A Wonderful Life (The Sequel): More Tales From Butler Tract Alums

I may have been the first female graduate student to live in Butler. I moved into 221C Halsey with my two sons, 5 and 10 years old, in 1972. It was dilapidated, but it was great to have a back and front yard and a clothesline. It was a wonderful place for children. We were able to keep a canoe in the backyard, which we occasionally trekked down to the lake.

The one idiosyncrasy no one mentioned is the lack of bathtubs in the unrenovated units. The barracks were clearly built for men who take showers. So women and little children had to take only showers, too — this, and the lack of other women graduate students in the compound (all my close friends lived elsewhere), were the only things that really bugged me. The thin walls, the heater (ours worked well, but you had to give it a wide berth), none of it mattered. It was a great place to live during those difficult years.