Here are some brief accounts of some of my lighter moments at college:

I lived in an off- campus house with twelve others.  One of the guys had a woman visiting him, and I wanted to show off. There was an ashtray way over in the far side of the room. I took out a match, nonchalantly tossed it, and it  flew through the air, in all kinds of match acrobatics, and landed smack in the middle of the ashtray.

The woman was as surprised as I.

In perfect timing, her friend said, “Oh, he does that all the time!”

Another time, I heard of an off-campus party. They had a charge for attendance. I decided I wasn’t going to pay any charge, so I scouted the house and saw an open cellar window where the party was being held. I crawled into the open window space (something I could never do today.) Everyone cheered. I tore my jacket on the way. As soon as my feet touched ground, the organizer put out his hand and I had to pay him the charge.

Once, I went to take a shower. I locked my door and, naked, put my keys on top of the toilet. They fell into the toilet when it flushed. Thank God, they came up again!

I was privileged to visit Ireland with a college orchestra. I was the only one on a bass clarinet. I had a solo in “Aaron Copeland’s Appalachian Suite.” The weather was so moist that a pad came off a key. There wasn’t any time to remedy the situation. In front of a foreign audience, with everyone still, came my solo: “Bloooooowowwah!”