Freshman Katie Watts is the third generation of her family to attend Ohio University. Her mother and grandmother both went to OU, and her great-grandfather, George Starr Lasher, was the catalyst for the start of the university's journalism school.
The college lives of Watts and her grandmother show the many ways OU has changed through the years.
I think it's great that I have history here
and that my family has had generations that have gone to the university. I think I'm blessed in that way said Watts, who has not yet chosen a major.
Watts' grandmother, Mary-Elizabeth Lasher Myers, graduated in 1942 as a journalism major. After becoming the first female editor of The Post, she moved to New York to work and returned to live in Athens in 1989.
In Lasher Myers' time, the weeknight curfew for female students was 10 p.m.; after that, Athens closed down. Lasher Myers said The Spot, a diner where Perks now stands, was the only all-night operation in town.
Male students often worked as sandwich men, meeting women in their dorm lobbies to deliver sandwiches.
For late-night hunger pangs, Watts' favorite deliveries are from Papa John's Pizza, Jimmy John's and D.P. Dough.
OU students have been coming and going as they please since the early '70s. I think a curfew would take away my independence Watts said.
Zenner's Department Store, Katherine Figg's Dress Shop, shoe stores, grocery stores and men's clothing stores - all locally owned - once stood in place of the countless bars and restaurants that now line Court Street.
Watts said she visits CVS on Court Street or makes a trip to Wal-Mart or Kroger when she is running low on groceries. She also browses at stores such as The Athens Underground and other small shops.
Lasher Myers remembers only two places in town that served alcohol: the Berry Hotel's cocktail lounge and a bar that has since moved. Alcohol had only recently been re-legalized while Lasher Myers attended OU.
Certain kinds of social activities that involve liquor are a product of having money to spend. It was very
very modest in my days as an undergraduate
and I think for some time after that.
There was a dance almost every weekend at OU in the '40s, whether it was a sock hop or a formal. I can remember many Friday and Saturday nights that the electricity went out because girls were pressing their formals for the evening
Lasher Myers said.
Watts goes ice-skating or catches a movie on the weekends; she keeps her formal wear in the closet. I usually just hang out with my friends
she said.
In the 1940s, women were not allowed to wear pants to class, let alone the sweats that some students now wear. Skirts in the '40s all measured 15 inches from the ground
Lasher Myers said.
I'm not very into skirts and that kind of restriction
said Watts, who said her typical outfit consists of a T-shirt and jeans.
OU used the semester system when Lasher Myers attended. It was a much better arrangement for education; this quarterly system is a headache
she said. Students did not take night classes, either. You're just breathless now; you're gulping down a dinner at five in the afternoon to go off for a class
and then there's a meeting after that.
Watts can testify to this. She has a CPR class that meets at 7 p.m., and she takes a women's defense course at Ping Center until 9 p.m. She said the quarter system makes it hard to grasp information before new classes start; but she said she likes the prospect of changing teachers each quarter.
