First Roommate

Palmer

Well-Known Member
Jun 10, 2008
7,942
472
83
Johnston, IA
First roomate was my best friend from highschool. He quit school just before the second year, so the department or residence randomly assigned me someone else. This new roomate had the previous year, lived in a TeePee in the woods off North Dakota avanue, north of Ontario (yes, even during the winter). He had no car while he lived out there, so he would ride the bus into campus for classes. He kept a fire in the teepee to keep him warm and cook over. Needless to say, he was one strange cat. I only roomed with him one semester, since he was graduating, and haven't heard from him since. The last I talked to him before he graduated, he was unsure if he was going to become a Quaker minister, or take his teepee to his uncle's farm in southern Iowa and hide from the "student loan police".
Occasionally, I do wonder which fork in the road he chose.........

hilarious!


this post is gold.
 
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IcSyU

Well-Known Member
Nov 27, 2007
27,757
5,950
113
Rochester, MN
First roomate was my best friend from highschool. He quit school just before the second year, so the department or residence randomly assigned me someone else. This new roomate had the previous year, lived in a TeePee in the woods off North Dakota avanue, north of Ontario (yes, even during the winter). He had no car while he lived out there, so he would ride the bus into campus for classes. He kept a fire in the teepee to keep him warm and cook over. Needless to say, he was one strange cat. I only roomed with him one semester, since he was graduating, and haven't heard from him since. The last I talked to him before he graduated, he was unsure if he was going to become a Quaker minister, or take his teepee to his uncle's farm in southern Iowa and hide from the "student loan police".
Occasionally, I do wonder which fork in the road he chose.........
Thread winner so far!
 

cybsball20

Well-Known Member
Nov 26, 2006
12,740
438
83
Des Moines, IA
First roomate was my best friend from highschool. He quit school just before the second year, so the department or residence randomly assigned me someone else. This new roomate had the previous year, lived in a TeePee in the woods off North Dakota avanue, north of Ontario (yes, even during the winter). He had no car while he lived out there, so he would ride the bus into campus for classes. He kept a fire in the teepee to keep him warm and cook over. Needless to say, he was one strange cat. I only roomed with him one semester, since he was graduating, and haven't heard from him since. The last I talked to him before he graduated, he was unsure if he was going to become a Quaker minister, or take his teepee to his uncle's farm in southern Iowa and hide from the "student loan police".
Occasionally, I do wonder which fork in the road he chose.........

Was your roomate one of Bill Walton's sons?
 

CarolinaCy

Well-Known Member
Apr 18, 2008
4,518
219
63
First roomate was my best friend from highschool. He quit school just before the second year, so the department or residence randomly assigned me someone else. This new roomate had the previous year, lived in a TeePee in the woods off North Dakota avanue, north of Ontario (yes, even during the winter). He had no car while he lived out there, so he would ride the bus into campus for classes. He kept a fire in the teepee to keep him warm and cook over. Needless to say, he was one strange cat. I only roomed with him one semester, since he was graduating, and haven't heard from him since. The last I talked to him before he graduated, he was unsure if he was going to become a Quaker minister, or take his teepee to his uncle's farm in southern Iowa and hide from the "student loan police".
Occasionally, I do wonder which fork in the road he chose.........

Greatest post ever.
 

retzmountn

Member
Aug 16, 2006
139
1
18
Runnells, IA
My roommate at ISU in the Fall of 1978 was a C.R. Kennedy grad by the name of Sean Kaliher ("Kennedy"). We hit it off with each other from the very beginning. We lived in Cassell House in the RCA. In our free time (which seemed like a lot) we would go repelling. We did a lot of repelling over near Boone off the Kate Shelly Bridge.

Sean was a Pre-Vet major & I was in Engineering. In the Spring of 1980, I left ISU & Engineering to reassess what I wanted to do, if I wasn't interested in Engineering. Sean & I stayed in contact and tried to get together a couple of times per year.

In 1983, Sean was a Sophmore in Vet School & his folks were in CA. I invited Sean to my home town (Atlantic) to spend the Easter weekend with us. The following weekend, I sat down to watch the local news & they reported that two ISU Vet students had been killed out at the Kate Shelly Bridge. Immediately, I said to myself, "I know who one of those people".

In the Fall of 1984, I returned to Ames to major in Ag-Business & I received my B.S. degree in the Spring of 1987.

Up until last year, I've stayed in close contact with Sean's parents. April of 2008 was the 25th year of his passing. I still have a picture of him from 1979 when we were out swimming at Petersen's Pits.
 

Palmer

Well-Known Member
Jun 10, 2008
7,942
472
83
Johnston, IA
My roommate at ISU in the Fall of 1978 was a C.R. Kennedy grad by the name of Sean Kaliher ("Kennedy"). We hit it off with each other from the very beginning. We lived in Cassell House in the RCA. In our free time (which seemed like a lot) we would go repelling. We did a lot of repelling over near Boone off the Kate Shelly Bridge.

Sean was a Pre-Vet major & I was in Engineering. In the Spring of 1980, I left ISU & Engineering to reassess what I wanted to do, if I wasn't interested in Engineering. Sean & I stayed in contact and tried to get together a couple of times per year.

In 1983, Sean was a Sophmore in Vet School & his folks were in CA. I invited Sean to my home town (Atlantic) to spend the Easter weekend with us. The following weekend, I sat down to watch the local news & they reported that two ISU Vet students had been killed out at the Kate Shelly Bridge. Immediately, I said to myself, "I know who one of those people".

In the Fall of 1984, I returned to Ames to major in Ag-Business & I received my B.S. degree in the Spring of 1987.

Up until last year, I've stayed in close contact with Sean's parents. April of 2008 was the 25th year of his passing. I still have a picture of him from 1979 when we were out swimming at Petersen's Pits.


wow..


I see there is a scholarship in his name at the vet school...
 
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hort4cy

Member
Jun 29, 2006
714
16
18
55
Randalia, IA
First roomate was my best friend from highschool. He quit school just before the second year, so the department or residence randomly assigned me someone else. This new roomate had the previous year, lived in a TeePee in the woods off North Dakota avanue, north of Ontario (yes, even during the winter). He had no car while he lived out there, so he would ride the bus into campus for classes. He kept a fire in the teepee to keep him warm and cook over. Needless to say, he was one strange cat. I only roomed with him one semester, since he was graduating, and haven't heard from him since. The last I talked to him before he graduated, he was unsure if he was going to become a Quaker minister, or take his teepee to his uncle's farm in southern Iowa and hide from the "student loan police".
Occasionally, I do wonder which fork in the road he chose.........

There were some strange dudes around, but that is one of the stranger stories I heard. Living in a teepee in the woods????
 

Wesley

Well-Known Member
Apr 12, 2006
70,923
546
113
Omaha
My first roomate was a mech engr grad from northern Iowa who actually built the first football cannon shot off after touchdowns. He had a big motorcycle, like to smoke, and was a great guy.
 
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clonedmax

Active Member
Apr 19, 2006
146
30
28
Earlham, IA
My first roommate was a random pairing. He was from Illinois, from one of the suburbs of Chicago :wink: (seemed like everyone from Ill. was from Chicago). He came to ISU to study engineering as did I, so that was cool. He said ISU's out of state tuition was cheaper than Illinois's in state, so ISU was a bargain. He didn't study much and like half our floor of engineering majors, switched majors after about 8 weeks. He continued to study psychology at ISU. I didn't room with him and didn't have contact with him after our freshman year. The next time I saw him, he was an ISU DPS officer :wideeyed:, so I guess he must have went into criminal justice.
 

Longhorns3131

Well-Known Member
Oct 22, 2008
1,311
36
48
My first roommate and I did not get a long at all. He was a big bible thumper, and while that is not necessarily a bad thing, he took it to an extreme. I was raised Christian, and have no problem with people having faith. This was a totally different thing, though. He was a big fan of contemporay christian music, and did not appreciate my love of Metal. Black Sabbath was a particularly sticky subject. I used to engage him in hypothetical religious discussions like whether or not God could create a boulder so big that even he/she couldn't lift it. He seemed to find the entire concept sinful, and would chastise me for ever bringing it up. He would constantly leave me notes asking me to pick up my dirty laundry, or reminding me to go to class and sign them with "Jesus Loves You" Also, he had an unholy obsession with Mariah Carey. Not, a sexual attraction, but more like a brotherly love, type of thing. In fact, if I, or anyone else, mentioned Mariah in "amorous" terms, he would get upset. He was a big fan of the sitcom "Ellen" until she came out of the closet. Then, he never watched the show again. And, once, when he was going away for the weekend, he asked me to record the ALF reunion show.

Suffice it to say, we did not room together for our sophomore year.


HAHAHAHAHA
 

stvfarmboy

Active Member
May 20, 2006
469
55
28
41
Ames, IA
I am still in contact with and pretty good friends with my first roommate. We actually lived together all through college as well.
 

pdxclone

Active Member
Feb 7, 2007
624
50
43
Metropolis of Ames
My freshman year I was assigned a suite with three other guys in Roberts Hall. About a month into the first semester we got another roommate, a girlfriend of one of the guys who could not get along with her roommates. Yes, this was an all guys dorm. This guy from Omaha (don’t remember his name) would stand guard at the bathroom every morning so his girlfriend could take a shower. Our common room in the suite had become their bedroom. They didn’t make it past the semester. He is probably still selling stereos in Omaha. A shout out to him if he reads this, it was quite the start to my college learning!
 

Bubbahotep

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Jul 23, 2008
5,188
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Des Moines
My first roomate was a buddy from high school. I look back on those days with a certain haze. We were in storms hall on the 7th floor, and the other guys there were great. I didn't quite have my priorities right, but I had a good time. My wife met him at our 10th high school reunion, after hearing all our stories, she absolutely hates his guts, but he will always be a good friend, I'll just delay telling the kids about him until they are out of college, don't want to give them any bad ideas.
 

burn587

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SuperFanatic
SuperFanatic T2
Apr 14, 2006
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Denver, CO
My roomate was a nice guy from western Iowa. We had the same major but pretty much none of the same interests, he had a one track mind that only applied to our major and nothing else. We had a bit of falling out in the middle of 1st semester but by the time 2nd semester rolled around we were on pretty good terms. He moved out shortly after that and I haven't talked to him since. Like I said he was a nice guy but I would've rather just lived with friends in Fredrickson from day 1.
 

ICCYFAN

Well-Known Member
Sep 6, 2006
2,376
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Iowa City
I was assigned to a "triple" in the Towers my first semester. One of my roomates was a transfer from MCC who was a junior upon arrival. We haven't stayed in touch but I did run into him several months ago. He lives in Tiffin and has a daughter the same age as mine. The other guy was from Oak Park, IL and was not invited back after his freshman year; I have no idea what became of him.

I had top priority to "move out" when a room came available and I am still in contact with that roomate. He's a park ranger in SW Iowa and coaches youth wrestling in his spare time. Our group of friends tries to have a reunion every couple of years...
 

SeattleClone

Well-Known Member
Aug 15, 2006
6,189
452
83
First roomate was my best friend from highschool. He quit school just before the second year, so the department or residence randomly assigned me someone else. This new roomate had the previous year, lived in a TeePee in the woods off North Dakota avanue, north of Ontario (yes, even during the winter). He had no car while he lived out there, so he would ride the bus into campus for classes. He kept a fire in the teepee to keep him warm and cook over. Needless to say, he was one strange cat. I only roomed with him one semester, since he was graduating, and haven't heard from him since. The last I talked to him before he graduated, he was unsure if he was going to become a Quaker minister, or take his teepee to his uncle's farm in southern Iowa and hide from the "student loan police".
Occasionally, I do wonder which fork in the road he chose.........

For some reason I'm picturing this guy...

mose.JPG
 

bellzisu

Well-Known Member
Apr 15, 2006
6,917
565
113
Norwalk
Haven't seen or talked to my roomie since my first year at college. He was different to be nice. From Madrid and decided to stay at mom and dad's house more then the dorm. Waste of money if you ask me.

Then I got home from a part one night. Him and a friend of his were on my computer looking up GAY porn... No joke. He had a gf too that dated all through high school. After that night, I only saw him like 2 times and his friend once more.
 

IcSyU

Well-Known Member
Nov 27, 2007
27,757
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Rochester, MN
Then I got home from a part one night. Him and a friend of his were on my computer looking up GAY porn... No joke. He had a gf too that dated all through high school. After that night, I only saw him like 2 times and his friend once more.

New thread winner :biglaugh::biglaugh::notworthy::notworthy: