Ms. Judi Johnston Benoit

‘In 1965 I graduated from Hardin Jefferson and six of our students, girls, decided to go to Lamar and that we would stay in Gray Hall, we had two rooms and a bathroom, three beds in each room. I have stayed connected. I had put out a cookbook, Simply Cajun, and I had sold it in the little store there. They may have decided to put out a cookbook themselves and they called me to come there and give them some recipes for the Lamar cookbook. So, I did that. I remember them telling me that they were going to possibly put my cookbook in a time capsule. They were also going to put the Lamar cookbook in this time capsule that they put on campus.’

‘Two of us got married, the others went on to become teachers. One of them became a nuclear physicist and a geologist, the one who was in my room. She has had a wonderful career. I substitute taught in Hardin Jefferson for many years.’

‘We had to wear dresses to school in 1965. We wore skirts and sweaters and dresses. People dressed up more back then just for classes. People acted a little more disciplined when you dressed up. We went to the student union a lot. That’s where everybody was.’

‘That’s about the time when they put Lamar’s big head in on campus.’

‘The six of us from Hardin Jefferson would go around the campus together. One of the girls’ Daddy owned a car dealership and he had given her a pale-yellow Mustang. And we all drove around in that. We would put gas in her car for her. Dorm life was fun. We had three beds in a row, in both rooms. We bought big black check bedspreads, they all matched, we each had a red rug and a red lamp. We are still great friends.’