[Oasis]

Like Garvin, I was a fan of the Main library.  I would go to the same carrel just about every day.  I called studying there in the evening "going to the bright lights." 

You could open the windows in those days.  There were trees then on the north side of the building.  (Are they still there?)  A limb extended almost to the window of my carrel.  Tree, limb and study environment changed with the seasons.  In the fall the leaves turned and it was beautiful.  In the winter the limb swayed with the wind (which you could only vaguely detect through the nearly opaque glass) and the cold air got through even with the window closed.  Then in spring the tree was glorious green and you could open up the window to the warm air.  There were a few squirrels in the tree but otherwise there were NO DISTRACTIONS in the Main, which (whether attractive heartbreakers or uninspiring knuckle-draggers) were about all UGLY had to offer.  I am very susceptible to distractions. The problem with the Main was that it closed about 10:00 p.m.  So I would slip off to the UGLY basement, which then was part of the Main and kept the same hours.  The basement attendants would just leave at closing time and you could study down there as long as you wanted.  Just make sure the door closed behind you when you left and you could repeat the trick every night. 

I remember some of the graffiti near my seat:  "Is this animal [rendering of microscopic life form] 'higher' than Norm Wessels?"  "Jerk Off, Suck Off, Check-ov, Rimsky-Korsak-off, That's Een-off" written by different people and "I schwer, dieses Buch ist hart." It was a kind of fellowship of minds grappling with the difficult.

Halloween Night 1973 I was in the basement late.  Everyone was gone.  A gruesome murder had occurred on campus recently and the deserted basement started feeling creepy as the night wore on. Then about 12:30-1:00 I heard something that sounded exactly like someone taking a deep breath right behind me.  I envisioned a killer inhaling just before he slit my throat, felt every hair on my head stand up and my blood run cold. But it was only the ventilation system.  It noisily inhaled again a few minutes later.

[Oasis]

Like Garvin, I was a fan of the Main library.  I would go to the same carrel just about every day.  I called studying there in the evening "going to the bright lights." 

You could open the windows in those days.  There were trees then on the north side of the building.  (Are they still there?)  A limb extended almost to the window of my carrel.  Tree, limb and study environment changed with the seasons.  In the fall the leaves turned and it was beautiful.  In the winter the limb swayed with the wind (which you could only vaguely detect through the nearly opaque glass) and the cold air got through even with the window closed.  Then in spring the tree was glorious green and you could open up the window to the warm air.  There were a few squirrels in the tree but otherwise there were NO DISTRACTIONS in the Main, which (whether attractive heartbreakers or uninspiring knuckle-draggers) were about all UGLY had to offer.  I am very susceptible to distractions. The problem with the Main was that it closed about 10:00 p.m.  So I would slip off to the UGLY basement, which then was part of the Main and kept the same hours.  The basement attendants would just leave at closing time and you could study down there as long as you wanted.  Just make sure the door closed behind you when you left and you could repeat the trick every night. 

I remember some of the graffiti near my seat:  "Is this animal [rendering of microscopic life form] 'higher' than Norm Wessels?"  "Jerk Off, Suck Off, Check-ov, Rimsky-Korsak-off, That's Een-off" written by different people and "I schwer, dieses Buch ist hart." It was a kind of fellowship of minds grappling with the difficult.

Halloween Night 1973 I was in the basement late.  Everyone was gone.  A gruesome murder had occurred on campus recently and the deserted basement started feeling creepy as the night wore on. Then about 12:30-1:00 I heard something that sounded exactly like someone taking a deep breath right behind me.  I envisioned a killer inhaling just before he slit my throat, felt every hair on my head stand up and my blood run cold. But it was only the ventilation system.  It noisily inhaled again a few minutes later.