I had a waterbed for awhile. I don’t remember when I got it or when I got rid of it, but I know I had it in 1994 and 1995. I can picture it in the house we rented on Logandale, off Econlockhatchee near UCF. I talked myself into the master suite… 16×12, with adjoining private bath featuring jacuzzi tub.

Two-thirds of the room was for me, and the other third was for the UCF InPrint. Every Sunday night a bunch of odd people would invade my house and my bedroom to sit around PageMaker on a 14″ monitor and put together a newspaper. I’d lay on the waterbed and sleep in fits and spurts, waking up periodically to give advice or ask how things are going.

That waterbed was a friend.

The thing I liked most about it was that it was a constant issue. With a normal bed, you crawl into it and are cold. Within 10 minutes, you are hot. So you kick some sheets off and gradually cool down again. It’s an all-night balancing act to find just the right temperature. This is not the case with the waterbed. You set the thermostat and, unless there’s a problem, you’ll feel not-too-hot, not-too-cold all night long.

To me, that year of college is forever linked to Logandale Drive, the UCF InPrint newspaper, and that beloved waterbed.

Before we went to press with the first issue in Fall of 1994, we did a mock up in my apartment, playing around with look & feel until we found something we were happy with.

I was looking through a box of old stuff tonight and came across that mock up. I think only 6 or 7 people have seen this.

Obviously you’ll want to click on each and then choose ‘All Sizes’.

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You know, we could’ve put the standard ‘loren ipso’ filler in there, but what’s there instead isn’t half bad, actually…