View source for First Steps Outside My Comfort Zone

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As early as I can remember I was destined to go to RPI, or “THE RPI”
as we called it in “THE Burgh”. My Grandmother, Nana, was a cook in
RPI's Sage Dining Hall. RPI garnered a lot of respect in the Burgh. I
dare say that most families in the Burgh would have been pleased to
have their son or daughter attend RPI.

I was fortunate enough to be accepted at RPI, entering the Math
program in 1964. But RPI was more than academics. It presented me with
a more diverse look at life than I had experienced in the Burgh.

Lansingburgh in the 1960's was a working class community: Catholic,
Protestant and white. Attending RPI as a freshman opened my eyes to a
more diverse society. RPI's diversity was still limited in many ways
because most of the students came from well-to-do, educated families,
especially the students from New York City. But RPI provided me with
the opportunity to live and interact with an internationally diverse
group of young people.

At RPI, I also met students from our area: Watervliet, Latham, Albany.
One of my fraternity roommates, Dan, was from Watervliet. We are still
close friends today. In 1965, I met my wife Terri who grew up in
Latham. She still needles me about my lack of knowledge of anything
outside of the Burgh. I argue that we had everything we needed in the
Burgh. Although we occasionally ventured into the City (Troy), my
adventures were pretty much limited to those areas served by the Fifth
Avenue Bus Company. For me and many of my friends, there was really no
need to cross the river.

I lived on campus as a freshman, in Bray Hall. Tom Burke, Lansingburgh
'64, was my roommate and a close friend from high school. Tom and I
helped each other make the transition from our isolation in the Burgh
to college. Our next door dorm neighbor was Georges from Cuba and his
roommate was from New Jersey.

The Phalanx Freshmen Mixer was part of the RPI freshman orientation.
The RPI Phalanx Society was, and still is, a service and leadership
honor society at RPI. Phalanx members are the crème de la crème of the
RPI students. The Phalanx Society sponsored the annual Freshmen Mixer.
This was a required event for all RPI freshmen and, in 1964, the event
was held in the Field House. Seven hundred RPI freshmen sat on one
side of the Field House and the other side consisted of seven hundred
Russel Sage, Skidmore, Albany State and Saint Rose freshmen girls.
Although my RPI class had about 20 females out of over 700 students, I
can't recall how they were accommodated at the mixer, but since they
all lived off campus at Sage, I believe they were included with the
700 girls.

In 1964, RPI freshmen were nerds and geeks before the terms were even
invented. We were called "tools" back then. Pocket protectors and
slide rule holsters were part of our normal garb. Women were a low
priority in our lives, although that would change for some of us
during our four years at RPI.

At the Phalanx Dance, each freshman had a number. Supposedly, dates
were matched by age and height. Funny, since we were all freshmen and
about the same age. When your number was called, you walked to the
center of the hockey rink and met your "Phalanx Date".

The Phalanx Dance was a big thing for us, a real diversion from the
grind of class work. Even a “tool” needed diversion. My date was a
nice girl from Saint Rose. I feel bad that I can't recall her name. I
do remember that she was from South Troy. Although the details of our
first "date" at the Phalanx Dance are sketchy, I do remember that we
had a good time. It helped that we were both from Troy, albeit from
opposite ends. We dated a couple of times after the dance.

Our last date was at a Bob Dylan concert at the Troy Armory in
February 1965. This was a blanket concert and tickets were $2. Dylan's
set list included “The Times They Are A'Changing” and “With God on Our
Side”. Dylan was always a favorite of mine and we both enjoyed the
concert. To this day, I remain a Dylan fan. My daughter and I danced
to Dylan's “Forever Young” at her wedding in 2010.

Now, I finally come to the Burgh connection of this story. All through
high school we had dances at the Burgh. It seems like we had a dance
very week, sponsored by one of our organizations. Sometime in the fall
of 1964, my freshman year at RPI, Lansingburgh High held a dance for
alumni. I think this dance was near Thanksgiving or Christmas to
accommodate alumni who would be home for the holidays. I invited my
Phalanx Date to this dance.

My date, I'll call her Mary, lived in South Troy. The streets in South
Troy are named for our Presidents, starting in order with Washington,
just south of Liberty. I think Mary lived somewhere around Polk, the
last presidential street in South Troy. To me, South Troy was another
country and not a friendly one. It was far south of downtown Troy. I
was uncomfortable the night I picked up Mary in South Troy. I parked
as close as I could to Mary's house and picked her up, hiding the
stress I was feeling.

Mary and I had a good time at the alumni dance. Part way through the
dance, we took a walk on the streets around the high school. We walked
down by the river. Mary seemed anxious and confessed that she was
frightened walking around North Troy, not a friendly place.

In just a few months, I had learned that leaving THE Burgh, going to
THE RPI and dating a girl from South Troy were nothing to fear.

''Bill Lorensen, Lansingburgh '64''