\u00a0They tore down the duplex at 507 Russell Avenue during the construction of the new Wabash baseball stadium.\u00a0 I\u2019m confident those responsible for completion of the stadium project consider that small, dingy brown structure to be nothing more than a minor impediment to the creation of a major campus upgrade. But to the Wabash men who called the place home from 1973 through 1982, 507 Russell Avenue was a historic landmark.\u00a0 It was certainly the setting for most of my memories of life at Wabash. \u00a0The fondest of those memories revolve around the food we prepared for ourselves and our classmates in the kitchen of that little brown duplex.<\/p>\n
\u00a0After spending my freshman year \u20131974\/1975 — at Martindale Hall and eating meals prepared and served in the Sparks Center, I moved to 507 Russell Avenue with three classmates, Tom \u201cMoe\u201d Modrowski, \u201978, Randy Miller \u201976 and Steve \u201cHog\u201d VanMeter \u201876. \u00a0The place was bequeathed to us from Dan Edquist \u201975 and Tom Giesting 75\u2019 who left Martindale in 1973 and became the first Wabash students to inhabit the duplex.\u00a0 For the first time in our lives we were forced to cook for ourselves or go hungry.\u00a0 Almost immediately, a plan for keeping an account of grocery purchases and all other house related expenditures was implemented.\u00a0 Our names were written on the top of a sheet of notebook paper.\u00a0 Beneath each name was a column.\u00a0 This ledger was then taped to the refrigerator door.\u00a0 Every time anyone paid for groceries, rent, utilities or any other household expense, an entry was made in their column.\u00a0 All expenditures were recorded and all groceries were communal property.\u00a0 No audit of the ledger was ever performed because none was necessary.\u00a0 We were \u201coff campus\u201d but the Gentlemen\u2019s Rule remained in full force and effect.\u00a0 At the end of each semester all the entries were totaled and divided by four.\u00a0 At that point one either owed or received money depending on the variance between one fourth the total expenses and the total of one\u2019s individual outlays.<\/p>\n
\u00a0The most frequent entries on the refrigerator door ledger accounted for purchases of cases of Stroh\u2019s Beer bottles, likewise considered communal property.\u00a0 Those empty cases became tables, book cases and television\/stereo stands, supplementing the few pieces of actual furniture we had accumulated.\u00a0 Our empty beer cases also became the household savings account.\u00a0 In early May those cases were hauled off to the liquor store and the deposit, $1.20 per case, was collected.\u00a0 The way we spent that money is another story for a different day.\u00a0 Aided by the refrigerator door ledger and strict compliance with the Gentlemen\u2019s Rule, in all the years I lived in the duplex we never went hungry, or had an argument about money.\u00a0 The monthly rent of $100 ($25 per man) was certainly a factor in minimizing financial conflicts.<\/p>\n
We were a frugal group and rarely ate fast food, believing that to be an extravagant and costly indulgence.\u00a0 Given different class schedules, breakfast and lunch were mostly individual affairs.\u00a0 But every night all four of us would gather around the dining room table for an evening meal.\u00a0 Not surprisingly, most of those meals were basic plates of meat, potatoes and vegetables.\u00a0 Uninformed about the virtues of fresh produce, our \u201cfood pyramid\u201d included countless cans of green beans or corn, cooked in one of our two pans with a large dollop of butter.\u00a0 The main dish was typically ground beef or chicken prepared with the contents of cardboard boxes purchased at the grocery store.\u00a0 Chicken prepared with the \u201cShake and Bake\u201d preparation mix was considered fine dining and we were especially excited when the barbeque flavor version was introduced.\u00a0 \u201cHamburger Helper\u201d lasagna was served at our very first dinner party. \u00a0Kevin Clifford \u201978, Chick Clements and his wife Janet were among the honored guests.\u00a0 As I recall, following that meal Janet remarked, \u201cyou guys will be alright\u201d.\u00a0 I was, and remain, very proud to receive that endorsement.\u00a0 I also recall the delight we shared upon removing a roast from the oven after it spent the day cooking at 225 degrees, covered with two cans of Campbell\u2019s cream of mushroom soup.\u00a0 On warm nights burgers or dogs were grilled on a small hibachi in the front yard.\u00a0 On occasion, our Russell Avenue neighbors Kevin Chavous \u201978 and Jack Armstead \u201978 joined us for those cookouts.\u00a0 I still remember the aroma which filled the neighborhood on those early fall and spring evenings.<\/p>\n
Without a doubt the ultimate food experience at 507 Russell Avenue was an elaborate \u2013 at least for us \u2013 dinner of roast turkey, gravy, stuffing, mashed potatoes and corn on the cob.\u00a0 A 15 pound turkey was procured for those events through our participation in a Kroger marketing promotion. \u00a0Shoppers were given cards with ten dark spots.\u00a0 Every week we went to Kroger and, upon spending the requisite $10, one of the spots in our card was punched out\u00a0by the cashier.\u00a0 After all the spots were punched we received our turkey.\u00a0 I diligently followed Betty Crocker\u2019s recipe for roast turkey and dressing. \u00a0Moe was surprisingly adept at preparing mashed potatoes. \u00a0One of our turkey feasts was attended by a contingent of Chicago natives living in Martindale, including Robert \u201cFred\u201d Kosola, Jack Ruddy and John Barry, who arrived with a bag full of corn on the cob.\u00a0 All agreed Stroh\u2019s beer was the perfect libation to pair with these meals.\u00a0 Perhaps I have romanticized these events over the decades.\u00a0 Nevertheless, to this day the smell of roasting turkey and dressing inevitably transports me back in time to the brown duplex on Russell Avenue.<\/p>\n
When Randy and Hog graduated in 76 their places were taken by two underclassmen refugees from Martindale, John Clough \u201979 and Keith \u201cHuck\u201d Yegerlinger.\u00a0 Huck left school the following year and Rick Wheeler \u201978, took his place.\u00a0 Later, after Moe and I graduated, Scott Boone \u201981 and Chris Braun \u201981 would join the roster of duplex residents.\u00a0 They, in turn, accepted Gary Fahnestock and Joe Boomhower into the most exclusive fraternity at Wabash, the residents of 507 Russell Avenue.\u00a0 Sadly, when Scott locked the door for the last time in 1982, the illustrious tradition of Wabash men experiencing both brotherhood and independence in a small, brown, two bedroom duplex came to a close.\u00a0 Over that entire time the sheet on the refrigerator door kept an accurate account of financial matters, camaraderie was fostered and the Gentlemen\u2019s Rule exemplified by the residents of 507 Russell Avenue.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
\u00a0They tore down the duplex at 507 Russell Avenue during the construction of the new Wabash baseball stadium.\u00a0 I\u2019m confident those responsible for completion of the stadium project consider that small, dingy […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":16,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-1077","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-uncategorized"],"w_featured_image_url":"","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/blog.wabash.edu\/magazine\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1077","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/blog.wabash.edu\/magazine\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/blog.wabash.edu\/magazine\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blog.wabash.edu\/magazine\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/16"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blog.wabash.edu\/magazine\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=1077"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/blog.wabash.edu\/magazine\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1077\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":1079,"href":"https:\/\/blog.wabash.edu\/magazine\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1077\/revisions\/1079"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/blog.wabash.edu\/magazine\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=1077"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blog.wabash.edu\/magazine\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=1077"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blog.wabash.edu\/magazine\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=1077"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}