My morning started with a hearty breakfast and I had a chance to try out my new Coleman single burner. It worked way better than my big twin burner.
I wanted to save time so I used the Ohio Turnpike and pulled into K-Zoo at 2:30 pm. I hardly recognized the place since the last time I was here was back in 1972 when I graduated.
It felt very strange riding into a town that I once new very well but now I found myself searching my memory for something I could recognize. I decided to go to some of my old haunts starting with my Delta Upsilon frat house on South Street. Back in the day it was a bit of an "animal house" but today it was just a nice big 1800's vintage private home on a beautiful tree lined street.
Next I wanted to visit a house I shared with seven young ladies one year. It was the year following the death of my roommate, John Hoffman, who was killed in a car crash as he drove back to school following a weekend at home with his family. John's girlfriend, Rena, had found this old place on Davis Street and Vine that she shared with six other girl friends. I remember dropping by to pay her a visit and soon found myself moving into their basement. The rent was dirt cheap and they all made me promise to make myself scarce whenever any of their parents came to visit. This was 1969 so back then they wouldn't want their mothers and dads to know that they were sharing a place with a guy. This is the house. It hasn't changed much but for some reason it made me sad to see it again.
My next stop was the Student Union/Bookstore. I asked a young female student to snap my picture and found out that she had just graduated. I told her I had graduated back in 1972 which would have been long before she was even born.
I told her how back then there had been a huge student protest just 50 feet away from where we stood and described a huge crowd, a giant bonfire right in the roadway and hundreds of heavily armed National Guardsmen surrounding the students who were protesting the war in Vietnam.
My last stop was my old dormitory, Shilling Hall, where I stayed my first year at school.
Seeing all these milestones in my life felt very surreal as they were all so woven with so many memories.
Being July most of the students had gone home for the summer so it was very quiet and peaceful and not the crazy busy place I remember.
Now I had taken my walk down memory lane and it was time to get back on the road to Holland. MI.
I arrived at Rick and Candy's place about 4:30 pm and Candy was there and Rick showed up shortly after my arrival. They are terrific hosts and it was so enjoyable to just sit there in their air conditioned home after a long, hot ride and just catch up on our busy lives.
Rick cooked us up some incredibly tasty Kabobs while I mixed us some drinks and Candy set the table out on their large back deck.
We spent a lovely evening together just talking about our lives. It was getting late and these two had to work in the morning so it was time to hit the sack.
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