While a student at the Art Institute of Pittsburgh, I didn't stay at the dorms at Duquesne University. I suppose about half the students did. There was a dorm too, for guys only, in Oakland-Shadyside, I think. There were some students who lived at home and commuted. I remember a few had pretty long commutes... distances like from Washington to the south and Butler to the north. Some had apartments.
I lived in Swissvale and, later, in Squirrel Hill. Both were on the east side. Some eight and five miles away from school, respectively. I would take the bus and if memory serves, the 61b was my route. You'd have to buy a monthly PAT Bus pass and if the distance traveled was so much or if you had to transfer or if you took an express, you would have to throw in a dime as well. There were times I didn't have the dime and so started off early walking towards "dahntahn" where the school was (and is, but now at a different location). I'd look along the sidewalk, as I walked, and the gutter for an errant dime or if it wasn't my lucky day, I would have to walk far enough that I could finally ride the bus by just flashing my pass.
Most of us didn't have much money. I was no different. I think my budget for the week was five bucks. That included the twice-daily dimes, lunches and art supplies. I went of to Pittsburgh in early September that first year weighing 220 pounds and by the time I went home for Thanksgiving, I was down to something like 165. My folks thought I had cancer. It took me a while to convince them - especially my mom - that it was just the "poor art student" diet.
I didn't have breakfasts. Dinner was usually a hot dog. And lunch was a can of Coke and a small bag of fries from "Hardee's". I picked "Hardee's" because they had catchup bottles right on the tables so you could use as much as you wanted (hey, I needed whatever vegetables I could get). Or, if I was flush, and didn't need any art supplies for a project, I feasted. A toasted bagel from "George Aikens", slathered generously with butter so that it sloughed off and filled the bottom of the wax bag (hey, I needed whatever dairy I could get)... or for a real treat, the kid's meal at "Roy Rogers" - a chicken leg, small fries (in a very cool cardboard holster that would fit nicely on your belt), small drink and a prize (as if the sweet holster wasn't enough!).
Some times I'd have hot dogs for lunch too. "Wiener World" was just down the street from the art supply store. If I had money left over from buying supplies (or had convinced myself that I could mooch some press-type off from a buddy), I go on to "Wiener World" for a dog. Great hog dogs, little bit money and it was a lot of fun watching the Wagnerian gal behind the counter pick up the hot dogs off the grill with her bare hands. I figured that the heat would have killed any errant bacteria on her calloused mitts.
Most of us were forced to be frugal when it came to buying art supplies. An expensive brush was the one luxury. After that, we'd reuse our cover-stock again and again, cutting it down until it was too small to be of any further use. We'd buy illustration board in quarters (though ultimately it was more economic to buy a full or half sheet and cut it ourselves, but few had that much money at one time). A quarter sheet was 10x15, a half was 15x20 and a full sheet was 20x30. Cold press for pencil and watercolors and the like, and then hot press for paste-up and pen and ink stuff. Cold was a rough, "toothed" surface and hot was a smooth surface.
We'd buy color markers and tubes of paint one or two at a time, project by project. We'd share with others in the same rocking economic boat. By graduation, we might have a pretty full set. Of course, by that time, the first ones were running dry.
We'd have to take some of our stuff to a nearby stat-house either for reduced or enlarged photostatic copies. This was before computers and all of it's inexpensive modern miracles and conveniences. I forget how much it cost, but I imagine I had fries for lunch those weeks.
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