Marcia Long bounced on the twin bed in her dorm room and, in her bright Tennessee trill, said, "This is pretty comfy. I expected a board."

	John Beale, Post-Gazette
	Brenda Andriew, left, of Hawaii, and Marcia Long, right, of Tennessee, share a dorm room on the CMU campus while they're in Pittsburgh to compete in the Senior Olympics. Senior Olympics Coverage: Michigan softball team loves Seniors competition Senior Olympian profiles: Susan Marinzel Today's schedule for Summer National Senior Games For results visit: 2005 National Senior Games Event Results

She flopped back, kicked a shapely leg in the air and giggled. In her week-long stay at New House at Carnegie Mellon University, Long, 58, is revisiting the compact world of the college girl -- two twin beds, two desks, two closets in the wall and a roomie from Hawaii.

A yet-uncounted number of athletes at the Summer National Senior Games this month have stayed in Oakland dormitories. Most events not being held in North Park are nearby, making convenience the main selling point. But nostalgia has its value.

It doesn't matter how old you are: If you lived in a dorm in college, the minute you step back into one, old sensations begin to seep from the store of life experience and can, if you're in a certain frame of mind, make you a little giddy.

"Look at this," Long exclaimed, opening her closet to show a tumble of clothes. "I always told my boys, 'Clean up your room,' and look at mine!" She laughed. "I feel like a girl again. This is my week to play and have fun. My husband said, 'Come back in one piece because I still want supper.' "

Long, who describes herself as a housewife, helps run the physical therapy office of one of her sons. She is rooming with Brenda Andrieu for the second time in the four years they have known each other. Both are track and field competitors who met at the Senior Olympics in Baton Rouge.

Andrieu, 64, a psychologist who wears a white straw hat with flowers around the band, borrowed Long's pole to practice vaults one afternoon. When she returned to the room later, she and Long started chatting as if they had book-marked an earlier conversation. Within minutes, they answered a knock on the door and in walked a man in track and field garb. He perched on the edge of a bed, flipping through a magazine while they finished their conversation. It was like being on the set of "Friends."

"That communal-living feel," said Helen Fitzgerald of Albany, N.Y. She ran into Della Work of Casper, Wyo., outside New House the other day. They had met at the Senior Olympics in 1991.

"I knew her immediately," said Work, 70, a runner. Work reserved a room at New House to be close to the track and field facilities at Gesling Stadium, a three-minute walk. She competed in eight events.

"I like the community feel of the dorm," she said. "You don't need to wait for a shuttle to get home and clean up. And it's fun to talk to other athletes about fitness and sharing what you know about a course. A cyclist who's staying here told me there was a big hill to climb" in one of her events at North Park. "I said, 'That's OK, as long as it comes down again.' "

It's been a long time since her dorm experience at what is now the University of Wisconsin-Stout. The shower scene brought it all flooding back, though.

"Meeting everyone in the bathroom is just like back in college," she said, arching her brow and grinning. "Of course, we all look like we look and nobody cares."

Told she looks pretty good, she folded forward and traced a five-inch scar down her ankle. "I have 15 screws in there," she said. "I broke my tibia in two places." That was after her doctor told her to take it easy and after her first marathon. "I started doing marathons when I was 59. I've done 14, one for each grandkid."

She said she enjoyed dorm life, but the pricing left her steamed.

Double occupancy at New House is $83 a night and a sole occupant pays $55 for a room. Some dorms are cheaper than others, and some are even cheaper than cheap motels.

Mae Schroeder of Montana paid $30 a night at a Motel 6 because she thought it was about as cheap as you could get, but it wasn't. Work was incensed to learn that a friend of hers got a $20 room at a different dorm at the last minute.

"I could see it if it were a $10 difference," said Work, "but that extra $30 is a ripoff." She and several other competitors blamed the increase on the travel package they purchased.

"It's not that we seniors don't have money," said Work, "but we try to make it stretch so we can go to different events."

Many who stay in dorms bring coolers with food from home. Long and Andrieu, both vegetarians, had a bag of fruit cooling on the air conditioner vent and a stack of plastic bowls for their morning cereal, but both were eager to eat out the other night.

"We like to have fun," said Long. "We went dancing the other night."

She swayed and waved her arms in the air. A dance of '50s and '60s music was held for the Senior Olympians after the celebration ceremony at Mellon Arena Sunday.

"People really wanted to rock," Long said. "I danced with 10 different guys." Her expression suddenly went decades back in time and she gushed, "We had guys hitting on us." Then soberly, she said, "Of course, they were 75."