I had not finished college, I had only a year and a half, so one day I was talking about it with him and he said, “why don’t you get your transcript from Kentucky and see if you can get into Stanford. “And I said, “how can I get into Stanford? “And he said, “well, you never know, you know, transfer. So, I did. I sent for it and it came and I took it over to Stanford and was called into the admissions office , and about half the things they didn’t accept, because when I went to college, I took home economics, but I had all my science requirements which was amazing, but that was because all the boys wanted to sit next to the school we’re taking physics and chemistry and bio (laughs) and that was the truth, and so all those awful subjects were gone, and they said you have to take the SATs, in order to be admitted. And I did, without telling my children. Jon knew it. I just went over there, I’ve never even seen an SAT, and I didn’t do very well. From what I gather, the English was only fair, but they let me in because I had passed all the science requirements and because the English was good enough. as a faculty, I think they were generous, and then they said I could take all the courses or as few courses as I wanted paying for the course. I didn’t have to matriculate.
Oh, you didn’t have to take a full load?
No, I didn’t have to take a full load, and, but I could never fail one. If you ever failed one, then forget it. Then they think you’re playing.
Oh, I see.
So we were going to live in Italy, so I thought I’d go take Italian, and I got so excited being on campus and going to class, well you know how it is, it’s just marvelous. And I loved it, and that sort of stimulated my life quite a bit. one time I needed a course, the most I took was 10 units, and I was better off with seven or five, I found out. Well, then I took an art course, I had never had an art course in my life.
-44-