When I was preparing to head off for the University of Arizona as a scholarship student in 1962, my high school newspaper advisor, Rachel Riggins, suggested that I apply to live in a co-op dorm at the U of A\u2014Pima Hall. \u00a0It was a small dorm, as residence halls went back then, built to hold thirty-three girls, but it mostly had about forty during the four years I lived there.<\/p>\n
The word co-op meant just exactly that. \u00a0We did all our own cooking and cleaning. \u00a0Everyone was assigned duties each week, and the duty roster was posted in the hallway, right next to the sign out sheet. \u00a0Some girls liked cooking duties. \u00a0Six o\u2019clocks started breakfast and seven o\u2019clocks finished it. \u00a0Eight-thirties, did the dishes and cleaned up after breakfast. \u00a0Ten-thirties started lunch and eleven thirties served it. \u00a0One o\u2019clocks did the dishes and cleaned the kitchen. \u00a0Four o\u2019clocks started dinner, five o\u2019clocks finished it while five-thirties set the tables, served the food, and cleared afterwards. Six-thirties did the dishes and cleaned the kitchen.<\/p>\n
Breakfast and lunch were buffet style, but at dinner food was served family style, with plates stacked at the head of the table. \u00a0Food was dipped out of serving bowls and onto plates which were then passed around the table. \u00a0When dinner was over, the five-thirties took the plates to the kitchen\u2014two plates at a time. \u00a0Mrs. Van, the house mother, allowed no stacking of dirty plates. \u00a0My grandchildren are always bemused by grandma\u2019s stringent rule against \u201cNO STACKING,\u201d but that\u2019s where it originated\u2014from being a five-thirty at Pima Hall.<\/p>\n
In addition to cooking duties, there were cleaning duties as well. \u00a0My favorite was PPV\u2014porch, patio, and vestibule. \u00a0The upstairs bath was Bath Up; the downstairs bath was Bath Down. \u00a0No one wanted to have to clean the house mother\u2019s apartment, especially before one of her bridge games. \u00a0Cleaning the basement was way down on the list of preferred duties. \u00a0Cleaning the living room wasn\u2019t that bad.<\/p>\n
By the way, these were the \u201cold days.\u201d \u00a0NO SLACKS OR SHORTS were allowed to be worn in the dining room DURING ANY MEAL!!!<\/p>\n
Pima Hall was by far the cheapest dorm on campus\u2014$129 per semester for rent. \u00a0As for our food? \u00a0Each of us paid a dollar a day into a common fund from which the food manager purchased groceries and created menus. \u00a0Our dollar of board money gave us three hot meals a day six days a week and two on Sunday. \u00a0On Sunday evenings we were free to raid the fridge and the pantry. \u00a0By the way, the meal planning ladies did a top-notch job. \u00a0The first year I was there and doing five-thirty duties, I remember barking my knuckles while chipping ice off an ice block to serve water and iced tea at dinner. \u00a0And that year we had a washing machine down in the basement with a button-mangling wringer. \u00a0At the end of my freshman year there was enough money left over in the board fund to purchase both an ice machine for the kitchen and a new washer\/dryer in the basement. \u00a0Whoohoo!!!<\/p>\n
But what made Pima Hall remarkable were the girls who lived there. They really were smart, and they were serious about getting an education. \u00a0Pima wasn\u2019t exactly an honors dorm, not officially, but you had to have a decent grade average to get into Pima in the first place, and we routinely walked away with the residence hall academic honors. \u00a0Pima wasn\u2019t a sorority, but it served a similar purpose by giving small town Arizona girls a port of entry into the complexities of university life.<\/p>\n
Pima Hall girls were fun. \u00a0We sang while we did dishes and gathered around the grand piano in the living room. \u00a0We watched the Miss America pageants each September, sprawled around the dorm\u2019s only television set. \u00a0And we clustered around that same set in tears and horror the week John F. Kennedy died. \u00a0We celebrated birthdays in jammies in rooms after curfew. \u00a0(10:30 for freshman; 11:30 for everybody else.) \u00a0When someone got engaged, it was time for a bathtub dunking. \u00a0In the evenings, we necked on the front porch until Mrs. Van flashed the lights to tell us it was time to come inside. \u00a0She always stationed herself in the vestibule assessing each girl for damage as we came past. \u00a0(I wonder how many other former Pima Hall girls besides me can still apply lipstick without the need of a mirror due to Mrs. Van\u2019s all seeing once-overs?)<\/p>\n
Pima Hall girls were allowed to usher at events in most of the university auditoriums for which we were paid the princely sum of three bucks a night. \u00a0We were required to wear white blouses and black skirts. \u00a0We handed out programs, guided people to their seats, and went back to return seats to their full upright positions once the events ended. \u00a0And if the program we were ushering happened to be one we wanted to see and there were seats available, we were welcome to stay for the show. \u00a0That\u2019s how I heard C. Day-Lewis do a poetry reading, and that\u2019s why, at our garden in Bellevue, you\u2019ll find bits and pieces of a poem he read that night, Baucis and Philemon. \u00a0There are excerpts of that wonderful story carved into rocks and beams in various places around the yard.<\/p>\n
The only official office I ever held at Pima Hall was that of song leader. \u00a0We sang songs after dinner especially:<\/p>\n
Pima Hall, our castle tall,
\nWhere fairest dreams come true.
\nWe pledge our hearts in loyalty
\nBecause we\u2019re proud of you.<\/p>\n
Our hearts fill with gladness
\nNever clouded with sadness
\nFor the sun always shines
\nThrough the darkest of days.<\/p>\n
Pima Hall with stately walls,
\nA palace, yes indeed.
\nWhere memories like jewels we share
\nWith true sincerity.<\/p>\n
So laugh, cry, and love,
\nThey are all still a part of
\nOur Pima Hall.<\/p>\n
Of course, that wasn\u2019t the ONLY song we sang, not with me as song leader. \u00a0Eventually I was summarily removed from that post because Mrs. Van objected to my leading the girls in rousing renditions of: \u00a0Roll me over, in the clover, roll me over, lay me down, and do it again. \u00a0Evidently just applying a new layer of lipstick when I walked in the door at night wasn\u2019t enough to paper over Mrs. Van\u2019s entirely justified suspicions about what I\u2019d been up to.<\/p>\n
Why all this reminiscing about Pima Hall? \u00a0Because we\u2019re having a Pima Hall gathering, A Pima Hallbee as we\u2019re calliing it, here at the house in Tucson this coming Saturday. \u00a0Some of the women who are coming I saw last year at a similar gathering. \u00a0One of them, at least, I haven\u2019t seen in more than fifty years. \u00a0So there\u2019s a lot of vacuuming and dusting going on around here. \u00a0The PPV\u2014porch, patio, and vestibule\u2014will be in pristine condition. \u00a0And no four or five o\u2019clocks, 5:30s, or 6:30s need apply.<\/p>\n
The cooking, serving, and cleaning will all be done by the catering folks from Feast. \u00a0All the guests will need to do is sit around and visit.<\/p>\n
And maybe sing.<\/p>\n
Now, what were the rest of the lyrics to that bad girl song?<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
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