BY RICHARD MORGAN

This happened many, many years ago. I was a freshman in college, so that made it probably 1974. I was living in Carter Hall East at the University of Toledo, and as a new freshman, I luckily fell into a good group of friends there. And while I honestly could write a lot about each of those people, this story is about Bruce.

Because every day around 4:30 p.m., he would break into my room and yell “Squeet!” OK, so what in the world does that mean?

Yes, I know the word sounds like nonsense, but let me explain its evolution, and you’ll understand.

It started by Bruce saying “Let’s go eat.” OK, fine, but after saying it pretty much every day, he started saying it faster and faster, until “Let’s go eat” became “Squeet.”

I’m assuming some of you right now are saying that out loud to see if it works. Yes, it does. And no, I’m sure you’re not the only one doing that!

But a couple things stand out about that.

First of all, why 4:30? I mean, we were all about 18, not 80. Why were we eating so early? And the only reason we didn’t go earlier is because the dining hall didn’t open until 4:30. I swear, if it opened at 3:30, Bruce would have wanted to eat then!

Secondly, while it’s common to complain about cafeteria food, I loved ours! We paid for the meal plan, and we could then eat as much as we wanted, no questions asked. And the food was pretty good. I mean, while I’m no gourmet, I thought it was great actually. And “all you can eat?” How can you beat that? I remember one time, for breakfast, I got a couple of fried eggs, along with toast. And just because I could, I ate ONLY the yolks (using the bread to sop them up, of course.) Then I threw the whites away and got two more eggs. Because while I love the yolks, I don’t care so much for the whites. I don’t know how many I ate, but it was a lot. Alas, I did feel kind of guilty about it, and never did that again.

But the third thing is -why do I even remember this? I don’t know about you, but for me, my head is filled with insignificant conversation exchanges that seemingly had no real significance. Yet I remember them. I can’t remember the exact words I used when I proposed to my wife, but I can remember Bruce saying “squeet.” And I have no idea why. I assume others are like me, but I’m not sure. I know it happens ALL THE TIME with me. I’ll be just going about my business, and some random conversation will pop into my head, word for word. And they’re never meaningful conversations. They’re normally about as important as Bruce saying “squeet.” Yet I remember them.

And finally, whenever I think about things like this, part of me wishes I could go back about 50 years to those times. When times were simpler, and life was easy.

Except the “times were simpler, and life was easy” part is mostly fiction. Yes, they seem simple now, but they sure didn’t then. And if I really look back on older times honestly, I can see that no, they were not simple. And no, life was not easy.

But I guess it’s human nature that when we look backwards, life usually seems better. But only on the surface. When I really compare the times, I would never trade my life now for my life then. Life at 19 is incredibly complex. No, I didn’t have to worry about a job, but I had classes which demanded a LOT of time from me. We had no money to buy anything. Really. And of course, there was our social life, which for any teenager is way more complex than us old people like to admit.

Admittedly, I’d give a lot to be able to be as healthy as I was then. Because even with three meals a day provided, with “all you can eat” for every meal, I was still in great shape. And I didn’t have all the strange aches, pains, and weird ailments most of us old people have.

I just know that next time we go out to eat, I’ll probably say “squeet!” And I’d be honored if you did too!