My true story about 1961 Carla...

In September of 1961 was an incoming fish from Amarillo and arrived during rain at the YMCA and personally greeted by Mr. Gordon Gay at the curb. From the YMCA we were sent by bus to the Lakeview Methodist Assembly Campgrounds near Palestine for fish camp and orientation. After high and dry Amarillo I thought I was about to die in the College Station sultry humidity and rain.

I soon found out College Station is just far enough inland to get very little breeze much of the time but typical of Houston weather otherwise. For those who are unaware A/C was only at the MSC, Chapel, first floor Academic Building and Coke Building (if I recall correctly...) and it was a pi$$head privilege to have a fan in your dorm room.

Because the dorms at A&M were filled with Carla refugees from Galveston, Houston, etc., we were extended at the Lakeview Campgrounds a couple of days until the dorms were cleared of refugees.

During those days the Corps was compulsory - even for athletes - and the fish were at the bottom of the totem pole for cleanup, KP, etc., so guess who got to clean up the mess left behind by the refugees? In truth, everyone had to pitch in but the new fish got orders from all the upper classmen for all sorts of crappy details.

In addition to the extra duties to be performed, of course we still had to attempt some sort of military bearing and keep up uniform appearance with creased trousers and polished brass and shiny shoes, etc. Having white sidewall haircuts was really a blessing with all the humidity - for me anyway...

The rain didn't really stop until it seems Thanksgiving and it was not uncommon to have a "military" excuse to wear white socks and more comfortable shoes due to blisters upon blisters from them being sopping wet from all the rain and marching and walking to class, etc. Later, at Spring Semester when I moved from G-1, Dorm 7 to H-3 in the spring sports jock dorm Hart Hall, I found it was a blessing to be able to wear civies most of the time - except, of course, for Bull Text - ROTC classes.

Carla was a doozy!! ...and made the fish experience that much more memorable... In some ways I suspect the "cool" rain, although increasing the humidity, really was a blessing in some ways as it could have been 100 degrees and 90% humidity like is more typical for this time of year in College Station.

I can tell you why a lot of football players and other athletes choose to go to TTech or north into Oklahoma or Arkansas or further north - heat and insufferable humidity 8-9 months out of the year!!

Side note: but even College Station is nothing compared to my experience 2000-2005 Bahrain - the little island in the Arabian Gulf off the coast of Saudi Arabia. Planes will not take off and land during the day - only in the middle of the night when it has cooled down considerably on the tarmac!!