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.
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