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By Dean Norman

Time magazine called the college kids in the 1950s "The Silent Generation" because we didn’t join any causes, or protest any injustices.

We were in a cold war with Russia, and a hot war with North Korea and China. When Eisenhower and Adlai Stevenson ran for President, we wore buttons that said “I Go Pogo.” Cartoonist Walt Kelly was one of the few adults brave enough to make fun of Senator Joseph McCarthy who was accusing everybody except himself as being a Communist or a Communist sympathizer. Kelly drew a sinister bobcat character named Simple J. Malarkey. We laughed at politicians, but we just hoped the Korean War would stop while we had our college deferments. Then when we graduated, we could get good jobs, get married and live happily ever after.

Time said college kids in the 1920s and 1930s had been concerned about world affairs, and had made noise about things. What a letdown we were. Well, things started happening. I think it happened first at some prestigious Ivy League university, and then spread across the U.S.

Panty raids. College boys gathered around sororities and girls' dormitories and demanded that the girls give them panties. They knocked down doors, broke windows, invaded and took panties from dresser drawers. The girls were not frightened. They leaned out of windows, waving panties, and encouraged the boys. College officials were horrified. That was the point of a panty raid, of course. To show defiance of authorities.

The raids spread from campus to campus at colleges and universities. But not at Iowa University. What was the matter with Iowa kids? Didn’t we have any spirit? Finally it happened in the spring of 1951, or 1952. I don’t remember which, and didn’t participate. But I listened on the radio as WSUI broadcast the scene at a girls’ dorm.

The university's president demanded that the crowd of rowdy boys disperse and behave like adults. The boys cheered, and kept going into the dorm to grab some panties. We were proud that Iowa college boys had showed some spunk, and caused as much trouble as the guys at the best universities. After all, we were a Big Ten university.  

— Dean Norman

Dean Norman is a cartoonist and humor writer, whose work has appeared in greeting cards, The New Yorker, MAD Magazine, The Cleveland Plain Dealer Sunday Magazine and The Kansas City Star. He's also written comedy for cartoon shows and written and illustrated children's books. He illustrated a cartoon book for Cleveland Metroparks, Cleveland Metroparks Adventures.