MOMENTARY NOSTALGIA

Where did you go to school? When were you last on campus?

Little did I know leaving the University of Missouri campus as a ‘66 graduate that I would not return for forty+ years. And that the reason for the return as a retiree was to meet with the director of OLLI-MU, as ambassador w/o portfolio from OLLI-Duke.*

THE NEWS: much has changed.

For one last glance at the campus of my college days I made the pilgrimage to Columbia, MO, just to see if I could recognize anything. The once small-college town is no more; yes the Columns and Jesse Hall are still there but everything else has changed. Construction in multiple campuses shows that the change is on-going. By change I mean expanded, exploded into a city with a mega-highway system that negates being able to attend collage without a car. I used to walk everywhere - now the campus is miles bigger and scattered about the rocky, hilly limestone landscape of central Missouri.

Looking closer was another unexpected realization. The education I received in the 60's is no longer possible. The degree, MY degree is no longer offered, the government loans to children of G.I.’s is no longer available and tutition costs have skyrocketed. I doubt that I could afford college today, that is if I could qualify which is also if-y. Arriving for college my total assets included a radio, typewriter and a popcorn popper. Such things as word-processing, Xerox copy machines, iPods and Google were far beyond my wildest dreams. Fortunately by the time I returned to graduate school (miles away and years later), the copy revolution was in full swing and without word-processing my thesis would not have been possible.

We had dinner at C.C. City Broiler, the most recommended ‘upscale’ eatery in town. Blackened salmon was excellent as was the white-shirt-black tie service. But it was not the charcoal grilled, NY Strip steak once served in Brisch’s Gaslight room on 9th Street. Their French onion soup, grilled BBQ ribs and apple crumb pie with melted cheddar on top were all menu staples. I know because I was once a "Gaslight Maid." Only the Heidelberg Restaurant (once a 3.2% beer hall when the state was dry), remains in place. What memories.

Enough nostalgic fever - after Columbia, next stop TAN-TAR-A RESORT and spa at the Lake of the Ozarks. This was a never-before opportunity: to treat Mother to two days at a resort and a spa package as an early birthday present. We each enjoyed a massage, deep facial cleaning and an aroma herbal wrap. Did we feel good!

Lunching at a window table with a wide vista of the lake pictured the yellow-green buds of spring’s beginning. Also gathering black clouds coming the next day in a deluge that reached across central Missouri. We drove back to the farm in pouring rain most of the way. Of course before leaving the lake we also found the Premium Outlet Center for which Coach Bags should be very grateful.

*Osher Lifelong Learning Institute at Duke University
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