1969

1969 frames Andy McGee’s college-era entry into the experiment that will shape his life. In May, as a senior preparing to graduate, he is short of money despite strong academic standing: fortieth in a class of 506 and third in the English program. A fall graduate-assistantship and scholarship-loan package is not yet available, leaving him to consider summer work as a night-shift gas station attendant. The experiment offers an immediate alternative: Quincey Tremont tells him he can earn two hundred dollars by volunteering.

The Experiment Takes Shape

Andy applies after a notice is posted on the Psychology Department bulletin board. A week later, a graduate assistant calls to ask screening questions, including whether he is over twenty-one and enrolled as a full-time student at Harrison. He is accepted and receives a campus-mail letter requesting a signed release form and directing him to Room 100 of Jason Gearneigh Hall on May 6.

At the session, Andy joins eleven other undergraduates in answering a photocopied questionnaire of twenty-five yes-or-no questions. It asks about psychiatric counseling, psychic experiences, and hallucinogenic drugs. Andy hesitates over the drug question, then checks no. He marks no for nearly every item, answering yes only to a question about fractures or serious sprains: he broke his left ankle sliding into second base during a Little League game twelve years earlier.

The Day’s Personal Stakes

The screening also records details of Andy’s life before the experiment. His father died of a heart attack when Andy was eleven; his mother was killed in a car accident when he was seventeen. His only close family connection is his elderly Aunt Cora. The account places these losses alongside the routine intake questions, making the form a record not only of eligibility but of the bereavements and limited family ties Andy brings with him.

At the experiment, a graduate assistant loops rubber tubing around Andy’s arm, asks him to make a fist, and prepares an intravenous line. He looks away from the needle, despite the promised payment. On the next cot lies Vicky Tomlinson McGee, dressed in a sleeveless white blouse and dove-gray slacks. Andy notices her auburn hair and blue eyes before feeling the prick of the needle and then a dull warmth in his arm.

Narrative Significance

The year is grounded in these specific circumstances rather than treated as a general historical backdrop: Andy’s impending graduation, the gap before his fall funding begins, the two-hundred-dollar offer, and the May 6 appointment converge to bring him into the experiment. His brief encounter with Vicky occurs within its clinical routine, as the questionnaire, release form, and intravenous setup turn a student’s search for summer money into the beginning of a consequential personal and institutional history.