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

I was a relatively young graduate student for my day (23 when I arrived at Princeton), and Butler was my first non-dorm home away from home. I was a single female grad student sharing with another single female, whom I met while living at the Grad College my first year. That was a pretty common configuration for Butler roommates during my time there — the late ’80s. On average, single male grad students probably were a bit more likely to linger at the Grad College, while female grad students were more likely to seek out apartments with kitchens in Butler or Lawrence. Extended family groupings (especially grandparents, often from China, coming to help care for new grandchildren) also were pretty common; one of the early-morning sights in my day was grandparents doing tai chi on the sidewalk.