There is a hole where our house used to be. A big hole.
No, it’s not our home. Nor our home on Castle Heights Avenue in Lebanon. It’s my house and the house for a rather large bunch of young men who lived there, ate there, played there, did some serious business there, and partied there. Oh boy, did they party there.
It is now a hole. Soon it will be a state of the art residence hall where more studying will be done in the first day it opens than in all of the 58 previous years. Where a student could spend his or her entire four years without leaving except for classes. Modern. Convenient. Impressive. Progress? Don’t know. i do know the Kappa Sigma house is gone. And with it, some legends.
i am not whining, mind you. It is a different time, a different world. Change. We keep attempting to make it better for college students. Probably have. i’m not smart enough to judge. i am of another time. Another place.
Oh, students still party. Don’t get me wrong. They have more choices, more decisions to make. i’m sure of that. They don’t fill up the student sections of the college sports events. That’s sad to me: some camaraderie, school spirit seems to be lost. It seems to be more of an individual thing now. i really don’t know, but it seems that way to me. There is less of a dress code. Hell, i don’t think there is one now. Less strict. Less decorum. Good? Bad?
It’s theirs. We are trying to make it better for them. We have to keep trying. All i know is it was fun when it my time long ago, and i learned a lot about living.
i also know for now my house is a hole in the ground and in my heart. A memory now. And i am a bit sad.