Back Home Once Again

It was a long day today and I am sure glad to be back home. I left the Rocky Mount Holiday Inn at precisely 8:30 this morning and drove to Raleigh for my flight south. I got to the airport in plenty of time and hung out for a couple of hours before my flight to Fort Lauderdale. Surprisingly, there were many more people there than I expected on a Sunday morning. I got a good seat toward the front for the flight south, which was uneventful. I have driven past the Fort Lauderdale airport on many occasions in the past when driving to Miami, but it was kinda neat to see it from the inside. Geez! Was that airport ever crowded!

Fortunately, my connecting flight to Tampa left from the same gate I arrived thru when I got there. After waiting another couple of hours, it was off to Tampa for a short 45 minute flight. That was kinda neat because, rather than flying west and coming up the Gulf coast, the flight went pretty much directly northwest toward the Tampa area. In taking that route, I was able to look below and see the route we generally take between Bradenton and Miami--U.S. 27, flying over South Bay, on the south side of Lake Okeechobee, Clewiston, where I had a great Cuban lunch last month, and Moore Haven, where we usually stop for lunch about halfway to Miami. One thing I can say as that those towns look a hell of a lot closer from the air than they are on the ground.

Got to Tampa on time and had just an hour's drive from the airport back home. Great homemade soup with multi-grain Ciabatta roll for dinner. So glad to be back home after an exhilarating weekend. Now that I am back, I am relaxing and feeling a bit tired. So happy that the Rays evened up their playoff series with the Rangers, but not so happy that the Packers lost to the Redskins. I was feeling pretty confident when I watched them jump out to a 10-0 lead while waiting for my plane in Lauderdale. Story of my life--last year the first of only three games the Buccaneers won was against the Pack. Oh well, onward and upward.

The Last Day at Wesleyan

Well, here it is, Saturday evening, and things are drawing to a close. The day started out with breakfast at the Hardee's Patio on campus. Saw some more old friends, most notably Charlie Saunders and Art "Fergie" Ferguson. I took a tour of campus with two of the student ambassadors and it was amazing to see a lot of the changes which have taken place over the past 40+ years. Probably the best thing is the library with its state of the art computer lab and the programs of tutoring and student assistance. It's sure a far cry from the large room on the second floor of the Administration Building that served as a library. The two young men who conducted about 15 of us on the tour seemed intrigued at the tales we were telling them of the early days. In fact, at one point one of them mentioned something he had heard but didn't know if it was truth or a myth. We verified it for him as having actually happened. It involved moving one of the guy's (whose name escapes me) room furnishings and clothes out to the fountain at the entrance of the campus.

We had a lot of fun talking about pranks that were pulled, such as detouring traffic off U.S. 301 through the campus when there was some road construction going on. A few moved and strategically placed detour signs did the trick. I don't think I ever laughed harder in my life. One thing that occurred before I came, thanks to its retelling by Royall Brown was that someone had let loose a pig in one of the classroom buildings one night. I guess it caused a lot of excitement when the first person showed up in the morning to open up.

After the tour, I drove over to the Northern Nash High School stadium for a tailgating party and Homecoming Game. Wesleyan soundly trounced Greensboro College 48-12. The first half was all Wesleyan with them leading 38-0 until four seconds were left in the half. Then then gave up a touchdown to end the half. In the second half, it was pretty much Wesleyan's second and third stringers playing and continued the shellacking started in the first half, albeit not as bad.

This evening was the Alumni Awards and Hall of Fame dinner at the Dunn Center. Dinner was turkey, dressing, veggies and cheesecake. At the end of the evening, we Pioneers were recognized and acknowledged. I am now back at the hotel, where we just had one last get together down in the lounge. Surprisingly, while I was schmoozing with my old classmates, some of the members of Nu Gamma Phi fraternity were there. When I returned to Wesleyan in the Fall of 1970 I roomed amongst the fraternity on the third floor of South Hall. One of the brothers recognized me from my photo name tag. As it turned out there were four of the guys there, including Ed Taylor, who roomed across the hall from Jeff Shee and me. I had forgotten, but one time that Fall, Jeff and got into Ed's room, swiped all his clothes and put price tags on them and were having a (mock) liquidation sale of his clothes. So, besides renewing acquaintances with the "Pioneers", it was great to see others from my second go-round at Wesleyan.

I'm headed back home tomorrow. I have really missed Pam and the animals and it will be great to be back with them. I so wish that Pam could have been here, but such is not her bag and I am so very grateful to her for her understanding and allowing me to have a great weekend among my oldest friends. Can't wait to see them all again in another 50 years.

Day Two at NCWC

Had another nice day back in Carolina. After taking my time to get going and grabbing breakfast I decided to do some exploring.

Driving into Rocky Mount, the first thing I noted was that the nearest bar where the drinkers hung out, The Retreat, is now apparently a strip club, Baby Doll's Cabaret (and, no, I haven't gone nor do I plan to). Continuing on into town, I found that the old airport, where LBJ landed to launch his War on Poverty, is now a HUGE sports complex with soccer fields, a football field, baseball diamond, softball and Little League diamonds. Once I got downtown, the only buildings I recognized were the train station and the Methodist Church. The original Hardee's has been torn down and replaced with some sort of commercial building. I kinda missed the place because, when I went to college here, once in a while my buddies and I would make a late evening run down to Hardee's. If they had cooked too many burgers and would have to discard them, they's let us have the leftovers. Sure beat having to pay for them! One really sad sign of the times, though, was the massive number of vacant storefronts. Downtown Rocky Mount is a unique one--about five blocks long with the mainline of the old Atlantic Coast Line (now CSX) Railroad and the county line running down the middle of the main street. It was like a ghost town. Very few cars and people could be seen. Obviously, all the business had moved out to the U.S. 301 By-pass.

Afterwards, I went out to Wesleyan and strolled all over the campus, taking in both what was here when I was, as well as that that came in the last 40 years. For some reason or other, the hallways in the admin and classroom buildings seem to have narrowed since I was last here. I took a load of pictures. This evening there was an alumni dinner here at the Holiday Inn and even more old friends showed up who weren't here last night. Again, it was great catching up with them. While I hate to say it, the guys are more recognizable than are most of the women. One good old friend who was there tonight was Max FitzGerald, one of the friendliest upperclassmen I ever met. He is (of all things) a retired sex therapist who lives in Wilson, NC with his wife, a classmate of mine, Della Reeves. They were both endeared to me, as they now have an animal rescue consisting of 170 dogs (including 3 they got today) on 80 acres they own. We really hit it off, because rescues are my wife, Pam's and my passion. I shared with them that we have 3 rescue dogs, ourselves (but we have nowhere near 80 acres).

This evening was a family-oriented event at the Dunn Center, a comedic juggler named Mark Nizer, who put on a very entertaining show, some of it in 3-D. While it was not The Beatles, he was entertaining in his own right.

Tomorrow, it's playing in an alumni baseball game, tailgating, and the Homecoming Game. It will be my last day here, as I head back home on Sunday, so I am hoping to make the best of it.

NC Wesleyan College 40 Years Later

I am back at my alma mater almost 40 years after I finished my degree and geez how things have changed. But a little background first. North Carolina Wesleyan College (NCWC) was founded in Rocky Mount, NC in 1956 and opened in 1960. This year marks the 50th anniversary of its opening and so a special "Pioneer Weekend" was planned for those of us who were in the first four classes at Wesleyan. I started at NCWC as a freshman in 1963--the first year there were four classes attending Wesleyan. I was here for three years before Uncle Sam came calling after my junior year. Rather than getting drafted, I went into the Air Force for four years, picking up a semester's worth of credits before returning to NCWC in Fall, 1970 to finish up my degree.

Leaving home this morning, I drove to Tampa where I caught a flight to Raleigh, NC and rented a car for the trip to Rocky Mount. Naturally, I made a wrong turn coming out of the airport and realized I was headed the wrong way. I got off at some exit, don't know the hell where, but it was somewhere between Raleigh and Durham. I found some workmen who told me to just continue on the road I was on for a couple of miles and I'd find I-40. I finally got back to where I was supposed to be in the first place and headed east toward Rocky Mount. That was not without adventure though. I was passing a semi which was to my right. All of a sudden, a Lexus SUV comes up alongside me to pass on my left. The woman was yakking on the phone and starts to drift over into my lane--me in a PT Cruiser and a semi to my right. All I could do was hit the brakes and lean on the horn. She finally woke up and got back to where she was supposed to be. Anyway, I made it safely to Rocky Mount.

This evening there was a reception for us "Pioneers" and it was great to see some of my old friends. In fact the first one I saw was my old baseball teammate, Ron Brockenbrough. We talked for a while as others arrived--Gil Wylie, Dave Brady, Ray O'Kelly, Ray Robinson, Royall Brown, and others as well as basketball coach, Don Scalf. We had a great time reminiscing about the early years. One thing that cannot go unmentioned is that, for the first time, I was able to legally consume alcohol on campus. Not only was I able to have a drink, NCWC supplied the drinks (wine in my case). You see, founded as a teetotaling Methodist college, there was absolutely NO drinking on campus, which is not to say I didn't have my own stash. It was so ironic, because the first president of NCWC was named Tom Collins. After that get together there was a show at the Dunn Center, an addition to NCWC since I was last here. It was a great show with a Beatles band, "1964 The Tribute". They put on one heck of a show, singing many of the pre-Sgt Pepper songs. The got the audience involved and everyone seemed to enjoy the show. While I was a bit disappointed that they did not do the greatest rock and roll song of all time, "Hey Jude", I really enjoyed the show.

Now, its back at the hotel, decompressing from a long day's activities and looking forward to tomorrow and other friends who haven't arrived yet.