It was very peaceful
said Jim Patterson, a 1962 Ohio University graduate, of his time at the university. All hell broke loose after I left.
During the 1960s, OU mirrored the social change taking place nationwide, the catalyst of which was the 1963 assassination of President John F. Kennedy.
It hit us like a brick said E. Louis Overstreet, a civil engineering major and 1967 graduate. It was absolute silence.
Overstreet described the mood on campus as upbeat but after the assassination, activism was on the mind of most students.
The early sixties saw the influx of the baby boomer generation, yearly flooding of the mighty Hocking River and a St. Patrick's Day observance that rivaled the Halloween celebrations of today.
In 1968, the year The Convo was completed, a small protest ended in violence when students lit fires and threw stones and bricks through the windows of Vernon R. Alden's house.
A year earlier, a nonacademic employee strike had shut down the university, and students were sent home early for spring break.
William Davis received undergraduate and graduate degrees from OU between 1962 and 1967. One of the things I like about OU is the isolation. I don't see that as a problem
I see that as an advantage
Davis said. I miss that.
Patterson was a veteran of the Korean War and was thus old enough to live in off-campus housing as a freshman. He helped organize a Vets Club, which he estimated to have a membership of 400 veterans.
We were known for having the best parties on campus
Patterson said.
The '60s were arguably when OU's party school reputation began. The annual St. Patrick's Day festivities drew visitors from all over the country, although Overstreet remembers it as more of a local celebration.
People would come back sloppy drunk
throwing up
he said. We'd just wipe them off and throw them in the bunk.
The celebration would start at 6 a.m. with a shot of whiskey and a green beer, but there were never any riots or violence, Patterson said.
I'd take the laundry money my mother would send me
buy wine and go dancing at the student union
Overstreet said, remembering a typical weekend night.
The seasonal flooding of the Hocking became somewhat of a tradition during the '60s, as students built makeshift rafts out of scrap lumber and barrels and were forced to strategically plan which route they would take to class.
It was so much of a tradition, in fact, that some alumni are disappointed when they return to campus to see the rerouted river, Davis said.
I lost an old used car
Overstreet said.
