Down memory lane

I slept well despite being in the flight path for Chicago O’Hare airport and close by train tracks. My slumber was rudely interrupted when the army of zero turn lawnmowers arrived to cut the grass at 8 am this morning. Why does a campground need a perfectly cut grass all around? Why does America have such a great love affair with green lawns? All right , I could go in a whole rant about the lack of any useful habitat that grass provides and the use of Petro chemicals to make it greener and the use of petroleum products to cut it because you make it grow, but I’ll move on to the travel log.

Today’s only objective was to have dinner with my daughter Diana and her husband Chris, which left the day open. I decided to drive down to my Alma mater and walk around campus despite the spitting, overcast day.

As a “recovering Evangelical” I’ve had a complicated relationship with Wheaton in recent years due to some their political stances and actions, including the what seems like a cover up of a terrible hazing of a football player. During the Civil War, Wheaton’s see founder, Jonathan Blanchard, was a raging abolitionist and the college was a stop on the under ground railroad. I fear now ithe administration wouls turn in the equivalent of runaway slaves.

However, I did make life long friends there — some with whom I now studiously avoid speaking about politics — and I got a great education there. While maybe not the Harvard of Christian’s schools as they like to call themselves, I had great professors, learned critical thinking and worked much harder for my BA than either of my masters degrees.

Of course there have been a lot of physical chances on campus since 1985, but my freshman dorm looks the same. What a shy and naive 17 year old I was. The tennis courts haven’t moved and I recalled the coach doing the tough love move on me when I quit the team because I felt overehelmed. She could have been encouraging, supportive and more inclusive to a freshman.

Williston dorm still stands where i shared a triple room and endured many fire alarms due to the sensitive system in the historic building. I’m guessing Billy Graham courted Ruth on the veranda while she was a resident there.

The library building hasn't changed much, but a sign declares that faithful funding has been amassed to do a major upgrade. The fitness center is getting its second upgrade since I left.

The old student center was repurposed so the Record office where I spent many nights and early mornings working in the student newspaper is now the poli sci department and the post office where a bust of the now disgraced Dennis Hastert once stood is also classrooms. Downstairs where posters of upcoming events and anonynmois rants used to be posted is just any other wall now. I wonder who that arrogant male was who posted that he wouldn’t date women whose thighs jiggled or a non virgin even if she had been raped. Where is he now?

The dining hall houses the book store and administrative offices while the Todd Beamer center, dedicated to the “Let’s roll” hero of 9/11, is now home to an upscale dining hall and student offices including the Record. It looks like they have two computers now. As editor, I convinced senior leaders to give us funding for us a PC to get us off the DEC mainframe that crashed continuously and wiped out our typists work. I had no idea that I’d be going into tech then, but I showed an early understanding of it! I picked up a copy of the Record to read later.

Then, of course, there is “the Tower” building — the original building made of a pale Sandstone. I had many classes there as the history department made its home there. Couples also went up the Tower to ring the bell when they got engaged and that was expected of Seniors. Once again, I didn’t do the expected.

The old SAGA dining hall is now administrative offices and home of the book store. Despite all the Chriatian nationalist views expressed in the press and alumni materials, I saw some hope in the book store when I saw some of the texts for classes included racism, feminism, and international affairs.

I parked at the Billy Graham center where I also had some classes and did an internship on the college communications office as a junior. I sure did all the right things to launch a journalism career but that was not to be my path.

From there I was off to the theosophical book store. I visited the “mothership” of theosophy when I was in Chennai. India and purchased a yoga pamphlet that I have since misplaced. Sadly, they did not have it, but being a book store I managed to find something(s)!!!!

My next stop was a quaint town called St. Charles on the Fox River. It was filled with tourist trap shops and bougie restaurants, but I was most interested in the municipal building because it looked art deco. The sign informed me that it is actually a one of a kind art moderne style building. It was quite cool and I would have loved to have seen it lit up at night, but after walking around, persuading a second hand store, and getting a cupcake for lunch it was time to head back to camp.

After taking Buddha out and having a rest, it was time to meet my daughter Diana, her husband Chris and his parents for dinner. We caught up over yummy Mexican food, but made it an early night for all of us!