His name was Ken and he, without a doubt, had the most luxurious long hair of any man on campus. It was spring quarter, Sophomore year, Statistics 101, Carver Hall, supplementary LAB. He was MY lab partner. Here I was, from a strong German Lutheran upbringing in Southwest Iowa, mostly monocultural experiences, and within a breath’s distance was this amazing man who DARED to display his locks of gold well past his shoulder blades. AND hippy sandals, probably hand made and imported from Mexico…… my heart raced as I marveled at his presence! We started the semester in March and then he disappeared after Easter but to my surprise, he returned the first Friday of May, in the lab when I had so desperately missed his mane the previous two weeks. He was just as happy to see me and asked if I would care to join him after class to catch up and he’d introduce me to some of his friends who lived over by the Arboretum on Arbor Street. It was 4pm, obviously my last class of the week and had no plans but to work off this weeks lesson in Stats while still fresh in my mind. I pretended to think about his proposition and weighed the consequences of being seen in public with such a man; a flower child, freak, free thinker, and apparently well connected to like minded people. I decided my indoctrination of 18 puritan years was about to be thrown off the bus. I was going to take a WALK on the WILD side! First stop was introductions in the iconic yellow house on Arbor Street: Paula Walker, Keith Wessel, Chuck Richards, Tom Carmody and Mary Kiesau. Suddenly, my reality was completely transformed. The conversation ensued for hours, along with fine wine, food, frisbee, and back to politics, world events, women’s rights; literature…… I stopped wearing makeup, wearing curlers to bed to straighten my unruly curly hair and shaving my armpits! It was the time of my enlightenment; TAKE ME TO CHURCH.