Subject: Reminiscences: Freshman
Date: Thu, 4 Dec 2008 09:12:05 EST
Dear Myron,
Please find below the latest page of the biography.
Freshman       Myron became a freshman in the University College of Wales, Aberystwyth in the September 1968.  He was to study chemistry there at the university’s chemistry department, which was called the Edward Davies Chemical Laboratories (EDCL), which had been built in 1909 from a bequest of the Davies family of Llandinam.  The Department was thriving and one of the best chemistry departments of its type in the world.      Myron was to spend a total of fifteen years at Aberystwyth and Oxford and not surprisingly it was his first term at university that he found the toughest.  The mode of teaching was entirely different to what he had been used to at school, consisting of lectures which were often delivered in a rapid and vague way, so that Myron found it necessary to spend hours in the library writing them up, researching on them and so on, to produce a set of notes. This set of notes was then used to face the many examinations. Actually, the style of lectures led to Myron taking responsibility for his own learning, which is one of the main reasons for partaking in a university education.      The lectures were delivered in the then new large lecture theatre of the EDCL, built in 1963, so in 1968 it was only five years old.  So Myron’s routine quickly became one of library work.  The EDCL had an excellent departmental library, so from the very beginning Myron used that library extensively.  The other libraries were situated on the Penglais Campus in the departments of physics and mathematics – the physical sciences library.  Myron never used the National Library of Wales but that was available too and is the copyright library for Wales.  In the first term Myron set about finding his way around Aberystwyth’s libraries and departments, and buying course books on a grant of 262 pounds a year, supplemented by what he earned in factory work during the vacations.  Myron’s lodgings at “Brig y Don”, Sea View Place, were rented at about 3 pounds a week, for which there was bed and breakfast with full board on Sundays.  So in the first term Myron existed on two meals a day, consisting of breakfast and one meal at the Student’s Union of chips, peas and salad cream.  This was consumed listening to Pink Floyd and Led Zeppelin.  There were six students crammed in to a sitting room at the lodgings, still called by the Victorian slang “digs”, from “diggings”, and no TV. So all Myron’s learning came from notes written up in the libraries, and from long hours of study in the libraries.  This contrasted with Grammar School days, where Myron would work far into the night in one room of his house “Pant y Bedw”.  Myron always had a burning desire to learn and to do well, for the sake purely of doing well. The examinations at the end of the first term at Aberystwyth (Dec 1968) were carried out in the Old College, built in pre Raphaelite style.  The practical physics examinations were particularly nerve wracking.  However the chemistry practical examinations were continuous assessment, making it a little easier.  Myron did get some time to go for a bike ride up to Devil’s Bridge and back to Aberystwyth, about thirty or forty miles using a borrowed bike, to see Aberystwyth Town playing amateur soccer on a Saturday, and so on.  Also there was time for a little photography and after the Christmas examinations for a walk around the golf course above Aberystwyth to get much needed fresh air and exercise.  This was before Myron started his regime of athletics training every day. In the first term Myron had the traditional large box for clothes and books, which he transported back home for the Christmas break, traveling back by bus.  Kerry
This is an excellent write up as usual by Kerry. The leading Grammar Schools of that time also expected students to work on their own after the school was over. So my routine from age about 11 to 18 was a fifteen to seventeen hour day on average. Many did not take this routine seriously with sometimes farcical results. I remember that the whole Latin class used my homework for copying. They just came in in the mornings, and copied what they could out of my work. The teacher was well aware of this and gave one of them minus five out of a hundred, nothing for the exam and five off for copying. The standard of teaching at the Grammar School was good, that at the University was mixed.
