Last Saturday, I traveled with my family to Normal, Illinois, to Illinois State University for my granddaughter's Destination Imagination State Competition. I earned my Bachelor's Degree from there in 1969, and my parents both attended, although only Dad graduated. (Mom dropped out to marry him and become our mother!) In fact, Floyd Covill is in the Redbird Hall of Fame for football there!
I went to college for four years at ISU, then lived in Normal for two years after that as my then-husband went on to get his Master's Degree while I supported us with my very first teaching job. We left Normal for the south suburbs of Chicago in 1971. Guess what? ISU and Normal have changed a lot since then!
Seeing my old haunts was a bit of a blast for me. It was a beautiful-but-windy day, but we weren't on a sightseeing mission, so we didn't spend any time going places that used to be... Didn't even walk to the center of the quadrangle; but Robin's first competition was in a building just across the street from my first dormitory experience, and it was kind of neat just to be there. Back in those days, I was a student on foot. (Students were not allowed to have cars on campus, which was okay because I didn't even have a driver's license until I was 21!) It's harder to see things in a car than on foot because of street changes, one-ways, etc. And, of course, there is my inability to walk much that kept us on the straight-and-narrow. I kept pointing out things that I'm sure bored the daylights out of my car mates, but it was all a bit notalgic for me! As the day went on, I saw old places and new places, and sat in Horton Fieldhouse where I once sat watching Robert Goulet in concert so many years ago...
It was a long and interesting day.
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