SUNDAY MEMORIES
Judy Wills
During my senior year at Narimasu,
Tokyo American High School Narimasu
I was concerned about what I was going to do about college. I knew I wanted to go to college, but I wasn’t sure where.
In the meantime, while we were in Japan, I had come down with some fairly annoying hay fever. It wasn’t quite asthma, but similar. Lots of people told me I needed to go to a dry climate, so I was looking and inquiring around as to where a good place to go to school would be.
The librarian at Johnson Air Base – I don’t remember how I got to discussing it with her – talked to me about going to college, and she was from Albuquerque, New Mexico, which is little over a mile high.
Sandia Mountains outside Albuquerque, New Mexico – credit Google Search
It is obviously semi-desert and very dry climate. She persuaded me to put in an application for the University of New Mexico in Albuquerque.
University of New Mexico – Credit Google Search and UNM website
UNM lobo – mascot – Credit Google Search and UNM website
I had already applied to Washington State University, Purdue University, Florida State University, and the University of Illinois in Champaign-Urbana, Illinois. I actually had line numbers for Washington State and the University of Illinois.
Fortunately, my grade levels had improved over the years, and I was able to be the Valedictorian of my high school class, had done fairly well on the National Merit testing, and received Honorable Mention. [Judy’s comments here: Fred’s sisters once told me that he went straight from age 12 to 20! He lost all interest in pursuing girls, and began his absorption in his studies] All that meant that the universities were sort-of bidding for my attendance. But the librarian persuaded me that the University of New Mexico would be a good fit, both for the climate, and also the fact that it had a good physics department, which I was interested in. I was especially interested in astronomy, and UNM had their own observatory there. I think that was the last school I applied to, and I was, fortunately, accepted.
Since UNM was a land-grant school, even though I was out-of-state, the tuition was very reasonable – as I recall, it was about $323 per semester for tuition and about the same for room and board. My parents were happy with that, and I happened to get a scholarship from my high school.
With all that in mind, come August of 1957, I left the family in Tokyo…….
~~~~~~~~~~To Be Continued~~~~~~~~~~
Judy is living in Central Florida with her retired U.S. Air Force husband of 50+ years. Born in Dallas, Texas, she grew up in the Southwestern United States.She met her husband at their church, where he was attending the university in her town. After college and seminary, he entered the Air Force, and their adventures began.They lived in eight of our United States, and spent six years in Europe, where their oldest daughter was born. She was a stay-at-home mom for many years
I sense romance in the future
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