The first one on the list was the Stevenson residence on 727 West College Avenue. I walked the 4 or 5 blocks there and was met at the door by a very friendly older woman, Erma Stevenson, and made arrangements to rent a room there.
When I went back later to start the school year, I rang the doorbell, and Marguerite answered the door asking “Who are you?” I replied, “I’m going to live here.” She smiled and answered, “Oh, I do, too.” (She probably thought I was cute!) She was staying there with her aunts and uncles, while her Dad had just been discharged from the service and was with her Mother back at their home in Mt. Lebanon in the Pittsburgh area. This was the first time we met. She was 14 and starting her Sophomore year at State College High School.
I was in a small, single room, but when Ken Martin from Uniontown, PA., came there also, we decided to share a large room next to the bathroom. Ken was also a veteran, having served in the Navy. He was a chemistry major and engaged to a girl back home. Soon there were other students renting a spot there; Gerald (Red) Calehuff, John Hamer and Larry Armour.
Early in September several weeks before the school term was to start, I took a bus trip to State College to arrange for housing for my first year at Penn State. I had found out that very little room was available in the college dormitories, (and I really didn’t want to live there because it seemed so much like the barracks life of the army), so I visited the main office at Old Main and asked for a list of housing available in private homes.
At that time, there were three Stevensons living there - Erma, John, and Frank. Not too long afterward, Sara, who was a Lt. Colonel, was discharged from the Army Nurse’s Corp and moved back home. Sara’s last Army assignment was as the head nurse at the Haddon Hall Army Hospital in Atlantic City. Betty, who had served as a Lieutenant in the Army Nurse Corps in the 20s and early 30s, was with Sara in Atlantic City working in a civilian position, and returned home with Sara. None of the five ever married.
Margeet's brother Bob and sister Tish were also staying at the Stevenson house so it was quite full. At that time Bob was a freshman at Penn State and Tish was a junior in high school.
Ken and I kind of adopted Margeet as the younger sister neither of us had. She would stop to talk to us and tell us about her school work and doings, and we watched her grow up. Occasionally, we would take her to football, basketball and wrestling events at Penn State’s Rec Hall or Beaver Stadium.