I remember the draft well. Pass all your classes, you keep a II-S deferment. Fail one class, I-A! One of my friends failed his English term paper because of run-on sentences and fragments. (Today your computer would catch those errors). He failed the class, was drafted, and was wounded in Vietnam. If he catches the bullet somewhere else he dies because of run-on sentences and fragments.

I took a history course at UGA and the professor told us the first day that no one is going to fail his class. He did not want to be responsible sending someone to Vietnam and maybe his death. Our grade choices were A, B, or C. I made a B.

I remember September 16, 1970–it was a few days before the start of my senior year at UGA. My wife of 362 days disappeared with someone twice her age and took with her my senior year school loan money too! As a result, I had to drop out of UGA and was declared I-A. Fortunately my lottery number came up 229 so I was safe.

I worked at an Atlanta bank for one year, saved my money, returned to school, and graduated from UGA in 1972 with a BBA. I moved on. But I thought of my ex-wife every month for years afterward whenever I had to write a check to pay back a school loan I never got!