Away: Oberlin

Since we moved to Normal we keep driving past Oberlin College without stopping. Danny and I were undergrads at Oberlin and also got married in Oberlin. So we finally stopped to visit all of our old haunts.

Here is Dascomb where we both lived when we were freshman (but not at the same time).

Mudd library. Danny is pointing out his senior study carrel. I was like the work study queen of the library. I got to supervise a crew of students charged with vacuuming the tops of every one of the 1,000,000 books in the library.

I think that this was the student co-op that I lived in for my first summer. My recollection of that summer is that it rained for three weeks solid. Every piece of clothing that I owned was laid to dry on the floor because I couldn't get the half-mile to the laundromat in the rain. Also, every morning at 6 am, the quad filled with small children practicing bagpipes as part of the Midwestern Scottish Games. And if you love bagpipes, you would really love the bagpipes played by many small children (somewhat) simultaneously.
And as if on cue, while we were walking through the quad we heard the constipated peal of a pod of bagpipes

Asia House where I lived after I came back from China. It was a lovely dorm that used to be a monastery. There were catacombs and an ancient gym underneath. And the gamelon group used to practice in the basement, which made weird chimings and gongings come up through the ventilation system.

Noah Hall where Danny was living when we met. He had a functioning cuckoo clock in his dorm room. Consequently, we didn't spend a lot of time there.

Danny thinks that this is Mold House where we (like to think that we) first met. I am not so sure that this is actually Mold House. Anyone?

The chapel where Danny and I got married. Very cute. Cobblestones and an ancient pipe organ.

Gibson's--which now sells not only snacks and delicacies but also sells alcohol! Oberlin was a dry town when we lived here--we used to have to go across the county line to Johnny's to get alcohol!

The kids were distinctly non-plussed by the whole nostalgia trip. In their youthful narcissism, they have no interest whatsoever in anything that happened to their parents before they were born. However, they did enjoy their ice creams.