September 17, 1956

  The college year began earlier back then, and this was the first day of class at Albany State for Dorothy and me. There was no preparation for and no sentiment attached to this day. The major problem was getting a ride to and from the campus.Transportation was to be our  ongoing nemesis for the next 4 years.  We would travel as passengers some of the time, but always on the driver's timeline. We would sometimes leave at 6 or 6:30 in the morning, and this was before the Northway was built, so the drive was lengthy, traffic-congested, and circuitous, with us crammed in the back seat, and I have recollections of cars not having working heaters, so we froze in the winter.  To ride home with somebody again meant on  their time schedule, which would usually be at the end of their workday.
    Some semesters we had to take the train from the Valley Falls Train Station to the Troy Station, where we would then catch a bus to Albany, having to switch if we wanted or needed to be uptown rather than down at the Albany Plaza. Many times we walked from the Plaza to the then uptown campus, especially if we were short on busfare and didn't have an early class. Our trip home meant catching a bus on Washington Avenue and riding down to the terminal at the bottom of State Street in hopes of transferring to another bus that would take us to the vicinity of the train station in Troy. I still remember, having missed the bus that stopped in front of the college,  running frantically down the sidewalk to the next bus stop. We had to make the connection.
    We spent so much time traveling to and from the college that there was absolutely no time for any activities. We left home in the early morning and seldom arrived home before 6:30 p.m. In winter, both our commutes would be in the dark.
We could not take any subjects, such as biology,  that had afternoon labs. I think it safe to say that we did not attend a single non-academic activity in our entire 4 years.  I do remember attending an Albany State vs. Siena basketball game, but that was probably on a Saturday, and courtesy of an alumnus.
    Albany State then mandated a heavy workload, a minimum of 17 hours per semester, which meant at least 17 hours sitting in class. The professors, especially in the English and social studies departments,  doled out homework in the form of projects and papers as if there was no tomorrow. Any vacation was the time to load up the assignments; vacation time was for work, not recreation. Mid-term exams and / or finals were always scheduled for after the winter holiday break, so we could have plenty of time to study for the exams. Oh, the misery of having that looming over us during those 2 weeks.
   At the end of our freshman year, I weighed 116 lbs, a loss of almost 20 lbs. Partly due, no doubt, to the fact we had no time to eat, and no money for food all day either. But that's another story.
   Was it worth it?