LOUISIANA STATE UNIVERSITY: A Blast from the Past

 I've lived for at least three years in Hawaii, Washington DC, California and Louisiana.  

• Born in Honolulu and, aside from college, three years working for the U.S. Senate and travel, spent most my time in Hawaii.
• Had whole summers in California with the Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory (twice) working on laser fusion and NASA Ames Research Center on the Search for Extraterrestrial Intelligence.
• 3 years and 7 months at Stanford University.
• 3 years and 7 months at Louisiana State University.  With close friends.

Today, my nostalgic Tuesday topic will be LSU, for they just won the 76th college world series championship, in what might have been the best ever.

• Started with 64 teams in tournament play.

• #1 rated was Wake Forest, #2 Florida and #5 LSU.
• 8 teams survived the super regionals, those teams above, and Stanford, TCU, Oral Roberts, Virginia and Tennessee.

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  The first time LSU and Wake Forest played, the Demon Deacons won, 3-2.  They faced each other two more times, and LSU won both.  The final game was tied 0-0 into the 11th inning, when a walk-off homer by LSU eliminated Wake Forest, and sent LSU into a 2 of 3 series with Florida.

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  LSU won the first game, 4-3, while Florida impressively prevailed in the second, 24-4, breaking all kinds of records, including getting 23 hits.
• In the final game yesterday, LSU got 24 hits and beat Florida 18-4 for the championship.

• 
  Way back on May 1, Major League Baseball had LSU's Dylan Crews, an outfielder, and Paul Skenes, a pitcher, #1 and #2 in the draft. 
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   The question today is who will be #1, for Skenes was named the most valuable player in the world series.  He was the first college pitcher in 12 years with 200 strikeouts.  However, the all-time season strikeout record is held by Derek Tatsuno of the University of Hawaii with 234.

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  However, Crews go the Golden Spikes Award as the best player in college.
• Oh, by the way, LSU's women's basketball team beat Iowa and Caitlin Clark for the 2023 NCAA tournament championship.

Among my highlights of my stay at LSU:

• Pearl and I drove cross-country in January of 1968 to Baton Rouge.  We had a car full of our stuff, and we still did not know where we would live.  

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  Dropped by the housing office, and the lady who greeted us exclaimed, I have on my typewriter a letter to let you know that a room in the married students complex was found for you.  So we lived there all the time we spent in Louisiana.  Interestingly  enough, I saw an article from 2014, showing this these buildings being demolished to make for something new.  Something about once having married students at 90%, and more recently at 10%.  It was brand new when we first moved in.
• 
  We lived a block from the first Popeye's Chicken, which opened on 12June1972.  The media thinks New Orleans had the first one, but read that article.  The Arabi location had a different name.  There are now 2600 of them in the USA and 500 internationally, or around 3100 outlets.  A 1000 more around the world will pop up by 2030, concentrating in China, India and Brazil.  If this occurs, will surpass McDonald's and KFC.  By the way, this is New Orleans chicken.
• 
  The star on campus was Pete Maravich.  What a basketball player.
• The main events on campus occurred Saturday nights when the LSU Tigers usually beat another football team.  Ladies wore gowns and men sport coats to games.  They usually came from a nearby party.  Lot of barfing at the game.  The Chemical Engineering Department building was adjacent to the stadium.
• Louisiana has a different festival every weekend.  Went to many of them.  As a matter of fact, 587 annually, and each features a different cuisine and/or fashion.
• There is, of course, Mardi Gras in New Orleans.

• 
  Cajun music.  Quite a history, which starts with Arcadians (French colonists) coming in the late 1700s.
• There was much discrimination, which continues today, but only barely now.  Saw black/white drinking fountains, etc.  But where do Asians fit?  I think White, for I recall going to an Army Reserve summer camp and a Caucasian came up to me and said, you come with us.  I honestly don't remember even one incident during my entire time in that region.  And we drove everywhere.

After graduation, I recall returning to Louisiana for an engineering conference, but left early because of an incoming hurricane.  Then in 2007 Hawaii played Georgia in the Sugar Bowl.  That was an experience.  I'd like to go back to Baton Rouge one more time.  Perhaps a riverboat cruise on the Mississippi.

Elton John's final performance? 

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