Bay Area college life back in the day Are your parents in any of these photos?

Cal men have chicks on the brain: And this photo from Oct. 9, 1964, proves it. The caption gives no clue why the clean-cut crew posed with 1,000 baby chickens. Cal men have chicks on the brain: And this photo from Oct. 9, 1964, proves it. The caption gives no clue why the clean-cut crew posed with 1,000 baby chickens. Photo: John McBride, The Chronicle Photo: John McBride, The Chronicle Image 1 of / 49 Caption Close Bay Area college life back in the day 1 / 49 Back to Gallery

In the '60s and '70s, you could attend a four-year Bay Area college without wrecking your parents' savings or piling up thousands in student loans.

Undergrads at Stanford, Cal and San Francisco State hunkered down in the library to research their term papers; there was no Internet, of course.

Fraternities and sororities dominated the social scene.

Students would put great effort into goofy contests like launching eggs in rockets or racing outhouses.

And frequently Chronicle photographers would be called to document the fun, from the Water Follies at Mills College to Nude Day at Stanford to semester-abroad students boarding a Pan Am flight to Europe (a big deal in 1960).

Click through the above slideshow taken from the Chronicle's archives to see scenes of college life circa the mid-1950s through the early '90s. Maybe you'll spot your mom or dad in their salad days.

And feel free to let us know if you have more information about any events or subjects depicted. Often all we have to go on is what was included in a bare-bones caption supplied by the photographer.