Joe Blundo: So to Speak | Book recalls lively 1960s on Ohio State campus

It’s a little painful to read “Ohio State University Student Life in the 1960s,” but not because some of the fashion choices were so tragic.

As we approach a fall without familiar campus rituals, this new book by William J. Shkurti is a reminder of how lively the place would be right about now were it not for coronavirus precautions.

I stared at a photo of bewigged Beatles impersonators clustered around a mid-’60s microphone and thought, “Wow, remember when group singing wasn’t a public health violation?”

Shkurti — who graduated from OSU in 1968, later served as its chief financial officer and is now an adjunct professor — breezes year-by-year through the decade, remembering bars, restaurants, homecoming concerts, big games and eternal parking inadequacies.

His earlier book, “Ohio State University in the Sixties,” focused on campus construction, student protest and academic reforms. Both books tell a story of rapid cultural change.

OSU in 1960 had something called the Women’s Self Government Association that set dress standards for females: No slacks or shorts in any class but physical education. (Men were expected to dress appropriately, but had no written guidelines.)

By 1969, the dress codes were gone, hence the bell bottoms, psychedelic pantsuits, fringed vests and Nehru jackets. Also gone were curfews, chaperones and the “four-on-the-floor rule” (feet on the ground at all times when a man visited a woman’s residence).

The Lantern, OSU’s student newspaper, grew increasingly critical of campus entertainment choices as the decade wore on. Appalled that the university was bringing back the Lettermen for Homecoming weekend in 1967, an editor wrote, “On Friday night, well-scrubbed couples will file dutifully into Mershon Auditorium to sit thorough another unbelievably mediocre entertainment presentation.”

Well, OK, but hindsight suggests the university wasn’t half-bad at booking performers. Louis Armstrong, Joan Baez, Jimi Hendrix, Henry Mancini and Peter, Paul and Mary all performed at OSU in the ’60s.

The book resurfaces the names of many long-gone establishments: Larry’s, the bar for intellectuals; Burger Boy Food-A-Rama, first of the campus fast-food establishments; The Sacred Mushroom, coffeehouse and jazz club; and the two Charbert’s restaurants, the less well-regarded of which tried to buff its image by banning men with long hair.

The book ends with the 1969-70 school year, which was supposed to culminate in a celebration of OSU’s 100th anniversary. Instead, the campus was shut down for two weeks after violent anti-war protests and the shootings at Kent State University.

Quite a decade, but then campuses are supposed to pulse with youthful energy. I hope this one can do that— and still stay healthy — during a strange year.

Joe Blundo is a columnist for The Dispatch.

joe.blundo@gmail.com

@joeblundo

“Ohio State University Student Life in the 1960s” (The History Press, 160 pages, $21.99) by William J. Shkurti