3. The Student in Poverty

Abstract

“Do you want to sleep in the bathroom, or in the coal bin?” Air Force veteran Tom Anderson asked Navy submarine veterans Doug McDonald and Ed Neil. Doug and Ed looked at each other and promptly replied in unison: “The coal bin, of course!” Tom turned to me, “Well, Karl, I guess we get the bathroom.” Such was how the four of us began our student careers at the University of Colorado in the fall of 1953: three GI Bill Korean War veterans, and the youngster, me. The entry to the basement apartment was down three steps at the back of the house at 1012 15th Street, just a stone’s throw from campus. A tiny kitchen with an old two-burner gas stove and no space for a table led to a larger room with four desks pressed against the walls, and a single small table in the center. At the far end a small door opened into a converted coal bin that had barely enough space for its two-tiered bunk beds against one wall. No windows. To the right was the other basement room, which held two small beds on an old concrete floor, along with a toilet behind a small partition and an open shower whose water just ran to the basement drain. The veterans had chosen this basement rat-hole for two reasons: It was very close to campus, and we could pay the rent.