Star Trek in the Dorm Room Back in 1969

I don't think I had ever watched the TV show "Star Trek" when it aired, but things changed in the fall of 1969 after I got to Lincoln Hall at Northern Illinois University in DeKalb.

My roommate was Chuck from a small town near Peoria and he had a little 12-inch black and white TV. Only one other room on the 24-room dorm floor (3rd floor A Wing if I remember) had a TV other than one in the meeting room in the middle.

Every night after dinner, Chuck and I would go back to our room and I would commence reading my copy of the Chicago Daily News that my parents had subscribed for me and right at 6 PM (or was it 7 PM?) the number of occupants in the room would jump to anywhere from ten to sixteen. There'd be guys sitting everywhere, four across the edges of the bunk beds. You couldn't walk across the floor.

WGN, Channel 9, would have a rerun of Star Trek at that time. I became a "Trekkie" at the time. (But watching the old episodes now, I have to admit they were probaby the worst acted things since "The Lone Ranger.) We would all watch intently and have discussions about it afterwards before the all-night card games would get started. Hearts being the favorite.

These, Of Course, Being the Days Before All That Technology Reached Colleges. --RoadDog