BACK ON CAMPUS... Adjusting (Part 37a)

I ended up rooming with the “K’s” again... not really by choice. During the Summer, my roommate from my sophomore year, Bob, and another fraternity brother decided to start a campus business. Bob and I were scheduled to live at the fraternity house and had a room set aside for us. But, they decided that it would be best for the business if they roomed together. With me at the track (and no such thing as a cell phone), Bob never got in touch with me to let me know. I wasn’t planning on living at the fraternity until after AJ shipped the horses and my job with him was over. So it was quite a shock to find out that I really didn’t have a room at the house. I made a half hearted effort to find someone to room with but quickly decided that I really didn’t want to live with any of the guys who were also looking. I knew that the big room that Bob and I shared at the “K’s” was not available because Professor K had told us in the Spring that he was renting it to a new German instructor and his wife. I took a chance that the little room that John, the other “brother” who lived at the house with us, was available. It was and my having a car eliminated one of the biggest problems living downtown. I wasn’t thrilled but it was acceptable.

The room seemed smaller than I had remembered. There was a chifferobe to hang some clothes and also had a few drawers in it. There was a small desk and a single bed and barely enough room to turn around. But it was decidedly cheaper than the fraternity or what the big room had cost the year before. I moved my stored things in but continued to sleep at the track until the horses shipped out in late September. Upon my return I found that the old problem of Julie, the K’s daughter, and bathroom use was still around. She was now a Senior in High School and, since she’d had the bathroom to herself all Summer, had gotten back into the habit of hogging it. The fact that there was also another female to share that bathroom with didn’t help matters either.

The couple seemed quite nice. He was an American who had gotten his advanced degree in German in Germany and, while there, had married a German girl. She wasn’t what I’d call pretty but I considered her to be “cute”. She struggled with her English which made her quite shy. She had almost black hair and her name was Helga. I think I saw her all of three times my first full week back at school.

I’d changed my major from Economics to Psychology at the end of my sophomore year. I’d not done particularly well with the prerequisite courses in Economics and didn’t particularly like the head of the department. I’d also taken the prerequisites for Psychology and done fairly well. The professors and instructors were a younger group and I liked them. I also had a lot easier time accepting and understanding the principles of psychology and had used some of them in understanding Joanne’s situation with her parents. It seemed like a good idea.

One of the first things I did upon returning to campus full time was to drive out to the school sailing facility. I had just assumed that all I had to do was show up for practice and would automatically be on the team. After all, I’d been on the Varsity team in the Spring. But, the coach didn’t see it that way. I’d not told him of my plans about working and since I hadn’t shown up for tryouts... I was off the team. I was hurt but learned a lesson. The one good thing was that it gave me my afternoons back. As I’d mentioned in earlier posts, my farmer friends, the “T’s” lived on the road to and from the lake. I’d not seen them since they’d come up to the track right after I’d started working there in early Summer. I felt bad that I’d made no effort to contact them during the rest of the Summer so decided to stop in to say “hello”.

I couldn’t have scripted my arrival any better than it was. Mrs T was taking wash off the line as I pulled into the yard. She saw me drive up and waved to me. I headed right towards her and when I was about 10 or so feet away she swept a sheet off the line and handed one end to me to help her fold it. What was then exposed on the line were more than 20 pair of panties blowing in the wind. I had to really concentrate on Mrs T and the sheet to keep from embarrassing myself. She asked all the usual stuff while she proceeded to gather the panties and some bras off the other line. I could feel the bulge growing in my pants. Trying to be helpful I offered to carry the wash basket up to the house. Right on top were two neatly folded piles of panties. The top pair on one of the piles had the crotch facing right towards me and I could see a slight discoloration in it. That led me to believe that they belonged to Joanne. Mrs T, walking ahead of me, kept up a line of chatter all the way to the house. That allowed me to closely study the panties without being noticed. I remember trying to figure out why there were so many. With only Mrs T and Joanne living there it seemed like a lot for just two people. The last I knew Joanne wasn’t having the same problems like she’d had when I first got involved with the family and I certainly wasn’t in a position to ask.

As soon as I walked in the kitchen the smell of fresh baked apple pie was in the air. Since it had been over three months since I’d seen Joanne she’d fallen back to being somewhat shy in my presence. Mrs T made an attempt to take care of that by telling me that Joanne was now baking pies for the Inn in town as well as the one in the next town to the South. To accomodate the expanded business, another oven had been added. Being a large kitchen the new addition fit right in without overcrowding. There was also a rolling metal rack that held well over a dozen pies. I was truly impressed and expressed it to Joanne. Mrs T was obviously proud of her and that made me feel good as I remembered Mrs T telling me how she felt it was both hers and Mr T’s fault that they had “pushed” Joanne to be just like her older sisters. It seemed like Mrs. T was now satisfied that Joanne was her own person.

Mr T walked in while we were talking and reminded Mrs T that she needed to deliver the ordered pies so she could be back in time for “chores” (milking the cows). I piped up that I could do it if it would help. I remember getting a wonderful smile from Mrs T when she heard me make the offer. She quickly wrote out where the deliveries were to be made. When I looked at it I was surprised to see a couple of fraternities including my own. I was even more impressed. During this whole verbal exchange Joanne had stood quietly by. When Mrs T pushed the cart to the porch she followed and helped load them into my car. I think I had to deliver 10 pies in all. Joanne was standing by my my car door when I went to get in and as I stepped in she said “Thank you” and smiled for the first time. I left feeling both good and bad. Bad because I’d ignored them all Summer even though I was only 20 miles away and, good because Joanne was doing so well. I vowed to come back soon.