October 13, 2003

Hallowed Halls

I have returned from Homecoming at Rhodes and I'm no worse for the wear. I drove to Memphis on Friday morning and rolled into town around 5p. I picked up Catherine, my roommate from my junior and senior years of college, at the airport, and we headed out to the Rendezvous for some fabulous dry ribs. We then crashed a party for the class of 1998 (we being the much older, wiser denizens of the class of 1996) at Tommy Trouble's house. We met Mrs. Trouble (it seems Tommy got hitched post-graduation) and swatted mammoth mosquitos in the backyard until it started to approach midnight.

We discovered at the party that we lucked out when I surfed the web and selected our hotel, as we ended up staying at the hotel that was the home base for the class of 1998. It was just like living in a dorm again, only tidier, and with more room to move.

On Saturday we headed to the Blue Plate Cafe in East Memphis for a beige breakfast of eggs, biscuits and pancakes (in an aside, I think I'm the only person who gains weight when they leave New Orleans). We headed to campus for the receptions that are held by the sororities. It was really amazing that we found ourselves somewhat lost, especially considering that the student body is only 1400 and the campus is fairly small. The school has been bulding since we left town, and it shows. They now have apartment style dorms, equipped with ethernet cables and cable t.v. in the rooms. Why is it that schools always become so much cooler after you graduate? In retrospect, however, Catherine and I both came to the conclusion that if they had had ethernet connections and cable t.v. in our dorm rooms when we were in college, we never would have matriculated. We would still be there downloading music.

One of the highlights of the trip was visiting the Stax Museum on Saturday afternoon, a museum dedicated to the origins of Soul music. It is located on the site of the former studio where Otis Redding recorded "Sitting on the Dock of the Bay", inter alia. Quite groovy.

Saturday night we crashed the official 1998 reunion party, as well as the 1993 reunion party. Both were fun, but all I can think of is how much I need to start exercising to get ready for my ten year reunion.

Sunday we made a trip back to Williford, the dorm where we lived as first years. It was a lot like going back to the house where you grew up -- everything is the same, just smaller. When I walked into one of the tiny, cinder block-walled dorm rooms, I couldn't help but wonder how I ever lived there, and liked it. Catherine and I were reminiscing about how her room was directly above the boiler room for the building, thus making her room inescapably hot all the time. She would open the window to let in some cool air, only to give her and her roommate recurring colds. I recall the heat in my room made the cinder block walls sweat, thus causing the double-sided tape affixing the posters to the walls to peel off and thwack people in the head at random times. Ahh, college.

Posted by Kitty at October 13, 2003 08:14 PM

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