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Hump Day Report: Stockton's 40th

21.09.11

I was so young in 1971, a very unworldly 18-year-old who went forth to experience college life for the first time at a musty old hotel on the Atlantic City Boardwalk, the Mayflower. I’m proud to be one of the original students at Stockton College of New Jersey, celebrating its 40th Anniversary this year.

Stockton was conceived in the mindset of the tumultuous 1960s when the hippie culture dominated college campuses and protests were as much are part of college life as textbooks. I loved my college education from Stockton even if I did choose the school because it was one of the few colleges that wanted me (I was a classic “needs to work harder” B-student), and because I could afford to go there. At the time that I attended the school in those groundbreaking early days, it was cheaper than going to Holy Spirit High School.

We started that first semester on the Atlantic City boardwalk because the campus was not quite finished in the fall of 1971. One day when I finished a class I heard they were filming a movie a few blocks down the boardwalk and I rushed down there hoping they were looking for “college types” as extras. Instead, I was treated to just how tedious making a movie can be as I watched Ellen Burstyn, Bruce Dern and Jack Nicholson film a scene involving a rolling chair over and over and over again.

Source: Atlantic City Weekly (blog)