Peter Elbow, the author of Writing Without Teachers, was one of my faculty members in the 1978-79 year. Or, come to think of it, the academic time I call the Year From Hell. Peter required us to deliver several pages of freewriting every week and to read our work out loud in class. Meanwhile, he was working on a manuscript that eventually was published under the title Writing With Power. Several of my classmates are mentioned in that book, since he used as a sounding board and unofficial editors. A few years after graduating, I knew a guy who really wanted to study freewriting with Peter but TESC required three letters of reference since his academic career had pretty much consisted of partying. I wrote a reference for him, and so did the writer Stephen King, who knew him back in his home state of Maine. I have hitchhiked through Maine. On one ride I asked a guy, "I'm from Washington. We call ourselves Washingtonians. What do people from Maine call themselves?" "Maniacs!" he cheerfully replied. I made it as far north as the town of Dover-Foxcroft, or Dover-Foxtrot as one native called it. I took foxtrot lessons in Santa Barbara in 1974 but can't remember any of it except I stepped on a lot of feet. The needle on the LP record player was jostling a bit when the floor bounced. I also watched a chess tournament down there. That was excitement plus, let me tell you. My cousin Richard was with me. Roland and Patti too. We tried to see which one of us could do the best Peter Lorre imitation. If only he had lived long enough to have been a villain on TV's Batman, at least they had Vincent Price as Egghead. Richard, who was an avid student of Timothy Leary's work at the time, visited me at Evergreen in 1975 just in time to participate in the Jobbo Bonobo cult. Hey, I'm back to Evergroove again, which reminds me: Peter required us to deliver several pages of freewriting every week. Elbow, not Lorre.

During my very last quarter at Evergreen, I attended an evening class on classical expository writing from the very European and stern Niels Skov. A great experience. I wish I had taken his course during my first quarter, but at least I got in under the wire.