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Transcript from "UGA in 1959"

Q: You left Lanier High and you went off to Athens. I guess that was the fall of '59?

TJ: Yes.

Q: Do you remember coming into campus? Your early impressions of arriving at the University of Georgia?

TJ: Fortunately I had been on campus a few times for the Georgia Scholastic Press Association. I had been to Athens for one of two conventions where I went for the Georgia Press Association, I believe. Sure, I remember it really well. I remember my roommate at Reed Hall. It was a guy named John Talbird who my influence on him was so great, that he went on to become a priest. He was an Argonaut, and my roommate and was a terrific person. Also, I just remember, enjoying the Grady School of Journalism....Grady College now. I enjoyed the classes, I especially enjoyed the interest of the professors of that era took in me from Dan Kitchens to Charlie Kopp to Dean Drewry. And because I was there on scholarship and because there had been a wonderful letter written by Bill Ott on behalf of the newspaper, I think I may have gotten a little more attention from some of the faculty members than some of the others. As soon as I could, I got on staff of The Red& Black.

Q: What were college students like in ’59 and ’60?

TJ: The girls wore Bass weejuns. The guys were much more neatly dressed than today in almost every case. ROTC--had become a cadet captain at Lanier High for boys, but I also joined the ROTC program, because the ROTC program also paid  you something like $15 a month. I became involved in that, so often I was in an Army ROTC uniform. I didn't pledge fraternity my freshman year, which was probably a good thing, because I really focused a great deal on my classes at the Grady College and outside of the Grady College with English, history and political science. The University was an all white...all white.  It was a great mixture of people from mostly from the state. Seems like it was overwhelmingly in-state students at the time.