Leighton Aycock Bowers '04 and John Bowers '06
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- Leighton BowersLeighton: I’m Leighton Bowers, class of ’04 and I live in Los Angeles, California.
- John BowersJohn: And I’m her husband John Bowers, 2006. So, together.. We live together in Los Angeles.
- Chelsie SalvateraChelsie: If you guys could talk a little bit louder...
- John Bowers & Chelsie SalvateraJohn: Yup, a little louder? Should we move it toward us too?Chelsie: Yeah. OK, so, any order. You guys can answer yourself or together.John: Is this, can you, are listening right now? Can you hear it? Is-Chelsie: Yeah. So, why did you come to Grinnell College and what is your first memory of the campus?
- John BowersJohn: I actually heard about Grinnell from my high school guidance counselor, who did the... She was specifically the college counselor and actually her daughter went here so she had kind of an inside. She had a special connection to the school and sort of sought me out, sort of singled me out as a person who she thought would really enjoy it here, would really do well because I was involved in a lot of different things in high school and the smallness of the community here enables you to kind of still be a polymath. You can still kind of do a lot of different things.
- Leighton BowersLeighton: I applied to ten schools, and one of them was Grinnell. All the other schools were big schools in big cities because I wanted to be a costume designer, and I applied to Grinnell because my junior year of high school I had Doug Cutchins as my history teacher and he talked about Grinnell all the time but he kind of pulled me aside and told me that he thought that I would really like it and that I should check it out. He had just been hired back by Grinnell so I thought, "All right, I think I can get in with this recommendation from this person," and so it was actually kind of a backup school when I applied and then when I visited I just fell in love with the school. It was like- I mean I bought a sweatshirt and it’s like that was where I was going. I met with Pip Gordon when I was here and she kind of convinced me that it was gonna be OK that there wasn’t costume design but that I’d be able to do it and then go to grad school and it worked out great.
- John BowersJohn: This is actually the only school that I applied to. I don’t think I mentioned that. I did about half of the application to Washington University in St. Louis, but I didn't- I- I also visited the campus and then it was just kinda, “OK, This is it. This is where I need to be.”
- Leighton BowersLeighton: Yeah. For me the difference was that the other schools I visited, I- it was like God you’re like embarrassed when you’re on a tour as a prospie and like, students are kind of laughing and they’re like, “Oh look, high school kids!” and think it’s really funny, and then at Grinnell I spent the night and the next day did my tour of the campus and people were like, “Oh hey, Leighton!” and like, my name like, knew who I was and it was just like, "I belong here."
- Chelsie Salvatera & Leighton BowersChelsie: My Grinnell story is actually a combination of both of yours. The same.Leighton: Really.Chelsie: Yeah, it’s crazy. What is your first memory of the campus?
- John BowersJohn: I believe- I think I actually first visited the campus.. It was after I first finished the application and I came and visited over winter break, and so it was totally- it was totally frozen. We just kinda, y'know, we drove in and it was a ghost town but it was just, it was idyllic. It was really quite beautiful. I never did the sort of traditional prospie thing, I never came and visited actually when class was in session. No, that’s not true! That's not true. I’m sorry, I came the summer after I graduated from high school. I did a visit because we graduated, I think, earlier.
- Leighton Bowers & John BowersLeighton: You’re not supposed to make it up as you go along.John: No, I can’t! I honestly can’t remember, because I do- I remember sitting in on a religion class, and Sean Bloom was in the class and I was actually raised fundamentalist so I had a very strong discussion and it was really interesting. It was perspectives that I hadn’t heard before especially, y'know, he has very strong perspectives. But I don’t remember when that happened. It has to have been, it had to have been in the spring.
- Leighton Bowers & John BowersLeighton: See I came in the spring and it was beautiful.John: It might’ve been spring break.Leighton: So I think that helped. 'Cause I saw the University of Chicago in the winter and there was a blizzard and we had to do the whole tour like looking at the ground so this was like we weren’t getting pelted in the face. So yeah, I came at the right time.John: So you avoided those snows by coming to Grinnell?Leighton: Yeah, exactly.John: Well done.
- Chelsie Salvatera & Leighton Bowers & John BowersChelsie: 'Kay. So, was there a professor, student or staff member who had a particularly strong influence on your life?Leighton: I mean, I have favorite teachers, and every time I do a job they’re like the fir – I just wanna email them and ask questions or like, tell them that I’m doing this ‘cause it’s so, like so fun to me that-John: George Drake.Leighton: Yeah. I mean, I had teachers that I really loved but I mean, I think Doug Cutchins kind of continued to be a mentor from- I mean, he was my favorite teacher in high school, so.
- John BowersJohn: I mean, honestly, I would say that Doug has probably had a stronger influence on my life than any other person who works for the college, just because he was the one who got you here, and then, y'know, so we were able to actually meet and then also he shepherded me through the Teach for America application so that meant that I was able to move out to Los Angeles and y'know, we were able to be together again. So yeah, I think Doug has kinda been there at lot of different steps along the way.
- Leighton BowersLeighton: For me though, there were two people that were really important and the first was Pip Gordon because she’s the one that really convinced me to come, and she, she told me when I was a prospie like, "We will- Y’know when you study abroad you can study what you wanna study in any class you take. You can gear it toward that. We’ll have independent studies. You’ll have a portfolio you need to go to grad school," and she totally followed through and I- and she did all of those things for me and really helped me through it, helped me with my grad school applications and I got into the grad school I wanted. I mean it was exactly what she promised.
- John Bowers & Leighton BowersJohn: Even though she was not your advisor, I mean, you were a history major.Leighton: Right, and I was a history major. I totally wasn't – she told me not to be a theater major. But both she and Erin Howell-Gritsch, who was the head of the- well, she was like the costume designer for the theater department and I believe now she has- she teaches more as well, but at the time it would just sort of be me and Erin sitting in the costume shop and sewing costumes and just like, I spent a lot of like extra time there between classes and whenever I could.
- Chelsie Salvatera & John Bowers & Leighton BowersChelsie: So are you guys both history majors?John: I was a double major in math and Russian, actually.Leighton: Oh wow, and you mentioned Teach for America, did you guys both do that?John: No, yeah, I did Teach for America after I graduated in 2006, but part of what drew me to it was that they have a large presence in Los Angeles and she was at graduate school in UCLA. So that enabled us to live together up there, and we’ve been up there ever since.
- Chelsie Salvatera & Leighton Bowers & John BowersChelsie: What are your best memories of your time at Grinnell College?Leighton: I think that's too broad.John: Yeah.Chelsie: Okay, you guys can-John: That’s not an answerable question there.
- Leighton BowersLeighton: I mean, I miss the most, I think- I miss... OK, I’ll say like, the caliber of conversation that you have. Just, mundane conversations, are fascinating and you learn so much but actually my answer is I really just miss Harris parties, ‘cause that’s the thing that like, both our hear- Today, that kind of thing is not stuff you really experience after college but sometimes, like, y'know if you see a Grinnellian or you live near one or like, you can still do that, or if you marry one, you can still have those conversations. But Harris parties, never again. Extremely sad.
- Chelsie Salvatera & Leighton Bowers & John BowersChelsie: Isn't there one tonight?Leighton: I know, oh, that’s why we’re here. Makes the plane ticket worth it.Chelsie: Okay, okay. There was one- yeah, another one last night that was cool.Leighton: It was like not really…John: It was a concert. It wasn't really...
- Chelsie Salvatera & John Bowers & Leighton BowersChelsie: What was your favorite Harris? Can you remember?John: Well you DJed.Leighton: I got to DJ one thing.Chelsie: You were a DJ?Leighton: Not really. I was not a DJ actually, and it was kind of a disaster, but it was pretty fun.
- Chelsie Salvatera & Leighton Bowers & John BowersChelsie: Which Harris was it?Leighton: It was Madonna, and I played a song for you.John: You did. You played a Strokes song.Leighton: Yup.John: And you came up and danced with me. Were we together at that point? I don’t think we were…Leighton: We were…?John: Had we just gotten back together?Leighton: Maybe! Who knows? I was clearly tryin’.
- Chelsie SalvateraChelsie: So, what did your dorm room look like? Any one..
- Leighton BowersLeighton: I had terrible, terrible dorm rooms. Every year they were very small, and I had a fight in the housing thing because my friend and I were gonna, we had a, we were like looking at the rooms and the ones we wanted were gone and then we were like, “Oh that one looks good,” and just as we were saying it these jerks, these boys, like got in front of us and were like- and it became a like, we’d look at each other and then grab for the pencils and they pushed me out of the way and I was like, “Are you serious?" And then I was like, "What’s your housing number?” And they were like, y’know whatever, and mine was better. So I look at the guy- oh I wish I remembered who it was. I was so mad. Steve Larson. I look at Steve Larson, I was like, “Doesn’t that give us precedence?” and he goes, “Whoever gets their name down first.” And I was like, “I'm gonna punch you in the face.”
- Chelsie Salvatera & Leighton Bowers & John BowersChelsie: And you did?Leighton: And we ended up- what's funny-John: And then she did. And then she got- she got expelled.Leighton: -is that then we signed up instead and then I, yeah. And then I got expelled. No, we signed up for the room next door to them so not only did we get a room the size of like, this room we’re sitting in right now.John: You then had to be neighbors.
- Leighton Bowers & John Bowers & Chelsie SalvateraLeighton: We were neighbors with these jerks, who were in the biggest room.John: In their palace.Leighton: Yeah. It was awful.Chelsie: Where was this?
- Leighton Bowers & Chelsie SalvateraLeighton: It was in James pit.Chelsie: Okay.Leighton: Our window...Chelsie: Come on, you really wanted James pit?Leighton: -like, didn’t really exist.
- John Bowers & Leighton Bowers & Chelsie SalvateraJohn: Yeah, you wanted the other room in James pit?Leighton: It was such a big room! You guys.John: Was it like an old computer lab or something?Leighton: No, it used to be like a, like a quad or something they turned into a double. It was big.John: Gotcha.Chelsie: Oh, okay.Leighton: Yeah, no. It was terrible.
- John Bowers & Leighton Bowers & Chelsie SalvateraJohn: See I nev- I never actually went to room draw. I never had that experience.Leighton: "Cause you were an SA.John: Is that something that happens in a physical place?Chelsie: Yeah, it happens at Harris.John: Still? I bet it does still happen that way?Leighton: Oh, ours was in Loose.
- John Bowers & Leighton BowersJohn: I think it was in the Forum sometimes too, but yeah, my first year obviously you don’t, that’s not something that you do. You just get assigned to a Quad and we had one of those with the big common room and all of our desks were out there and we had the beds in the other two small rooms. But then my second year I was an SA, so I didn’t have to do room draw. I just had the really nice room on Langan third. I was Langan third, right? Yeah, Langan third.Leighton: I didn’t know you that year.John: Yeah, and then my third year I was in Russian House for one semester, and the other semester was in Moscow.Leighton: Also I lived in an apartment so you'd...
- John Bowers & Chelsie SalvateraJohn: Right. And because I was in Moscow in the spring, someone else actually got me my single on Clark second for my senior year, and we had several singles in a row of guys. Three guys who actually were my groomsmen, who were among my groomsmen at our wedding three years ago.Chelsie: Wow.
- Leighton Bowers & John Bowers & Chelsie SalvateraLeighton: Yeah. No I did though- I complained a lot so I have to say my good story. My senior year I lived with my best friend in another very small apart – dorm, which makes no sense also ‘cause we were seniors. I don’t even know how that happened. But we were in East, and then a very good friend of mine, McGil, came and asked if we would like to move into his four room triple the next semester because he was living there with ano- He was a jun- he was a year younger so he was a junior and he was living there with another junior and a second semester senior. That’s how they got this room, and she was gonna graduate and the other junior was going abroad, so he was gonna be alone in the four rooms, so we moved in there and it was amazing, ‘cause then you lived with your best friends but you still kind of have a single.John: Yeah, that was a nice setup.Chelsie: Space, right.Leighton: It was awesome.
- Chelsie Salvatera & Leighton Bowers & John BowersChelsie: So it was... East Campus, or she was-Leighton: Haines second.John: The small room is actually on East campus, and you called it East, but it’s now, it has a name.Leighton: Lazer, Lazier?Chelsie: Lazier.John: Yeah.
- Leighton Bowers & John Bowers & Chelsie SalvateraLeighton: It had that name then, but nobody called it that.John: Building A, as we called it.Chelsie: Oh. Okay.Leighton: Building A. Yeah, that’s really sad.John: Yeah, at the time they were buildings A, B, C and D.
- Chelsie Salvatera & John Bowers & Leighton BowersChelsie: Lazier’s actually class of ’51, so people here are like, “Oh yeah, that was my classmate.”John: Oh. (Whispered: Weird.)Leighton: That one got named when I was there though.
- John Bowers & Chelsie Salvatera & Leighton BowersJohn: Did th- Do all four have names now?Chelsie: Yes, so there's Lazier-Leighton: Rose…John: 'Cause D is Rose.Chelsie: Kershaw, Rose, and Rathje.John: Kershaw and Rathje?Leighton: Rathje?
- John Bowers & Leighton Bowers & Chelsie SalvateraJohn: I think that was the, that was Ash-Leighton: Was Kershaw the- He was like the first... No, not the first.Chelsie: I have no idea.John: Oh Rathje was.. He was the bad guy in that cartoon movie.Leighton: That's awesome.John: I agree.Leighton: Neither of us know anything.
- Chelsie Salvatera & John BowersChelsie: So what kind of clothes did you guys wear on special occasions?John: Well I had a one-hundred dollar tuxedo that I bought for Grinnell Singers. Yeah.Chelsie: Oh, you were a singer?John: I also used it for Waltz.
- Leighton Bowers & John Bowers & Chelsie SalvateraLeighton: And then tried to wear after we graduatedJohn: And it-Leighton: -for church choral things and it looks terrible.Chelsie: It's the wedding suit?John: It looks really bad.Leighton: Absolutely not.John: It’s all falling apart on the inside.Leighton: The sleeves are like this...John: The sleeves are like that long. It is really bad.
- Leighton Bowers & John BowersLeighton: Yeah. Well yeah, I mean I’m a costume designer so it’s like... It’s an interesting question to have on here, I think. But, I also have size 12 feet which means like, if you need shoes for something like Disco or whatever, I really had very limited options. So I- I mean I definitely bought a pair of really heinous black platforms and then covered them in sequins.John: Glitter.Leighton: Spent like a whole week covering them in sparkly things.John: You were also going to class.
- Leighton BowersLeighton: Right, right, yes. But I know I always, I was very good at layering because it would be so cold but then you’d get to class and it would be so hot because the heat would be on so high so you have to be able to take off- Like you couldn’t wear like- my mom would always try to send me back with long underwear and I'm like, “You don’t understand. I need tank tops under my eight layers of wool, but it’s gotta be something I can get off in class. Long underwear doesn’t work.” So it- Ugh, so cold.
- Leighton BowersLeighton: And... I don't know. I wore some really, really bizarre things. I had a lot of really short skirts one year, like that was the thing and oh man, I was just thinking about the shoes that I owned at the time and I was like, ‘cause I was trying to remember what I wore to Harris ‘cause I was like, "Can I wear heels? I might get really... I don’t wanna slip in beer," Like, that was always the thing, and I was like, "I know I didn’t wear tennis shoes. What did I wear?" Because I can’t imagine I was wearing heels and getting stepped on but... Ugh. I don’t wanna think about it, I think.
- John Bowers & Leighton BowersJohn: I feel like I had that gray zip-up Grinnell College hoodie that I wore a lot and for some reason – oh! It was because Andy was in Boston at the time. I had a Boston Red Sox hat that I wore a lot.Leighton: Your Boston Red Sox cap. But you’re, you wore your Homestar shirt. That was your senior year.John: did. The Homestar Runner. That was my- if I were a cartoon character, that would be the one that I'd wear. It’s a red shirt with a white star.
- Chelsie Salvatera & Leighton Bowers & John BowersChelsie: What book influenced you most in college? If you can recall? Not many can recall books.Leighton: I have unfortunately lent one of my favorites to too many people and now it’s lost and I have to buy another copy, but it’s called "When Abortion was a Crime", by Judith Reagan? Is that who wrote it, or was she the one?John: We don’t have that book anymore?Leighton: Just made up. I just made up that name. It's totally not.John: That was the person who-Leighton: Publisher, yeah. But it's- It is rea- Anyway.John: Anyway.
- Leighton Bowers & John BowersLeighton: Who’s the one that testified in the....?John: Kato Kaelin.Leighton: No, in Prop 8.John: Oh, uh.
- Leighton Bowers & John BowersLeighton: That's- She wrote my other marriage book. They’re all- all my favorite books are from this class I did with Victoria Brown because she - I mean, from like History of Women in the US - because what I loved with the way she structured the class was that instead of it being kind of like a survey she instead decided to sort of pick a thesis and all the books supported that thesis. So she kind of told us, "This is not the only way of looking at kind of the chronology and what led to what. However – "John: "It’s the way we're going to look at it."
- Leighton BowersLeighton: This is one, yeah, this is one sort of viewpoint. And I liked that because then you kind of come out of it with kind of a narrative, and something you can actually like, kind of take and argue about. And we had an article too, called “The Opt-Out Revolution” which I thought was fantastic and I’ve also made sure to have downloaded that to my computer so I have it like- I can always print it out. I’ve sent it to so many people.
- Chelsie Salvatera & John BowersChelsie: Chelsie: Favorite book?John: Well I would- I’m gonna take the question a little bit of a different direction. I majored in Russian because I read "Fathers and Children" and "Crime and Punishment" in high school, because I read those in English and I just said, y'know, "If this literature is this incredible and beautiful and poignant in a translation, how wonderful must it be in the original?" And that was a large part of why I chose to study Russian and so I think that reading those books prior to college had a large influence on me in college. And so, what book influenced me most in college I wouldn’t, I would probably have to point to reading those Russian authors, yeah.
- Chelsie Salvatera & Leighton Bowers & John BowersChelsie: Cool. What memories or images do you have of the town of Grinnell?Leighton: It kinda looks the same. I mean..John: Yeah.Leighton: I mean, Walmart’s on the opposite side of the street.John: Right.Leighton: Otherwise-Chelsie: Oh, Walmart was on this-Leighton: Yeah and it was only open until ten. You had to go to Newton if you needed something at three in the morning.
- John BowersJohn: Like we did last night. We bought a little portable fan ‘cause it was quite hot.
- Leighton BowersLeighton: Oh! I have something- I wanna go back to number three because I just remembered my best memory. One of my best memories is that we got Mitch Hedberg to come my sophomore year and he was like the greatest comedian and I loved him and I met so many people based entirely on the fact that we all loved him because at the time nobody had ever heard of him and ACE got him to come and my ex-boyfriend was the person on ACE that was in charge of that, and I had like introduced him to Mitch’s comedy so when he came I got to like, pick him up from his hotel and bring him to Harris and drive him to the airport the next day.
- Leighton Bowers & John BowersLeighton: It was so exciting, and friends who had graduated came back. I actually saw Ben Folds in Minneapolis on like the Friday, and then drove back to Grinnell on Saturday with an alum so that we could go see Mitch that night. It was crazy.John: Didn’t you have dinner with him in La Cabana?Leighton: And we went to La Cabana with Mitch, and he cost three thousand dollars, and we tried to get him again my senior year, two years later, and he was like fifteen thousand because he got, like that was when he made it. He got super popular and we couldn’t afford him.
- John Bowers & Leighton BowersJohn: It was like how we could afford Bruce Springsteen, like right before he got big.Leighton: And then he died the next year, and so it was just like....John: That was the only time.Leighton: This slight thing and then it was- he was gone and I am very fortunate to have gotten to do that.
- Chelsie Salvatera & Leighton BowersChelsie: How has Grinnell changed since you guys were students?Leighton: Superficially, I think.
- John Bowers & Leighton BowersJohn: It doesn’t really seem to have changed. I mean there's obviously the physical change of the campus, but we actually just went to an admitted students event in Los Angeles that was sponsored by the college, and talking to those incoming freshman, they have exactly the same spirit that I had at that time in my life. It’s like a snapshot of, just the enthusiasm and the engagement and the interest and sort of the, already sort of dedication to social justice that they have that I feel like I sort of gained while I was here. But I don’t think, it doesn’t seem like it really has changed.Leighton: No. I don’t think so. I mean, and I also find-John: In the five years since we graduated.
- Leighton Bowers & John Bowers & Chelsie SalvateraLeighton: And the like, speaking with alums though, like older people in Los Angeles, because Los Angeles, I feel like we actually have a lot of alumni but they’re not... It’s not like Chicago. It’s not like young alumnus, alumni is the plural.John: That is. That's how it is.Leighton: I really got this. But, so there are a lot but not people that we were like, necessarily friends with. So when you go to these events you meet so many different people and everybody is the same it’s like, doesn’t matter what class. It's like they could’ve been in my class.Chelsie: It's clones.Leighton: It’s so funny.Chelsie: Same feminine people rotating.Leighton: Exactly.
- John Bowers & Chelsie Salvatera & Leighton BowersJohn: There’s a really strong kind of an ethos that is- really seems consistent.Chelsie: I agree.Leighton: It’s really nice and we went to hear George Drake today, speaking about like then and now at the college and he was saying that there’s been some criticism that they buy students y'know, but you gotta get ‘em to come to Iowa, and I was just sitting there thinking, "But that that’s what makes it so great is that these- everybody has chosen to come to Iowa."John: Nobody winds up here.
- Leighton BowersLeighton: Nobody just ended up here. It was like everybody’s choice and y'know, even the people that had to do it because that was the most affordable thing or whatever that in a sense ended up here, like, you still had to.... It was still a decision and so I, I really like, treasure that and I think that’s why you get that consistency throughout all those classes.
- Chelsie Salvatera & Leighton Bowers & John BowersChelsie: Describe something that is no longer available on campus but that was meaningful to you. Buildings, programs...Leighton: Darby. I miss Darby.Chelsie: Yeah. I rememeber that to-John: We actually…
- Leighton Bowers & John Bowers & Chelsie SalvateraLeighton: Our cat’s name is Darby.John: Yes.Chelsie: Oh my God.John: Yeah, we adopted some kittens about....Leighton: Three years ago.John: 'Bout two and a half, three years ago at this point.Leighton: These are our children, so.John: Right, right. We named one of them Darby.
- Chelsie Salvatera & John Bowers & Leighton BowersChelsie: How many?John: Two.Leighton: We have two, yeah. They were gonna both be named after Grinnell buildings but we ended up going a different route with the other. We couldn’t decide... We were like, "Rawson" and like, came up with some very…John: Which is a good- I think that’s a good cat name.Leighton: Rawson's pretty good. Langan or y’know, but none of ‘em were as good as Darby.John: Dibble was tossed around.Leighton: Dibble was funny ‘cause it sounds like “nibble.”
- John Bowers & Chelsie Salvatera & Leighton BowersJohn: Mai recommended, “Old Glove Factory.”Chelsie: Old Glove? Oglove?Leighton: Yeah, that was my best friend’s suggestion. Hilarious name for a cat, but anyway... So we have Darby.
- Chelsie Salvatera & John BowersChelsie: That's a good idea. I wanna tell people about that one. Describe your favorite academic experience or class at Grinnell.John: Constitutional Law and Politics, Ira Strauber.Chelsie: Who?John: Ira Strauber?Chelsie: Okay, yeah.
- John BowersJohn: PoliSci. Just, incredibly difficult, really dense material that taught me how to read. ‘Cause you don’t really realize at that point in your life, after you’ve read so much that you don’t really know how to read. You don’t appreciate that until you’re really asked to dig into these very dense kind of texts, and he just brought... such an interest, such a passion to the subjects but also just a lot of, kind of gravitas. Like a lot of, you get the impression that he knows all of the undergirding logical structures and you have to replicate that knowledge in your own mind in order to actually get to that point.
- John Bowers & Leighton BowersJohn: So I think that was- That was the class in which I think I grew the most as a reader and as a writer. And, it was also the lowest grade that I got at Grinnell. So...Leighton: That’s how it works.John: Yeah.
- Leighton Bowers & John BowersLeighton: Except actually my favorite class- well, not necessarily my favorite but I think the most important was Human Sexuality, which was kind of - with Sylvia Thorson-Smith - and it was kind of a, like kind of a pat class, like kind of a, like our final was to draw a picture of our sexuality. Like, whatever that means. I mean, it was- It was, y'know, but it’s... totally changed my life.John: It sounds like some hippie bullshit, but it was a great class.Leighton: It really wasn’t and it fundamentally changed the way I communicate and that has so many repercussions in your life and I continue to realize the impact that that had on me, so fantastic class.
- Chelsie Salvatera & John Bowers & Leighton BowersChelsie: Describe your favorite place on campus. If you have one...John: I’ve been walking around these last couple of days and that’s like, I don’t... as much as being in the place, being in Grinnell as a whole is a very nostalgic thing, I don’t really associate with the places very strongly. It’s the things that happened there.Leighton: Exactly.John: It’s the people, but just to, just to stand on Mac Field and look straight up into the sky is something that you can’t really replicate anywhere else. Yeah.Leighton: No I agree with you.
- Chelsie Salvatera & Leighton BowersChelsie: If you knew then what you know now, what would you have done differently during your time at Grinnell College?Leighton: I don’t know, I actually feel like I’m really glad the way I did it. I wouldn’t have taken Stats, or I would’ve gotten a different teacher, perhaps. But, I’m really glad, I like what I took, I like kind of what I did, I’m really glad I studied abroad and did it for a year and –
- Chelsie Salvatera & Leighton BowersChelsie: Where’d you go abroad?Leighton: I went to Paris, and really was able to do there what I felt like I might have otherwise been missing at Grinnell. So I do, I feel like because I knew I wanted to do this, go into this field that there was no major for, or no really classes about, it kind of forced me to cater things to that interest and so I was able to write papers. For British History I wrote a paper about Elizabethan fashion and to have teachers who would say, “Y'know, I can’t recommend books for you but I can’t wait to read your paper, and I’ll help you in any way I can.” Just knowing that that was sort of the route that I was gonna take meant that I had to take advantage of a lot of stuff while I was here that otherwise I might’ve missed if I had figured that out later.
- John Bowers & Leighton BowersJohn: See I kind of think I- Yeah, right, and I had the opposite problem which you allude to at the end there, which is that I didn’t know what my next step was going to be. I mean, I tossed around the idea of grad school which we all do - I just learned this morning that 85% of Grinnellians go on to some kind of grad school which is…Leighton: Or, plan to, I think.
- John BowersJohn: Or plan to, that’s what it is. That's what it is. And so, if I have anything that I would do differently, I think that I would have taken fewer classes in my major, my majors. I took, by the end of my time at Grinnell I had taken every single math course that was available and every Russian course that was available with the exception of the Russian Novel with Professor Mohan, who unfortunately died while I was here, so that was, that was tragic.
- John Bowers & Leighton BowersJohn: But I think yeah, I think I would have... It is those classes that were outside of those two areas of specialty that really enriched my experience in the greatest way, and so I think that I would’ve done more of that. Because, what you gain with a liberal arts education is not expertise in a specific field, it is the ability to research, the ability to problem solve, the ability to analyze and synthesize.Leighton: Synthesize all of this field.John: Right, right.
- John Bowers & Leighton Bowers & Chelsie SalvateraJohn: So, yeah I think that that’s the- Oh, and also I would’ve visited, I would’ve traveled more while I was studying abroad. So I would’ve visited St. Petersburg. I would’ve gone out and seen pther things other than Moscow.Leighton: You did a little bit.John: I did a little bit, but I would’ve done more, and I did take a number of classes outside of my majors, but I would've done more.Chelsie: It's pretty complicated I guess, the double...John: Right, but I mean I took way more math credits than I had to.Chelsie: Than you needed to?Leighton: Yeah, and you didn’t have to double, honey.John: Right, exactly.
- Chelsie Salvatera & John Bowers & Leighton BowersChelsie: Okay. Since you guys obviously met here, describe how you met and fell in love.John: Well, how much detail should we go into? This is for posterity.Chelsie: Very much. Very much in detail.Leighton: And anybody, no. We met in Con Brio, actually, and I, when I first met him we sang at like, New Student Orientation, for...
- John Bowers & Leighton BowersJohn: Quick pause. You studied- Her- Your- Her study abroad year was during my first year.Leighton: I wasn’t gonna go into that much detail.John: So she studied abroad her entire junior year which was my first year, and so I was already in the group. I was in Con Brio while she was gone and the whole time that I’m in the group my first year they’re like, "Oh man, I’m interested to see how you and Leighton interact, because that’s gonna be interesting." Like, literally people said the same thing.
- Leighton Bowers & John BowersLeighton: 'Cause they didn’t know if we would really hate each otherJohn: Didn't know if we would like -Leighton: Or really get along. So I came back and to one of my friends I was like, “Nobody told me the new boy was so cute.”John: To which that person, I’m sure, said, “Stay away from him.”Leighton: Probably.John: "He is trouble."
- Leighton Bowers & John BowersLeighton: But anyways, so we sort of dated like, a little bit, like a month at the beginning of my senior year and then he was like, “Oh, I think, you know, we should get to know each other.”John: "We just jumped right into dating."Leighton: And like "Ah, y’know, I’m gonna weasel my way out of this."John: "Let’s become friends first."
- Leighton Bowers & John BowersLeighton: "I’m really interested in this other girl. I should- I really wanna pursue that, so..." So, it was like, "OK, fine." And then he didn’t go pursue that other girl or try to hang out with me and get to know me better...John: Yes I did.Leighton: And instead dated a different girl...John: Right.Leighton: But then her friend, her kind of like- there was a guy who she’d been like planning to date who was abroad, and they- but they kind of knew that when he came back they were gonna be together, and so he came back and she was like, “OK, he’s back. John, we’re over.” And John-John: Not an arrangement that I had been aware of.
- Leighton Bowers & John BowersLeighton: No. He was not apprised, and so he was like heartbroken and nobody had ever dumped him before.John: That was my first.Leighton: He realized that it, that’s a really bad feeling, and he came back to my room and apologized to me for having done that to me, and we've been together ever since then.John: Yeah, and that was about seven years ago, eight years ago?
- Leighton Bowers & Chelsie Salvatera & John BowersLeighton: But see, I knew when we met that we’d be really good for each other, and it just took a little bit of time for him to like, realize that, so...Chelsie: Him and yawning here.Leighton: Exactly.John: Right.Leighton: Yeah.Chelsie: I'm kidding.
- Chelsie Salvatera & Leighton Bowers & John BowersChelsie: So you guys just, like, kept contact, or like completely long distance-?Leighton: Well, it was the end of the year, the end of my senior year and so I was gonna go straight to grad school and then interviewed at grad schools and they said, "We recommend that everybody take from one to three years off. You’re just a better student. You’re not burnt out," and I was like, "Oh, OK." So I come back from New Haven, “I’m gonna stay in Grinnell, I think,” and I stayed, I went away for the summer to a theater where I worked in Maine and then came back to Grinnell for a semester, and then he went to Moscow and I moved home.John: So we had that time: that semester we were living together, and then I went to study abroad in Moscow and she went back to North Carolina.
- Leighton Bowers & John BowersLeighton: But it was just enough more time that it was not... it was sort of like we’d been together too long to just break up but not really long enough to try and do long distance for two years, so that was sort of just enough more that it was like, yeah.John: We can be confident of this thing that we have.Leighton: We can do this and it’s worth it, and I’m not wasting my time, and I visited him in Russia once and then, once we met up in DC like, when he was going back. We saw each other pretty frequently.John: Whenever we could.
- Leighton Bowers & John BowersLeighton: I mean, whenever we could, and like I went to his house for Thanksgiving that– or, I came, the very beginning of his senior year and spent a couple weeks in Grinnell and then I went there for Thanksgiving.John: Right, you came before ‘cause UCLA starts kinda late.Leighton: Saw you at- oh, yeah - New Years. I mean, pretty consistently and then he moved to LA like right after he graduated.
- Chelsie Salvatera & John Bowers & Leighton BowersChelsie: So how long have you guys been married?John: Nearly three years. It’ll be three years in August.Chelsie: And you got married in L.A.?John: Nope.Leighton: In North Carolina.
- Chelsie Salvatera & John Bowers & Leighton BowersChelsie: In North Ca- You’re originally from?John: Wisconsin.Leighton: I’m from North Carolina.Chelsie: Oh, and then now you, as a pair are living in North Car-John: In L.A.Chelsie: Okay. Cool.Leighton: I’ve kind of worked across the country.
- Chelsie Salvatera & John BowersChelsie: OK so, I'll go to the last question, since the fourth, you guys answered... fifteen. If you were writing a history of Grinnell College, what would you include from your years here?John: How long can the book be? How long is my history of Grinnell College?Chelsie: As long as you want.
- Leighton Bowers & John BowersLeighton: I have no idea. I really wish I knew the narrative, like the –John: You have to know the thesis that you would-Leighton: Right. No, but I wish I knew the complete-John: That you would be trying to advance with your book.Leighton: Like, more of a complete story so I would know what kind of worked in the story. Like, they had these big cookies and they were amazing.John: And Russell K. Osgood swam laps every day.Leighton: Right? I mean I just don’t feel like that- there was a- the Slum, like, why?John: Yeah. No.
- Leighton Bowers & Chelsie Salvatera & John BowersLeighton: But I don’t feel like... Oh... Well, no, like politically - I mean I was here for September 11th and I feel like that would be a mention but in the end we’re in-Chelsie: I was in fourth grade.Leighton: In what grade?Chelsie: In fourth grade.Leighton: Are you kidding me?Chelsie: I'm not kidding you.Leighton: Oh my gosh. Oh, so you’re like in eighth grade now, right? ‘Cause that’s how long ago that was.John: Yeah.
- Leighton Bowers & John BowersLeighton: So- but it was an interesting time, like being in Iowa was sort of a weird experience because we all sort of felt like there could be a nuclear holocaust and we would still be here, and that we…John: You’re the forgotten corner.Leighton: It’s like, they're telling you you’re supposed to be afraid but we were so removed from it, and so it was a really weird feeling and then when I was in France was when we started the war and…
- John Bowers & Leighton BowersJohn: That was- you were in France for the Iraq invasion, weren't you?Leighton: Right, and so that was another kind of weird thing with, like freedom fries and all that horrible stuff. But a nice kind of perspective to be kind of more in the world, and Grinnell is both very involved in and engaged in…John: But there’s also the bubble.Leighton: All of that, but there’s such a bubble and then the other thing was that, I was in France, that my junior year was when we had like three suicides and it was kind of a huge thing.John: And that was my first year.Leighton: And that again, was away and so it was a… I don’t know, I feel like there were things that happened that were…
- John Bowers & Leighton BowersJohn: Well, it’s these things that- It's these things that happened that really changed the mood of the campus.Leighton: Yeah.John: Because it is such a tight-knit community that I think if I were to write the social history of Grinnell College in the first decade of the twenty-first century, I would go to those kinds of moments because there were –Leighton: Because it did change the whole campus.John: There was September 11th. There were the suicides that were my first year here.
- Leighton Bowers & John BowersLeighton: And I think anytime there were... that there was like a, well, presidential primary but, democratic primary, because all the candidates would come here, I think that did as well. You kind of had this…John: This fervor.Leighton: Yeah, I think you’re right. That’s exactly why I think of those things as being important. Not just that they were....John: But because there are-Leighton: Tragic. Yeah, they changed the community.John: It’s the way that the community is structured and the smallness of it, which is something I keep coming back to as part of.. is one of Grinnell’s great virtues. It enables these kind of events to just pervade every aspect and you have that ability to kind of have something that impacts everybody even though it’s all very local.
- John Bowers & Leighton BowersJohn: What other- were there any- were there other things that happened? That were like that?Leighton: Probably.John: There was the Wu-Tang concert.Leighton: Mitch Hedberg came to campus.John: Mitch Hedberg came to campus.Leighton: Which was awesome. Rilo Kiley.John: Right.Leighton: Not exactly Springsteen, but.John: No, no. They don't have the same import.
- Leighton Bowers & John BowersLeighton: Wait, what did you say before that?John: Wu-Tang.Leighton: Wu-Tang - No.John: No? Ghostface.Leighton: The Black-Eyed... Peas?John: The Black-Eyed Peas were, but that was before...Leighton: I saw them, though.John: Yeah. I didn't.Leighton: Yeah, I was like, "That’s right, isn’t it?"
- John Bowers & Leighton BowersJohn: What I was gonna say though, is that it was before they were big, wasn't it?Leighton: Yeah. These were all bands that, at the time I would call my brother and be like, “Should I go to this? Is that somebody I should know?” He's like, “Definitely. You need to go. I can’t even believe that they’re on your campus.”John: "Why are you asking me this question? Ghostface Killah is really important."
- Chelsie Salvatera & John BowersChelsie: Do you guys have any other, final things that you'd like to share? Another story, anything, final words..?John: I don’t think so. I do, I pity the person who is going to try to…Chelsie: Has to transcribe this?John: Well, not just transcribe it, but anyone who’s going to try to actually use it for any kind of research.
- Chelsie Salvatera & John Bowers & Leighton BowersChelsie: These go in the archives online, actually.John: Sure.Leighton: Oh, great.John: Awesome.Chelsie: Then you guys-John: There’s gonna be a big scandal, now.Leighton: I didn’t give them my maiden name.Chelsie: Permanent now.
Alumni oral history interview with John Bowers '06 and Leighton Bowers '04. Recorded June 4, 2011.