Mary Lee Pomeroy

I Wonder if she remembers...

September 22, 1973

   I am at Western Illinois University in John Junker's dorm room when I learn for the first time that a girl I worked with at Wright's Barnyard goes to Western too. One other kid came up there that looked very familiar. I thought he was from Lansing, but he was from Oak Lawn (which is not too far from Lansing). When John asked him, "How is Mary Pomeroy?" I could not believe my ears. It turns out that Mary Lee Pomeroy is going to WIU too! This guy had just met her the other night. He liked her rack, he says. I was just too amazed for words. Right away I looked in their directory to see her name, and she was there, listed in room 801 in Wetzel Hall. I promised myself that I would give her a call and talk to her and see what was new. It was not long ago that I saw her at Sears at River oaks, not believing it was her because she was taller and much more mature looking with her hair up rather than in a pony tail like she always wore it when I knew her during the Wright's Barnyard days. She had become a real knock out, as they say.
   I stayed up in John's room until 2:00 pm. Later that day in my dorm room I look up Mary Lee's phone number in the phone book and called her at 5727. (From our dorm rooms we only needed to dial 4 digits). I called her up and her roommate answered the phone first. When she came on the line, I said, "Hi, how are you? This is Mark from Lansing."
   To this she said nothing, so I went on to say, "I didn't know you lived here; Did you know that I was going to school here too?"
   To this she answered a simple, "No," She did not seem the least bit interested in talking to me.
   I said, "God, is this weird. What have you been doing?"
   She replied, "Nothing."
   I said, "Nothing at all?" and she said, "Nope, nothing."
   So I said, "Are you going to that football game tonight?"
   She replied, "I don't know, I was thinking about going with some of my friends. I might not."
   I said, "Would you like to go with me?"
   And to this she answered, "Well, I don't know if I want to go or not."
   And so I said, "Well, okay, listen. You're living at 801 Wetzel so maybe one of these days I'll drop by and we can talk, okay?"
   To this she said a noninterested, "okay,"
   I said, "Okay", then, "Bye." So, in a time span of just five hours I went from a high of learning that Mary Lee was at the same college, to a low of being flat-out rejected by a girl that I had had warm and fond memories for several years. I would only actually see Mary Lee twice the whole three years I was at Western. The first time was just 8 days after that dreadful phone rejection while I was in line waiting to see "Everything You Always Wanted To Know About Sex" in the Grand Ballroom at the Student Union. She was with a tall guy with red hair who I later learned was a dude from 8th floor of Wetzel, and I was knocking myself over the head for not inviting Patricia Ford. I don't think Mary Lee saw me. If she did, she never let on. The second time was in January of 1974 when I passed her on the sidewalk on campus while I was running to class. Although it was brief, I could see the recognition in her face when she saw me. Neither of us said hello, and I am fairly sure this is the very last time I ever saw Mary Lee.


Mary Lee Pomeroy appears 5 times in the 1971 Yearbook:


From Page 22.
[appears twice on page 22]


From Page 56.


From Page 64.


From Page 67.


Mary Pomeroy as a Sophomore
From Page 133.
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