Part 8

No it wasn't a condom -  no way, no how.  Besides I drove a Mustang!

After she froze, Judy opened the box and it was an engagement ring.  I was in school, no money, not much of anything, but I was engaged.  Oh  - she said yes.  Then I had to deal with all of the fallout - as in announcements, parents get togethers, and the new found obligation to behave myself as best as I could through the last year of university.

We agreed - or our parents agreed - that we would get married in June 1972 - which  would be after my first year of law school  -- maybe or maybe not a wise choice depending on whether I was going to be going into second year or otherwise deciding what my alternative occupation would be.  There were two engagement parties -- one in Toronto and one in Hamilton.  I stayed out of the entire scenario right up to and including the wedding.  

But back to school.  I received an early acceptance letter to Windsor Law school and held it for a couple of weeks and then received early acceptance to Western which I grabbed.  I had gone to public school literally around the corner from my house, junior high down the street, high school just a little further walk and then York University about 4 miles (at that time there was no metric) down the road.  I had to get out of town before I was buried in a cemetery just another 3 miles down the road.

I had to prepare to move to London, Ontario and share an apartment with a distant cousin who snored like a train!  I was there a few days before the start of school.  My next door neighbours were two very cute girls who came from Sarnia.  But I was engaged which was like or more serious than marriage.  Absolutely no fooling around!!

I knew at least one person who I had gone to high school with and had no problem speaking with the other poor souls who were going to give up their freedom to law school.  We quickly found out that while the usual class size was 150 weeded down to about 125 - our class was filled with 175 students.  we were given the usual line on orientation  - that look to your right and look to your left - one of you will not be here in the spring.  They actually changed it to read - look to your right and look to your left it is likely that one of you will not be here after Christmas break.

The tuition was about $650 a year - the texts cost a small fortune and weighed a tone.  You learned very quickly that the most important thing about law school was to stay healthy.  If you missed one day of school you fell behind for what seemed like a week.  It was the socratic method of teaching which meant that the students had to sit in a preassigned seat and the professor had a picture of every student in the appropriate seat  -- which also meant that you tried to sit as far down in the seat as possible and pray that you were not called on to answer a question.

If any of this sounds draconian -- then watch the movie "Paper Chase".  It came out at the same time I was in law school and you were swear that they were filming our class.  I can still picture John Houseman throwing a dime at a student and telling him to call his mother and tell her he was coming home.  

You read the cases, you tried to dissect the case and prayed that you were not called on to do the oral presentation - which generally lasted about 30 seconds until the professor interrupted and suggested that you go back and obtain a degree in sociology or something other than law.

Our professors at Western were the authors of law books in contract law, real estate, etc etc.  They were in many cases also practitioners and if not were scholars who could successfully debate with the devil.  we were outnumbered and outgunned.

At Christmas there were examinations.  We were given a promise that they were not going to count to our final grades.  Thank goodness.  Not one student passed the constitutional examination which had one question - as I recall - was about 20 pages in length and involved the dispute between the Maritime Provinces and the federal government over fishery rights.  The exam started at 9 am and there was no time limit - you could stay as long as you wanted but when you left the room the exam was over.  There was no such thing as academic accomodation in the 70's.    I last about 4 hours.  As I said, no one got a passing mark.

I also achieved a 10 out of 100 in property law; 15 out of 100 in criminal law - a mark not worth mentioning in evidence and I may have passed contract law but it is a blur.  On one fellow student the professor actually told the student to quit and try and get a partial refund on his tuition.  The only thing that kept me going was that I had no other place to go.  It was brutal and a few students took the advice and left running not walking.  The rest of us just took solace in our study groups.   Looking back -- it was fun!