- #1
DiracPool
- 1,254
- 514
Hey gang, I found something else during my once a decade spring cleaning of storage I thought y'all might get a kick out of. The year was 1993, I was a re-entry student at Sonoma State University in northern California.
To set the stage, I was a major party animal in the mid to late 80's. I went to UCSB from 85-88 and, after that, ran a booze cruise in Hawaii from 88-91. By then, I was so partied out that I wanted to mellow it out. So I stumbled my way to the University of Hawaii library and ran a search for the most "unparty" school in California I could find since I was still technically a California resident and could get cheap tuition. I looked on the map and tried to find the most out in the boonies institution away from any major metropolitan areas. The best I could find was "Sonoma State University (SSU)." Way out in wine country, nothing to do but quiet study, no partying. Yes, that's exactly what I was looking for. And that's exactly what I got. Of course, every college parties to some extent, but SSU was especially proficient at not doing it so well, which was great for me because that's exactly why I applied.
So, cut to the chase. Although I came to SSU for it's un-party-ness, I constantly complained about how boring it was there and constantly railed off stories of the glory days. My antics there across campus were met with mixed reception. If you do your research, you'll find that, not only was 1993 perhaps one of the most politically correct years in the USA, but SSU was probably the most politically correct academic institution in California. So much so that it had the unofficial title of "Granola U."
My politically incorrect rantings did not go unnoticed, and I became a comic-book character of the school newspaper along with my Vietnamese roommate who was portrayed as the orthogonal sentiment to my unpolitical-correctedness. I guess I was the Donald Trump of SSU in 1993, although I was a democrat back then and still am.
In any case, it seemed as if a few of the comic strips survived, yellowed as they are. I scanned the strips for your amusement and posterity...My first name is actually "Ray." So that's who I am in the Sonny and Ray strips. I'm the guy with the spikey blonde hair "Sonny" was my Vietnamese roommate whose name wasn't actually Sonny.
As an addendum, I was also the subject of the comic strip in my middle school in southern California in the late 70's (they skipped me in high school). The comic strip title was "Sting-Ray," and was about about a middle school grommet surfer which I was. In both of these characterizations, I was a little insecure as to how the publicity was going to affect my reputation at the time, and back in those days didn't take it as too flattering. Looking back on it, though, what a great thing to put in your scrapbook!
To set the stage, I was a major party animal in the mid to late 80's. I went to UCSB from 85-88 and, after that, ran a booze cruise in Hawaii from 88-91. By then, I was so partied out that I wanted to mellow it out. So I stumbled my way to the University of Hawaii library and ran a search for the most "unparty" school in California I could find since I was still technically a California resident and could get cheap tuition. I looked on the map and tried to find the most out in the boonies institution away from any major metropolitan areas. The best I could find was "Sonoma State University (SSU)." Way out in wine country, nothing to do but quiet study, no partying. Yes, that's exactly what I was looking for. And that's exactly what I got. Of course, every college parties to some extent, but SSU was especially proficient at not doing it so well, which was great for me because that's exactly why I applied.
So, cut to the chase. Although I came to SSU for it's un-party-ness, I constantly complained about how boring it was there and constantly railed off stories of the glory days. My antics there across campus were met with mixed reception. If you do your research, you'll find that, not only was 1993 perhaps one of the most politically correct years in the USA, but SSU was probably the most politically correct academic institution in California. So much so that it had the unofficial title of "Granola U."
My politically incorrect rantings did not go unnoticed, and I became a comic-book character of the school newspaper along with my Vietnamese roommate who was portrayed as the orthogonal sentiment to my unpolitical-correctedness. I guess I was the Donald Trump of SSU in 1993, although I was a democrat back then and still am.
In any case, it seemed as if a few of the comic strips survived, yellowed as they are. I scanned the strips for your amusement and posterity...My first name is actually "Ray." So that's who I am in the Sonny and Ray strips. I'm the guy with the spikey blonde hair "Sonny" was my Vietnamese roommate whose name wasn't actually Sonny.
As an addendum, I was also the subject of the comic strip in my middle school in southern California in the late 70's (they skipped me in high school). The comic strip title was "Sting-Ray," and was about about a middle school grommet surfer which I was. In both of these characterizations, I was a little insecure as to how the publicity was going to affect my reputation at the time, and back in those days didn't take it as too flattering. Looking back on it, though, what a great thing to put in your scrapbook!
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). But it was good times.