Trish (Harmony) and Gary Cox, both '67

We were sitting next to each other at the Freshman Banquet. I thought he was the most selfish and arrogant "townie" imaginable, with all his local pals and their "in" jokes. I was all alone, none of my high school buds followed ME to college.

I am sure he took little notice of me that first year, but toward the end of the year, he was struggling in Spanish class and came to my dorm looking for some help. I happened to be pretty good in Spanish so I helped tutor him and at that point we started dating.

That summer we corresponded. I found out later he was dating another girl. We went together and took some classes together, like Prof Fost's basic Christian Thought. And the fall of our Junior year we were pinned.

I bet you think is is a happy story from there on but it was not. We broke up, didn't speak for about a year. At graduation under the old oak we shook hands and wished each other well.

We got back together after he went in the Army and I went to grad school. From there on it has been dreamland. We married in 1969 and 42 years later, our friends call us "the lovebirds".

We are involved still in Linfield, as season ticket holders for football. Many of our dearest friends are college-mates.

I truly think the pace and safety at Linfield in the 60s allowed us to grow and experiment with adulthood to make good choices, in contrast to what was happening on other college campuses at the time. And for this reason we blow a kiss to the place where we found each other.