Hi'iaka's Healing Herb Garden

I found this story in an old journal recently...it goes back to the spring of 1965 when I was an innocent freshman at UCSB.

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Barb was 18 years old and living in Santa Rosa dormitory at UCSB. She had very happily adjusted to college life and the freedom from her parents, even though they were footing the bill.

One weekend in the spring, Barb's friends and neighbors Sandy Best and Linda Schaefer had 2 of their friends up for a visit from Orange county. Make that 3 of their friends--2 other girls and Sandy's boyfriend Steve Housley. Since they couldn't all stay in the dorm, Sandy, Linda, Barb, and the other 2 girls rented a nearby motel room and Steve rented another room in the same motel. Back in those days (at least with "nice" girls like us) that's the way it was done.

Happily settled in their small room, the 5 girls and Steve spent Saturday afternoon studying and drinking booze. They got more drinking accomplished than studying. After eating some dinner, Barb, Linda, and Sandy's 2 girlfriends went to a dance at the university gym. Sandy and Steve went to a movie. It wasn't that great of a dance, and Barb had to keep hiding from a guy she had stood up because he had bad breath. She called him "Hal," short for "halitosis." After a short time at the dance, the 4 girls were picked up by 4 Kappa Sig's and invited to a party at their fraternity house. Barb had never been to a Kappa Sig party, so she was eager to go.

"Neat," thought Barb, "we can stay out as late as we like because we're signed out for an overnight and therefore don't have any lockout hour we have to be home by."

It was a mistake to tell the fraternity boys this!

When the 8 young people arrived at the fraternity house, there really wasn't a party going on at all--just a bunch of drunk frat guys messing around, playing the drums and drinking. The girls paired up with the guys and went their separate ways with them to be alone and fool around. Barb went to her date's apartment across the street from the fraternity house, arranging with her girlfriends that they would honk the car horn out in the street when they were leaving for the motel.

After a couple of hours of making out on Rick's couch (I think that was his name), Barb thought she heard a car honking out in front of the apartment building. Sure enough, it was the other girls, but for some reason, Barb missed them and got left behind. It was about 3 AM. What was she to do? Surely not spend the night with Rick!

So Rick escorted Barb back to the fraternity house to try and find a ride so she could get back to the motel.

He called up the stairs, "Hey you guys, there's a girl down here who needs a ride--does anybody have a car?" Before he could finish his sentence, what seemed to Barb like 100 naked men came rushing down the stairs.

"Run!" Rick yelled to Barb, and she ran out the front door and into the street. All of a sudden, she didn't know how, she was surrounded by all those naked men, some on one side of a fence, and the rest around her on the sidewalk.

"Hey, look at mine, baby!" they were shouting, along with other witticisms.

And then Barb felt something warm and wet dripping down her leg from through the fence. She knew at once what it was.

"Does anyone have a towel?" she asked calmly. Of course, she was dressed in her pink wool A-line skirt, white shell sweater, and matching pink cardigan. Complete with nylon stockings and pink patten leather shoes. The shoes were, of course, ruined.

The next thing Barb knew, two fully-clothed guys appeared from nowhere, and were volunteering to drive her back to the motel. They did drive her home, like proper gentlemen, and she was rescued. But what a close call! And she was always greatful for having the ability to keep her cool--"that's the only thing that saved me from getting raped or something," she realized later.