Prufrock, Paris, and English in the Gym

I had English, aka, Composition II, I think it was called, in the gymnasium building in the spring of 1984 at KU. They had an entire wing of classrooms next to the indoor pool and the handball courts. Our instructor was a hip dude, a grad student; wish I could remember his name. We read and discussed our X.J. Kennedy compilation of prose and poetry. This was the Love Song of J. Alfred Prufrock class. I heard the term Existentialism for the first time. We wrote papers. I sat next to cute girls. I learned an academic save from a sophomore. Why he was in Freshman English I don't know but one day the teacher couldn't find his term paper despite the fact this guy maintained that he turned it in. The teacher finally ruled in the student's favor when the dude produced a xerox copy of his term paper. This was in the day before word processing and I photocopied all my papers before turning them in after that.

One of those cute girls in class, Anika Paris, became a singer/songwriter. I saw her on the Late Late Show with Craig Kilborn about 10 years ago. I wouldn't expect her to remember me but we sat next to each other. It was a small classroom. I think everyone should have Composition II in the gymnasium with the Existentialists and the cute girls.