Back in the day, college students were poor. There was no such thing as all these government grants and loans. There were Pell Grants but our HS counselor never told us about them.
The campus lunchroom was closed on the weekends so Saturday it was a 45 cent can of spaghetti-o’s or a 25 cent box of mac ‘n cheese. I splurged on Sunday by walking (no car until Sr. year) to Golden Chicken for their $1.50 box with one piece of chicken fries and a roll and stopped by the coke machine for a drink. That was before microwaves and mini refrigerators in the rooms. The only appliances allowed were irons and popcorn poppers. I brought an ancient popcorn popper that had a burner in the bottom so I could pour the spaghetti into the popper part and heat it. Weenies could be heated on a foil wrapped iron but you had to have friends over to share the weenies because there wasn’t a fridge.
I sewed my clothes and remember making something new the day before dates. Our only twirler was a good friend so we’d rip apart whatever she wore to the football game last week and redesign it for that week’s game. Everyone thought she had tons of outfits, lol. Fabric and sewing notions were cheap back then. Can’t see kids doing that these days.
They were called 'Student Ghettos' for a reason.