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In January 2026,ÌýPatricia Knudsen LaMoeÌý(HomeEcon’48) turned 100. After more than a month’s worth of birthday celebrations — including a cruise fromÌýNuremberg to Vienna — she sat down with theÌýColoradanÌýto talk about life at ¶¶ÒõÂÃÐÐÉä in the 1940s, which began with a solo train ride from her home in Des Moines, Iowa, to Colorado.Ìý

How did you decide to attend ¶¶ÒõÂÃÐÐÉä?Ìý

On my AM radio in my room in Iowa, I used to listen to a late night radio show that came from Denver, the Mile High City. They were playing music records. But it never occurred to me that I would go to Denver. During the war, you didn’t think outside of your house. If the local store wasn’t out of bread when you went, you were lucky.Ìý

But about a year after graduating high school, our family friends were moving to Denver, and their daughter was enrolling at ¶¶ÒõÂÃÐÐÉä. They asked me to apply and said I could be her roommate, even though I’d already been taking classes at Drake University eight blocks from my house. I sat down at my typewriter and asked for more information about the university and for admission. I was accepted.Ìý

Where did you live and eat?Ìý

When I came out here, the Navy V-12 college training program was in full swing, which meant those involved took up all of the men’s and women’s dorm rooms. So some freshmen women were housed in fraternity houses. There were no men for the fraternities because of the war. I was in what they called the International House at the corner of 11th and College. I was in a room with four other girls. We had a community bathroom and did our own laundry in a basement washtub. I lived there for three years. I ate on The Hill most of the time.ÌýThe Sink was there as the Sunken Gardens in 1945. There was another restaurant across the street on the corner that I ate at for special occasions. They served cheeseburgers and grilled cheese and soup and salad.Ìý

I also remember my first meal after I was dropped off by my roommate’s family when we took the train to Boulder. We went to a drugstore and had Twinkies.Ìý

What did you learn as a home economics major?Ìý

One year, we studied budgets. We had to make a budget for what would happen after you graduated — how to buy food, pay for utilities and buy clothes. Another requirement in home ec was that you had to study economics. They were talking about the cartels in Germany before the end of the war, even.Ìý

When we were just coming off the war, we were learning about and transitioning to a new life. People could now stop making Jeeps and tanks and switch to cars and refrigerators as ours were all wearing out.Ìý

In foods classes, we made the refreshments for alumni at Homecoming. We served athletes, too. I remember working with so much fresh food. We also studied architecture and learned about Romans and how they took warm baths. We identified three types of Greek columns. But I jokingly say my dad spent $4,000 to teach me how to fry an egg.Ìý

What did you do after you graduated?Ìý

My parent’s first trip to Boulder was to see me graduate on Flag Day, June 14, 1948. I then worked in an appliance store as a new graduate in Colorado Springs. Freezers were a new appliance at the time. I was hired to teach people how to put food into a freezer and how to take it out and how to fix the freezer. The first frozen foods that people could buy commercially were orange juice and coffee stored in containers.Ìý

What other memories do you have of ¶¶ÒõÂÃÐÐÉä?Ìý

There was an influx of men who came to campus over my time there. The campus doubled in three years with the vets who were coming back. They lived in theÌýQuonset village [Vetsville] just off main campus.Ìý

Tuition was $33 a quarter, but an extra $33 a quarter for me because I was from out of state. You could buy used books.Ìý

I remember studying a lot. When you leave home, you don’t have your parents telling you what to do and how to do it. I had the freedom to do what I wanted to do. I learned to become a responsible adult.

Now that you are 100, what life advice do you offer?

Be curious, and stay curious about small things. For younger people, investigate your history of your family. Learn where they came from and what they did. Take advantage of opportunities, even if it’s going for a walk in a new area.Ìý

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Photos courtesy Patricia LaMoe