I met Lynda, my future wife, in the third lecture of the sociology course I had decided to take to help satisfy my liberal arts requirements. I was late for class because I just made it to the campus that morning. My car had broken down in the middle of Nebraska, and I had missed the first four days of class. I grabbed the first empty seat I saw, and there was Lynda, sitting in the aisle seat.
"Boy, I didn't think I was going to make it! Hi, my name's David, David Prescott."
"You better get settled. Professor Higgins doesn't waste much time. This course is going to be pretty intense."
"I've heard that. I missed the first two days of this class. Did I miss much?"
"Actually, you did. He got right down to business the first day. You should see my notes. By the way, I'm Lynda Jamison."
"Glad to meet you. Oops, there he is. Could I talk to you right after class?"
"Well, ok. I don't have another class for two hours. I could sure use a Coke. You want to walk with me to the student union?"
"That would be great."
I got out my notebook and Lynda opened her laptop. Professor Higgins started off right away speaking about the sexual revolution of the sixties. I wondered what had happened to the first two thirds of the twentieth century. This course was supposed to be about the changing sexual morals in the century. I guess I had missed the first sixty years. Maybe nothing had happened before Kennedy.
By the end of class, I had six pages of notes covering Bob Dylan, Joan Baez, the hippie phenomenon, and several other things. He seemed particularly caught up in the big gathering at Woodstock. I had heard about Woodstock, but I didn't realize it had so much impact on American culture. After all, it had been more than forty years ago and twenty-five years before I was born. "You were not kidding when you said that the professor didn't waste time. What happened to the first sixty years of this class?"
"Oh, he slam-bammed through those in the first two lectures. In his hand-out the first day, he laid out his schedule for the course. Most of it is going to be about the last forty years. The next few classes are going to be about the Harrad Experiment."
"What is that?"
"Well, it is a book written in 1966 about a fictional, experimental college where exceptional students were paired up in the dorm. Each person would have a member of the opposite sex as their roommate-complete strangers. They were instructed to keep daily journals, compiling their inter-actions with their roommates. Robert Rimmer was the author."
"Back in the sixties, there weren't any co-ed dorms, were there?"
"That's why it is considered a landmark book among sociologists."
"You seem to know a lot about it."
"I happened to read it in high school, and I know it is a big deal with Professor Higgins. Just so you know, I'm a sociology major. You should read it before next class. It is on the required reading list for the course."
"Lynda, I was wondering if it would be possible for me to review your notes for the classes I missed. I really need this course. I put off my liberal arts courses till my last year. I've been pretty busy with my math and programming classes. That's my major-computer programming. I just kept putting them off."
"Tomorrow is Saturday and I don't have any classes. We could meet in the library around noon and go over my notes."
"Lynda, you are a life saver. I'll stop at the book store and get a copy of that book in the morning. I'll see you at noon."
I stopped at the book store Saturday but, of course, it was sold out. They said that a new shipment was not expected for about three weeks. When I told Lynda, she said I could borrow her copy if I promised to have it back to her by Sunday night.
We spent about two hours looking over her notes and then went to her dorm to get the book. I told her that I would spend Sunday reading all day. She gave me her phone number so that I could call her when I got done.
I read all day and I finished it by about six. I called her and told her that I felt indebted to her and that I would love to help repay her by taking her to Pizza Hut. We had a great time and discussed the Harrad Experiment for two hours. When we parted I asked her if she would save me a seat in our sociology class the next day. She said she would and we sat together for all three classes that week.
Professor Higgins really dug into the ideas that the Harrad Experiment presented. I liked the approach towards sex and intimacy and told Lynda that I thought I would have been good to go if there was a real college like Harrad. She wasn't so sure about the idea of non-monogamous relationships and open sex.
We continued to sit together, studied together and went out together. After six weeks of this, we could probably call ourselves a couple. She had been to my apartment on two occasions and on the third visit, stayed the weekend. Toward the end of the semester, we decided it would be nice if she gave up her dorm room and move into my apartment. Five months later and two days before I was to graduate, I asked her to marry me and she said yes.
We decided to get married in the fall if I could find a job. The Denver/Boulder area was a growing hotbed of high-tech activity, and I found a great job with a small start-up. Before I was to start my new job, we decided that we should go see her parents, who lived in Gunnison. I must have made a good impression with them because they welcomed me with open arms and even agreed to continue providing Lynda with financial help for her college expenses. We spent the rest of the summer preparing for our life together.
Our sex life was great. Lynda actually had more experience than I did. She had been heavily involved a couple times in high school and her first years in college. She had not ever lived with anyone, but I figured she had been pretty active with her previous boyfriends. We decided that a no-secrets policy would serve us the best.
"Sociology has made me pretty open-minded about sex. In addition to The Harrad Experiment, I have read many books about intimacy and sexuality. In my course study, this is sort of becoming my major area of interest."
"Sounds good to me. I'm sure I'm going to like being married to a hot sexy animal. How is the fall semester shaping up? Getting married a month into your first month isn't going to mess you up, is it?"
"No, I've got most of the small details already taken care of, and my mom is coming to visit the week before to finalize things. I think everything will go smoothly. We probably will have to postpone our honeymoon, though."
"A hot sexy animal who is organized to boot-what more can a man want? I am looking at our time right now as a kind of pre-marital honeymoon. We can do a real one between semesters or sometime. I don't think asking for time off from my job right now would go over too well."
"You remember Professor Higgins, don't you?"
"Of course. Your hero, right?"
"Well, he is the vice-chair of the department, and he is going to be my faculty advisor for my next two years. I am meeting him a couple days before classes start to go over my course selections."
"He was very impressive in that course I took. I'm sure he will give you some great advice."
"I've already talked to him a few times. He thinks that specializing in human sexuality might be a good way to go. It seems that a lot of soc majors go the human resource route, hoping to get with a big corporate HR department. There is a lot of competition for those jobs, but getting into the sexual health field offers more opportunities and more money. Probably more interesting and fun, too."
