issues while you were there?

TP: Yes. When I lived, now this is when I lived off campus, but, again, I lived right across the street from Halsey, there was a time when we had a stalker. Not 01:17:00me, but the campus. Then a peeping Tom, we had a peeping Tom. Then there was also, unfortunately, a rape that happened. So then security was really enforced. When we had night classes, usually we would go and meet up with our roommates and we'd all walk back together. If there was someone walking, we'd all walk with them. And usually, if you lived further off campus, they'd drive in for night classes but, because we lived so close, we walked everywhere. We barely used our cars. For me to get my car at 21, it wasn't a big deal until I had to start going out into the community and doing my stuff.

SO: How did you feel when you finished college?

TP: Oh man I was ready. My last semester before I student taught, I actually lived at home. I only had three classes left and then the people I babysat for, they would let me... So I would go Tuesday, Wednesday, Thursday so they just let me stay overnight Tuesday night, Wednesday night, then I would just babysit for them for free. They would out for dinner or something like that. So they let me stay there so I didn't have to travel back and forth so much and that was in the fall. I student taught in the spring, which I didn't actually student taught in Green Bay, so I had to pay the extra $500 to be able to student teach in Green Bay and for the professor to come here so that I didn't have to pack because I didn't want to pay rent anymore. It was awesome, though. I was ready to get out 01:19:00there. Usually when you get towards the end of it, it's like "oh my gosh. Just get... I need a job, I need money, I want to have nice things." You're ready, you're ready to go, but I was also very, I had a lot of pride, but I was humble. I was excited I was the first one to graduate. It was huge honor. I was glad that I finished [unclear].

SO: With graduating, what were you hoping to work, where was your dream job?

TP: I did not have a dream job to tell you the truth. I just wanted a job. EBD 01:20:00opened the doors for me. It was much harder to get a regular ed position than it was a special ed position because there was, at that time, it fluctuates in education. When I graduated, there would be 30, 35 people who would go for one position but in special ed EBD, there'd be nobody going for a position. When I did my student teaching at Washington Middle School in Green Bay, my cooperating teacher actually called over to Edison because they were looking for someone and she said "you want this girl." My interview for Green Bay public schools lasted probably ten minutes because she had done, she said "listen, you want this girl. She managing the class very well." I really just wanted a job. When you're 01:21:00starting out, you just want a job. You gotta start paying loans. I moved back with my parents and I didn't have to pay rent or anything like that.

SO: How did college prepare you for life after it?

TP: College is a stepping stone of independency. You go from high school where you are... Well you go elementary, where you are dependent on your parents. High school you are somewhat, moreso dependent on you parents, but you are starting to get that independence. You go to college, and, yeah, your parents are still there, they're still your backbone a little bit, but it's 99% you and you making the choices and whatever choice you make and what comes after it is you. So when you get into the real world, that is what it's about. It's about making 01:22:00decisions and if you make a good decision, what comes next, and if you make a poor decision, what happens or how do you fix it. You learn on your own and that is definitely something I took from college and I grasped.

SO: Have you had much involvement with UWO after graduating?

TP: No. I am on the alumni whatever thingamabob. But, really, to tell you the truth, no. We'll go back if we are going to the Oshkosh outlet mall, we'll take a drive through campus just to see what's changed and I always just look at where I lived because that's where I had the most fun and just the most memories and there's just something about being in a home and it's like your own 01:23:00bathroom. You can go to the bathroom. You don't have five other people going to the bathroom at the same time. You can take a shower when you want and there was warm water and you can get ready and if you want to take a nap, you can take a nap without people going by and screaming. I will never forget living in the dorms and somebody sprayed skunk spray. They went all along the hallways on the girl's side. I'm sure it was the guys. I hated it.

SO: Do you emphasize going to college to your children?

TP: Oh yes. Jenna's 17 right now so she's preparing. She already has one acceptance letter. She's just waiting for her other--She's waiting to see if she got into the other three that she applied for. UWM came back within a week and 01:24:00accepted her. Her biggest is she wants to go to Marquette in Milwaukee. That's always kind of been the plan. I have probably talked up college since she's been born and able to understand it and the reason why is I want her to do something that she has a passion for but I also wanted her to understand that college life is so fun and so different because you're semi-independent but you're not 100% on your own. There is always somebody there that you can fall back on. But just the experiences and you're going to work for the rest of your life so I want Jenna to experience all the different things college has to offer and I want her to do something she's passionate about versus just going out and getting a job 01:25:00and then hating it and working then being miserable and then all of a sudden deciding ten years later "I should have gone to college." I hear that from some people a lot. "I should have gone to college."

SO: What advice would you give to current college students today?

TP: My advice is: enjoy it. Don't rush it. At the end, I started... I wanted to be out so bad so I was taking summer school, I was taking interim classes, I was taking full loads because I thought "I just want to be out in the real world. I wanna I wanna I wanna I wanna." And now, I would give anything to go back because I think about those nights of carpet picnics and all the days if we had a night class, we'd take a nap and just learning and having fun and being around 01:26:00friends and just... Again not dedicating your life to working because you will never get that back when you're done and so college life, I think, is something very precious. That's probably why I want it so bad for my kids. Brennan is nine so he's got a ways to go, but... If Jenna came to me or Brennan came to me and they just said "mom, college just is not for me" I am okay with that because, technically, it's her life, it's his life but I'm gonna try my hardest as they were growing up to instill those ideas and those concepts that college really is the way to go. I can see Jenna, she's almost 18, and she's, she is ready. She 01:27:00already has that senioritis thing going on. She's ready to start filtering out. I have raised her to be very independent as well. She's ready and I think she's gonna do great. The funny thing is that she sees... So I went to college right after high school where Dean, my husband now, he did not. So he just went out to the workforce and then when I graduated and we had Jenna, she was... So he was 29, he went back to school and he got his mechanics certificate through TC and, because I had told him he's really a gifted mechanic, he really knows. People call from all over and I said to him, I said "go back to college and get paid 01:28:00what you deserved to get paid." For him, that was great. For him, college was not what he wanted to do. That's okay. But I want my children to go to college?

SO: Is there anything else you'd like to add that we haven't talked about yet?

TP: Yes. For underclassman, they used to offer a dance. I always want to say it was called night class but I can't remember it, but you could go there and it was for the underage kids and it was a dance every weekend. We used to go and do that of course, at times, we would have beverages and things like that. I was 01:29:00underage, yes, did I drink under age, yes, but I also kept it in perspective. Oshkosh, what people call it Sloshkosh, it's because they hear the people who drop out because all of a sudden you have these freshman kids who come, they live in Scott Hall which is party central, or it was when I was there. The Scott Halls were the ultimate worst for studying but they were the best for partying. If you didn't want to study, you lived in Scott Hall. Fletcher was very quiet, Taylor was very, very, very quiet. Is there other ones?

SO: Well, there's Horizon now, which is the upperclassman suite-style dorm.

TP: [unclear]

SO: There's Gruenhagen which is a dorm and a conference center, so it can function as a hotel as well.

TP: Yeah. Okay. That sounds familiar but it wasn't used for that purpose. I 01:30:00don't know.

SO: Then there's Evans.

TP: Oh, yeah, Evans was there!

SO: Then Webster.

TP: Oh, yep. That was there.

SO: Stewart, Donner--

TP: I just know that back then, that back when I went to school, the Scott Halls were just the party, party, party, party, party. Fletcher was extremely quiet. Taylor was even more quiet. And I guess I kind of was around those dorms primarily. When I turned of age and we could hit the bars, Molly McGuire's was the big one to hit. We would walk, we walked everywhere, even when we had cars, we walked, especially if were to go drinking or something like that. Kelly's was 01:31:00the bar that you went to and you became upperclassmen the day that you took, so the last day of the semester, you would take your last exam and then you'd go over to Kelly's and there'd be Bloody Mary's and stuff that you could buy and beer and stuff. So they would start partying, they would start serving beer there at 8:00 because that's when they could. I remember my last day ever taking a final, so I remember going there and that was super fun. We did get yelled at by our RA, at that time, they were called RAs, for being too loud. We had the music playing too loud so she had to come and yell at us once. I pretty much 01:32:00know that she knew that we were drinking but we weren't to the point of intoxicated or anything like that so she just let us go. Halloween was the ultimate down there. That was super fun. When I lived with my roommate, I was going home for the weekend, she was staying and her parents were coming to meet her now husband and I remember looking out the window and Cheri's mom coming up with her brother and I'm like "your mom and brother are here." Then I remember jumping out because I was going to surprise her, and, unfortunately, at that time, she was coming to say that her dad had passed. Yeah. So that was a really hard time. I remembered that. I also remember that I used to get so sick 01:33:00because, in spring, or anytime finals were coming and you didn't get sleep or something like that, I just got sick and I remember, I had one professor in particular, who was just horrid and he's like "if you don't come, you're gonna get docked down a grade." So I came. I went and I couldn't, I had such a horrid cough and cold and I sat there. I ended up leaving halfway through, going and sitting in the bathroom because I had the flu as well, but he never said anything to me ever because I'm sure he was thinking that I was just skipping. The majority of the professors were caring and they really knew and they really helped you out but you always had that little group of professors who were just like, no matter what you said, you couldn't please. I loved Oshkosh. I really did.