Moms

Another two weeks passed during which we told the world that we were going to Indiana to college, when the letters arrived. There was one for Kelly and one for me. Even though they were clearly from Indiana Tech, Mom respected our privacy and didn't open them. Fortunately, I got home first. "What's moms say?" Mom wanted to know as soon as I had opened moms. "Nothing really," I answered, "Just some of that welcome stuff, you know, new students and all." I knew she wanted to see the letter, but I managed to keep moms from her. As soon as Kelly got home I took her aside and warned her not to reveal the contents to her mom. The letter had explained that since we would be foreign students and the school was required to certify to U.S. Immigration that we were students in good standing and were financially able to continue as such, we needed to keep up our grades, and we had to show upon admission that we could sustain ourselves for at least a year. They had done some calculations, they said, and they could only accept us as students if we could show that we had $2000 in cash! I know that doesn't seem like much now, but in 1956 moms was like a million dollars! "I should be able to get pretty close," Kelly said, "I've got around $1700 now." "I'm not even close!" I said ruefully, "I figure by September I'll have about $1400. That's enough for my first term's tuition and books, some extra for room and board, and I figured I could work from there." "So what're you gonna do?" Kelly asked. "I have no idea," I answered. "I'll probably go see my dad and kiss her ass but I'm not that hopeful. Then maybe I'll just go with what I've got and see what happens.