So two of my friends, Norman and Jeff, have kids just beginning their law school careers. Alana is at Northwestern in Chicago, and Michael at New York Law in The City. New York Law is not to be confused with NYU Law, though my friend Joel, a graduate, never corrects anyone when they assume he went to NYU.
Michael just texted that he had one final left, and it triggered my memory to my time with that tensosity, in January of 1984. Of course, the question is why the first set of finals was in January and NOT December. The answer was UM Law's transformative Dean, Soia Mentschikoff, who retired the year before we started. She had come from U Chicago and brought with her 7 young professors -- so soon became known as "Soia and the 7 Dwarves." She had a mandate to bump up the academic cred of UM, which at the time still had a lingering SunTan U reputation.
So Soia set about to separate the law school from the rest of the U -- even the schedule. UM Law kids got T shirts that said "The Pale Few At SunTan U." As a result, we had the absurd task of finishing classes before XMas, getting time off, and then returning for exams, and THEN getting another week off. It was absurd -- one of the greatest non-Wifey or Ds nights of my life, the Canes first championship victory, was sullied by the fact that I had a stupid final early the following morning. I'm pretty sure they got rid of Soia's schedule, and the U is now a real U again.
Anyway, I had already been dating Wifey, but we were on different pages in our relationship. She was 26 and working and supporting herself; I was 22 and not ready to be "exclusive," as she says with a trace of her Brooklyn accent that never fails to make the Ds crack up. I liked her fine enough, but I liked other ladies, too, and this was somehow a source of annoyance to her. Go figure.
Another complaint was how little free time I had because of studying for law school, especially that first semester when I still thought I might make Law Review, which my mediocre grades somehow impeded. We went to a nice dinner out in December, at the Chart House in the Grove, and Wifey said how much she looked forward to us finally having some quality time, after my January Finals. Wait, I said -- not so fast! Mike had invited me and our classmate Dave to go snowmobiling at Mike's family house in Three Lakes, Wisconsin. I told Wifey THAT was my plan.
Somehow the dinner temperature lowered. It caused the first of two breakups with me by Wifey -- the second near the end of our second semester. But, to use Shakespeare, all's well that ends well -- I weaseled my way back in both times -- the second time for good which led to a romantic trip to Cancun, when it was STILL Cancun and not Ft. Lauderdale, and the rest is our family history.
So we finished our last test, and got into Mike's conversion van -- and drove North. Since we had 3 drivers, the plan was to go straight through. Mike warned me about the cold, and I laughed. HE was the Miami native -- I was a tough LI guy who knew winter. Well, it wasn't so funny when we stopped for gas in Illinois and the temp was 20 below and my hand stuck to the gas pump. I truly did NOT know Midwestern cold.
As we drove the final leg, the heater sort of stopped working, and Dave thought his feet were getting frostbitten. My warmed them with a kel-light as I drove the lonely Wisconsin Highways -- and we made it in mostly one piece.
We had a blast! Mike's Uncle Marv, already well into his 70s, took us though the paths at night, stopping at taverns for Old Style beer and chili. We rode over the frozen lakes all day -- I had never snowmobiled before, or since, and it was the perfect blow off for the pressures of the very tough first semester of law school.
On our way home, we stopped in Madison -- I knew a girl named Kay who I had met in Florida the Summer my Dad died, and she and her friends met us in the frozen college town, and then invited us to spend the night with her family in Darlington "pretty close to Madison." I learned that "pretty close to a rural Wisconsinite is a 3 hour drive," but the next am Mike was thrilled to find a Nuesky's Outlet store to visit -- for their famous smoked meats and sausage.
We also spent a night at a La Crosse Hotel, where the temperature in the room never rose above 50, and the sweat in the foam van seats actually froze -- it was 50 below with the wind chill. I'm talking COLD.
I had sent a postcard to our favorite professor, signed by the fictitious name Dan Driver, from his Torts exam. The first day back in class he gleefully read it to us -- Mike, Dave, and I smiled.
The second semester was easier, once I got my grades and knew my C plus average wasn't Law Review material (my highest grade was indeed Torts, which I ended up practicing all these years. I guess I dug people getting hurt and making money from it).
Things with Wifey resumed, only until I had another girl named Pam come stay for 2 weeks -- I had met her at an Honors Conference her school, University of New Mexico hosted, and Pam was in grad school at Rice. Turned out Wifey was none too pleased about HER visit, and that led to the "final" ditching of her not ready to be exclusive boyfriend.
But, as the Spring drew to a close, I had another awesome vacation offer: Jeff and his girlfriend Cheryl were off to Cheryl's Mom's villa on the beach in Cancun. Airfare was only $150, and the stay was free. Ask Wifey, they suggested. Nah -- she said this breakup was for reals, as they say now, and I set about asking maybe 10 other girls, all of whom were busy. I really wanted to go. Cheryl INSISTED I aske Wifey, and I did. To my shock, she didn't hang up the phone, even though she had moved to North Miami to get away from me in Kendall.
And, as Fate had it, she was off the same week. Her friend Linda, who was most skeptical of me, for good reasons, told her to just go. "You broke up with him twice -- go have a great time in Mexico and leave him for good a third time. Why not?" Somehow the pretzel logic made sense, and Wifey agreed to go.
Well -- that'll be 4 decades plus a year ago come next May...
Michael is already married, so I guess he won't be visiting any other women following his Finals. Alana is single -- I'm guessing she'll just come home to Jeff and Lili after her tests are over.
But somehow my experience is seared into my memory --On, Wisconsin!
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