After an unfortunate freshman year at another school, I made one of the best decisions of my life by transferring to UNT. I enrolled as an art major the summer of 1974. Though my first class of the day met at the challenging hour of 7:30 a.m., I always loved walking into the Art Building, the morning sun streaming through that great skylight and down the atrium.

I also hit it off with my dorm mate, another art major, and as the days grew hot we found ourselves part of a regular coterie that enjoyed a near-daily afternoon diversion: Pile into somebody's car, sketchpads and cameras in tow, windows down, and head out for the rural roads of Denton.

Sometimes we'd start at the UNT golf course pond (pictured a decade earlier, from the 1965 Yucca) to watch big-whiskered catfish leap for bits of bread. Beyond campus, we'd breeze under cool, leafy tree tunnels or creep over the wonderful old Alton bridge.

At the buffalo ranch, we'd get out and lock eyes with those magnificent beasts. And as the sun sank low, we'd cruise past beautiful horse farms -- lush pastures, white fences and pink light on the gleaming coats of Thoroughbreds. All that, and we'd still get back to the dorm in time for dinner!

Though I love New York City, my home for 30 years now, the simple charms of North Texas will always hold a special place in my heart.

Deborah Hay ('77)
New York City

 

I attended many summers at UNT from 1955 to 1964, when I graduated and became the music department chair at Abilene Christian University.

Some of the things that impressed me most were these:

1. I could play golf Monday through Friday on the UNT golf course for $5 for the entire summer or $3 per summer semester. I'm still golfing but never had a better deal than that!
2. I played in the summer band under Maurice McAdow for several summers. He allowed me to play my trumpet until he had too many, and he switched me to tuba one summer. We played wonderful concerts outside every week.
3. I had my first graduate trumpet lesson with John Haynie, and he announced that I played "out of tune." For the first time in my life, I started listening to myself play. What a difference that made.
4. I was put with composition teacher Samuel Adler when he arrived on the scene, and this changed my life. At my first lesson, he played through what I had written, and asked, "Why did you do this?" He then explained what good composition is made of, showed me how to do it, and set me on the road to becoming a composer with more than 100 publications.
5. One year the summer orchestra at UNT agreed to play student compositions, and I got to hear a real orchestra play my music for the first time. I then knew that composing for orchestra was to be a big part of my life. I am now the composer-in-residence with the Williamson County Symphony Orchestra (pictured), and I believe my summer experiences at UNT gave me just what I needed to achieve that goal.

Melvin "M.L." Daniels
('64 Ed.D.)
Austin

I was on campus in the summer of 1955, between my junior and senior year. I still needed a P.E. credit, so I signed up for a swimming class taught by the late Fred McCain, then an assistant football coach.

Near the end of the semester, Coach McCain asked each one in the class what grade we should get in the course. Before me, every student had said he or she should get an A.

I couldn't bring myself to say that -- I was a terrible swimmer (and still am). I said that perhaps I should get a B, because I had tried really hard.

We had to swim the length of the pool in order to pass the course. Coach McCain walked the length of the pool with me as I swam. I don't know if he wanted to encourage me or just make sure I didn't drown.

Somehow I finished, and the class was over. When I got my grades later, I had an A in swimming. I almost laughed out loud.

It really was an A for effort. A very belated thank you, Coach McCain!

Marilyn McGinnis
Davis ('56)
Grapevine