Thursday, July 30, 2009

The BYU 65th Branch, 1977-78

I just received the attached photo from my friend Jeff Aldous, which dates back to roughly September 1977. At first I thought it was a photo of the guys from the 7th Floor of "T" Hall in Deseret Towers at BYU; however, then I realized that some of these guys actually lived on the 6th Floor, so it must have been intended to be a photo of all the males in the BYU 65th Branch. (The 65th Branch encompassed the 6th and 7th Floors of "T" Hall for the guys, and both the 2nd Floor of "Q" Hall [at D.T.] and all of Young Hall [in Heritage Halls] on the girls' side. It held church meetings at Wasatch Elementary School on 900 East in Provo.) There were upwards of ninety guys in the branch, so the turnout obviously wasn't overwhelming for the photo shoot (I suspect I was in class or at the library); however, I still remember a lot of these fellows. My roommate, Bob Maes, is on the far right of the back row. Our buddies (and fellow KNOBs) Jeff Aldous and Galen Kekauoha are at the far right of the front row and third from the right in the middle row, respectively. Scott Hansen, who was Chuck Canfield's roommate (and sort of an "adjunct" KNOB), is on Jeff's right.

At the time, Bob's family lived on the west side in Albuquerque; Jeff was from Metairie, Louisiana; Galen was from Los Angeles; and Scott, like Chuck, was from Magna, Utah. Deseret Towers has now been completely razed (with the exception of the Morris Center [a/k/a the "Morbid Center," or the "Morose Center"], which once served as D.T.'s cafeteria, offices, and all-around gathering place, but which is now sort of a conference center), the thought of which brings a bit of a tear to my eyes. I was much too psycho about school ever to have had much fun during my freshman year; I think I went on two, maybe three, dates all year, one of which was a blind date to a stake dance, also at Wasatch Elementary, with the friend of a friend of Bryan Whatley, the guy on Galen's left in the photo. (If memory serves, Bryan was from somewhere in Oregon, as were his friend and her friend -- cute girl! -- who were just visiting in Provo.)