College Awaits ...

As students from all around the county go off to college, I can't help but remember my trip to college. 

I opted for San Francisco State, a scant 58 miles from my lifelong home on Second Avenue in Napa.

What I really opted for were San Francisco Giants games, a bus ride or two from wherever I was living in the City.

My parents decided that I was going to live with my brother, his wife and their daughter Tiffany, in a flat in Noe Valley, two bus rides and $.25 from the school. 

San Francisco, being almost 49 miles square, nothing was more than seven miles apart. I'm guessing when I am saying it was about four miles to the campus.

My father drove me in his pickup for my first night in San Francisco. They had bought me a new twin bed set and had had it delivered the day before I got there.  Other than that there were just a couple of suitcases of clothes and some sheets and blankets. 

I had gotten a new stereo set, complete with turntable for high school graduation.  The room which would become mine had one electrical outlet and that was in the ceiling light socket.

I spent my first week in San Francisco getting to know the City. I learned that the #24 Divisadero and the "M-Ocean View' were the ones I needed to go out to SF State. If I caught them just right, I could make it out to the campus in about 40 minutes. Other times, I had to wait. It was still just $.25 though.

In late 1972, when I left, Napa was around 40,000. I would be venturing off to a school that had a full time equivalent student body of around 23,000, more than half as big as my town, though I didn't live in the City of Napa. 

High school had been safe, college in San Francisco was outside of the security blanket.

It took me three days to get into the right classes. Schedule changes were not instantaneous, like they are today. Classes had been switiched in locations and a student did not find out about it until they walked into class and had the wrong class.

By Wednesday of the first week, I finally got it right: One economics class, one humanities class and two evening political science classes. Poli Sci was my major, which turned out not being what I thought it would be, but I had too much pride to think about changing.

College turned out being a great experience. It is nothing like high school: They did not call your Mommy if you didn't come to class. They did not hold your hand.  It really was 'sink or swim.' 

I have friends to this day that I made at both San Francisco State and later when I attended Sacramento State.

I wish all the young people luck in their endeavors.

Tom Ontis is a Napa ex-patriate now living in Contra Costa County with wife Shelley, niece Kayla and five kittie cats.  He grew up on a two acre ranchette in Coombsville, east of Silverado Junior (now middle) High School