That's one of those things that's better in fantasy than reality, imho.

I had a great time, probably the happiest of my life. I certainly had more fun and more close friendships than any other period.

Freshman roommate: super nice guy from Cincinnati. We got on well, and when he was a senior he was editor of the school paper and asked me to write a column for it.

Sophmore and Junior Roommate: Chip! One of my closest friends. We had a blast. Second half of Junior year he spent in Philly, so my girlfriend basically moved in.

Senior year: I was an R.A. and had a double to myself. And a whole hall of Freshman to wrangle. From that group I forged lasting-to-this-day friendships with Gary and Lars.

I had roommates in all three places I lived in Boston. House 1: group house that was kind of unstable. Got along fine but it fell apart. House 2: I was sort of the guest who didn't leave, but stayed with my girlfriend before I went to Europe, and I got along well with her two roommates. (She asked and they didn't mind that I stayed there.) Just temporary. House 3: Rock and roll dudes from Boston. Good fun, great record collections.

I had a series of roommates in SF but since I mostly got to pick them it worked out fine. Still good friends with my old roommie Matthew.

In short: Humans, okay with me in close proximity.

I was reading Megan's going "wait there was somewhere else that had a setup with 5 person apartments where one person got the single? How weird!" and then I remembered we went to the same school. Duh. I lived off campus my junior year, sharing a room with a friend and out guy friend got the other (much smaller) bedroom. But it was a basement apartment, and I never want to live with no sunlight again. Even if most of my time wad spent in the darkened theater anyway.

When my mother was in college, they had room inspections for cleanliness and ocassionally white glove inspections where the literally ran a gloved hand over surfaces to see if they had been dusted.

When my mother was in college, they had maids.

Oh, so THAT'S why my salary is so far below market.

I wish storylines in William Gibson novels would stop coming true. It's creepy.

I had one roommate for a little over three years. In that time I got to watch her blossom from a shy, slightly awkward teenager into Flaming Bigot Woman. I moved. I still don't know why she metamorphosed, but I wish I could have stopped it.

My mom taught in Central American for 2-3 years, and then came back to the states and started grad school. This was 1958, and her dorm matron gave her grief about going on her bio class field trips because they'd keep her out past curfew. Mom was in an admin office, complaining about school policy interfering with her education, when Dad met her. He said it was love at first sight.

My semester abroad, we were all extremely freaked that a maid came in once a week to vacuum, clean the bathroom, take out the trash, strip the beds and leave clean sheets.

Very weird.

What a great story, Calli!

I'm pretty sure my mom lived off campus (at home or with roommates (and with my Dad after they got married, so her final semester ) her whole campus career.

Eta: our dorms had weekly housekeeping service - vacuuming, cleaning the bathrooms. That did not weird me out the way having someone clean my house would - maybe because it was never really my space?

My mom's nursing school dorm in the late '50s had very strict curfews and visiting policies (it was a Catholic school, so men were not allowed past the lobby at all). She had a pretty good roommate situation. Her roomie became my aunt when she married Mom's big brother, and Denise and Ray are having their 50th anniversary this year.

After my freshman roommate got all creepy on me, I moved out into the old maid's rooms on my hallway. There were no maids in my day. The main rooms were 3-room suites - two little side rooms and a center study. I think originally they were for one person and her personal maid; in my day 4 people shared them. Shared hallway bathrooms. (My freshman roommate developed a tendency to sit on her bed and watch me while I did my homework and stuff not 6 feet away. It freaked me the hell out. She was Swiss and not great with social stuff; she did not come back after freshman year.)

Scale model of Bag End built by mother of twins in her spare time. Way to make the rest of us feel inadequate! Also, GIMME. NAO PLS.