ASU - Phyllis

Going to a state university in the next city over from my high school, I expected to frequently see people I knew, but this almost never happened. ASU had over 30,000 students and the latest drip of Coronado Dons just vanished in this huge pool. The only classmate I knew from high school was Phyllis who was in a freshman psychology class with me for a few weeks before vanishing forever. I was happy to see Phyllis because I owed her a lot from high school. German was the only class I ever cheated in (in college I would turn out to be equally bad at French) and she sat behind me and wrote German test answers on my back which I passed on to her friend Jeanne sitting in front of me.

In psychology class we started sitting together at the side of the 400 seat lecture hall. Neither of us would need to cheat in this class but it is always handy to be close to the door. One day, while it was still summer hot outside, we started hearing thunder through the doors. The storm came closer and closer until the thunder was right on top of us and we could even hear the torrential rain falling outside. Finally we couldn't stand it any more and slipped out into the downpour. Central Arizona summers are brutal but the summer thunder storms are almost worth the endless heat. After over 35 years in Northern California I still miss those storms.

We ran whooping out into the rain and dashed around campus like young dogs. The lawns were beginning to flood and.... oh, yay... the park bordering on University Ave was under irrigation. This was too good to be true. We raced over to my mother's office where we deposited books and shoes and then flew back out into the storm. In the park the grass was already covered by a couple inches of warm irrigation water before the storm began and now probably 3 to 5 inches of rain had turned the whole area into a swamp. We splashed around running through the muck, then out onto the mall, then circling back for more muck. I don't recall if we got tired or if it stopped raining or what but finally we stopped, collected our stuff, and went our separate ways drenched to the bone.

I have no idea what became of Phyllis. She was so smart I think she probably just got bored at school or maybe she found a more interesting class or more interesting university. Whatever the case, I am in her debt for German class and that rainy day romp.