First Year at BYU 1950-51

Soon it was time to leave for BYU and Mona drove me to Los Angeles, stopping to visit San Juan Capistrano Mission on the way, where I got a ride to Provo with mother's old friend Donna Lindsey. Donna's daughter Carmen, a year younger than me, was also starting out as a freshman. She took us to Provo via the Grand Canyon; the first time I had ever seen it.
I stayed at Knight Hall, on 800 North and University, a beautiful building. The house mother asked me if I liked people from distant places and I replied that I did. She gave me roommates from Vernal and Preston, Idaho! I didn't think those places were very distant. In some ways I was very mature and in others, not at all, especially socially. One of the ex-Argentine missionaries asked me for a date for Sunday Sacrament Meeting. I accepted and another one said he would pick me up for Sacrament Meeting! I didn't know how to gracefully tell him I had a date so said nothing. He wound up taking all of us, my other date and roommates included, to church in his car. He did ask me out again, without the rest!
I was quite homesick at first but did enjoy my year at BYU. I hadn't been to many football games, a few at South Gate High, and they were fun though BYU had a very poor team. We did better in basketball; our team won the NIT championship that year. I loved singing in the Concert Choir with Crawford Gates as the conductor. He was still single then and some girl friends and I organized the SCGCK Club (Save Crawford Gates for the Celestial Kingdom). Someone else received that blessing, not one of us. One had to audition for this choir and it about scared me to death, I had
never done it before; I sang second alto in it. We sang Bach's "Magnificat," Bruckner's "Te Deum", and Borodin's "Polovetzian Dances", among other neat things; I loved singing in that choir, I felt challenged. The BYU choirs sang for two sessions of General Conference. What a thrill to sing in the Tabernacle! After the sessions I walked up to Pres. McKay and shook his hand and asked when he was sending my parents home. A little presumptuous, I think.
My first class in the morning, two days a week, was volleyball in the Women's Gym, on University Ave. Then I would hike, and I mean hike, to the Social Hall at the other end of the campus for Concert Choir, arriving a little out of breath. I took Sociology, and Psychology, maybe not the same term, and Shakespeare. I later I could have taken archaeology instead of Sociology. Too bad! I also had a Book of Mormon class that I really enjoyed and an advanced English class. I had been told I would be in dumbbell English but I scored high enough to be in the advanced class! I also took Spanish. I took an exam in Spanish and earned 25 credits with a grade of A to add to my transcript.
I loved the mountains in Provo. I had never lived around mountains before and it was a treat to see them and the fall colors as they changed. I had never really lived around snow either so that was fun too. I felt the same as some Hawaiian girls who had never seen snow but I didn't run around laughing and giggling in the first snowfall of the year like they did.
I had a lot of fun with my cousin LaMar Williams, a few years older than I; he had been a missionary in Uruguay. We went to dances and had a great time. One dance was rather fancy and a bank was having an open house in downtown Provo giving away Vanda orchids to the women visitors. We went in several times until I obtained enough to make a corsage for the dance.
About mid-way in my freshman year I moved out of Knight Hall and into an apartment with some other girls. It was sort of medieval at the dorm. One had to be in by 10:30 p.m. on week nights and 12 or 1:00 on weekends and fill out a slip each time. We would stay out every night until 10:29 whether we wanted to or not because of that rule. I enjoyed the apartment more.
I spent the summer in San Diego and worked in the stock room of J.C. Penney Co., where Mona's husband Byron was the manager, and saved my money for school. Mona and Mona Lue went to Hawaii for a visit and I kept house for Byron and Kay. Mona and Byron started having arguments and trouble between them so it was not too pleasant part of the time. They divorced not too long afterwards. I enjoyed going to Mexican movies that summer, going downtown or to the arts cinema close to the house. I saw one, with Pedro Armendariz and Maria Felix, about five times.
I spent a week keeping house for Uncle Don and Aunt Virginia's three boys in Downey and enjoyed it very much. I discovered the classical music station at that time, KFAC, and listened to it all the time.