It was Dec., 1974. He had a calendar in his hand. During the entire quarter he documented the weather. "Look at this! Look at this!" and he ran his finger across the little squares, each one representing a day, and each one with a one-word description of the climate: "Rain. Rain. Rain. Overcast. Overcast. Rain. Rain ... How do you guys stand it? I'm going back to Chicago." Yes, back to Chicago, the city with subzero winters, humid summers, filthy air and lots of wind. He thought it was better than this and he did indeed leave Evergreen after only a few months. I wonder how many others from out-of-state were short-timers at TESC for the same reason? The fact that the College was still under construction also meant lots of mud to go with the rain.

Another natural aspect of Cooper Point catching new arrivals by surprise were the slugs. The slimy animals seemed to regard all concrete walkways as their highway, and they were hard to avoid. Cartoonist Jim Chupa, who adopted the style of Robert Crumb, used slugs as his regular characters in his CPJ comic art. Around 1977, when I lived in ASH (Adult Student Housing, now called Cooper Glen or something like that), I had a roommate who was fascinated by slugs. This was the same guy I mentioned in Part 27 who uttered the phrase that started the cult on campus. He was a native of Michigan. He captured two big slugs and named them Jobbo and Bonobo. And then he kept them in a giant jar with a tinfoil lid poked with holes. After a week or so, the inner surface of the jar was incredibly disgusting, and it didn't smell so good either. After a few days the slugs were constantly hanging around the lid, attempting to break free. The pathos of this situation had a strong impact on my friend, who decided to set them free one evening. But the next morning he had second thoughts, and ran out outside yelling, "Jobbo! Bonobo! Come home! Come home!" It was not be, and our lives seemed emptier as a result. Their frisky presence no longer warmed our domicile.

But you know the old Northwest saying: "If you love something, set it free. If it comes back to you, it's yours. If it doesn't, it never was. We do not possess anything in this world, least of all slugs. We only imagine that we do. Terrestrial gastropod mollusks are not ours; they belong only to themselves. Possessing and controlling them can be as harmful as neglect."

I think there's a lesson there for all of us.