College Stories

Thanks be to God that I am a better man now than I was twenty-five years ago. A case in point...

When I was at university, I took the midnight to 2:00 am shift on Monday night/Tuesday morning (this actually has meaning in the next paragraph) at the college radio station. This was in the days of dime-draws and an 18 year old drinking age. (How any of us survived is a mark of the sovereignty of God.)

I ended up with what is either the last shift on Monday the 13th or Tuesday the 14th of February. Well, I was breaking up with a girlfriend and was in a sarcastic mood. So what did I do, I played two straight hours of break up songs. I had the first shift on Valentines Day and I played two straight hours of heart wrenching music. I started with Genesis singing "Misunderstanding" and went from there. This hit by the Atlanta Rhythm Section is one of the many I played over those two hours.

It was not a good night.

What was funny? A couple of days later I was told a group of my fraternity brothers who knew me well were listening. Suddenly one of them got up and said he was going to call in a request. The others told him to sit down. Paul's on a roll tonight, we're going to ride the wave.

They had been drinking. At least I had not. After all, it was tough to run the board after a bunch of dime draws.

As John Astin said time and time again on the TV show Night Court:

"But I'm much better now."

Today I am happily married--coming on twelve years. As for her, while I don't know what has come of her over the years, I hope and pray she's doing great. But I won't mention her name so as not to embarass her.

...or me.