Athens – A Return to Ohio University

My first trip down memory lane – a return to Ohio University, ten years in the making.  Athens, a place I hadn’t visited since I drove away misty eyed after graduation saying goodbye to an era and a remarkable place.  Since then it has been a place that has teased my memory tempting a return and creating mystique about what a visit would be like.  It was as if my memories were hazed in a far off dream that just seemed too distant to revisit.  The ghosts of my past were locked away never to be let out again.  I had to go back.  Yet, the thought of returning stirred anxiety.  Was I afraid of what I would find?

Mrs. Gourmand and I planned a stop-off in Athens on a recent trip home to Niles.  As I crossed the border from West Virginia into Ohio I fished for Ekoostik Hookah on the iPod.  It was a ritual that whenever coming or going to Athens Dubbabuddah had to make the music rotation.  If not, it was sure to be a bad omen for things to come.  Immediately fear settled in as I followed the navigation up Route 33.  Nothing looked familiar.  Was my memory that far gone?  I later realized it was Route 32 I followed down through Marietta and Parkersburg in lives past.  That view of South Green was absent as Route 32 wound with the Hocking River around to Richland Avenue.  A view that has been branded deep into my memory.

I was pleased with my return to campus.  For better or worse, it was good to see the changes that have taken place over the years.  A part of me feared that commercialization and chains had overtaken the hippy spirit that lives and dwells in the Athens and Ohio University community.  As far as I could see in the heart of Athens, that spirit was alive and well.  There were no more chains along Court Street than existed when I was there.  The Chipotle had simply replaced the Taco Bell.  The few chains that were there were nicely balanced out by the original staples like Bagel Street Deli, Goodfellas, and the food carts that any OU alum knows and loves.  I have to admit that I did not venture out towards the Walmart where I hear the big box takeover has occurred.  But I never ventured into that part of town when I was a student either.  My life, like most students, revolved in and around Uptown Athens.

We ate dinner at Casa Nueva which lived up to every memory.  Casas Nueva was and is like crack.  Once you get a craving

for it’s local Mexican fare, you have to meet it.  After dinner we headed out for what I dubbed as a Memory Lane Shuffle.  Too old to handle a real shuffle, we hit all the spots that I would haunt as a student.  First we stopped at The Junction.  Not sure why really, just that we had to.  After, we went around the corner to Tony’s, that place where you always felt welcome.  The feeling still rings true today as a couple of college students chided us about football.  Next was Pigskins.  It was never my favorite back in college but someplace I always ended up at.  Given the recent renovation, it is a place I would definitely frequent, study at, live at if I was a student today.  Once again that warm, welcoming feeling of Ohio University was present as the bartender poured free drinks for my wife.  We then bounced back across the street to The Pub.  I realized I was too old to tackle a 30 ounce aquarium that late in the night and settled for a pint of beer instead.  The Pub was revisited the next day for lunch as I devoured one of my favorite treats from Athens – The Sloppy Ben with a side of onion rings.  The final stop of the night was where we started the evening for a quick vodka and Red Bull – The CI.  Much like in college, it was still both my first and last stop of the night.  The place where I was guaranteed to run into friends.

The next day was spent touring campus and walking past the dorms and apartments where I used to live and the buildings I used to take classes in.  East Green was just as beautiful as I remembered with its tree lined streets and red brick buildings.  I recalled tales to my wife of sledding down Jeff Hill and the night I had one too many quarter drafts and slid down the hill behind The Oasis with a friend.  I woke up the next day with my clothes cakes in mud.  I pointed out the music elevator I would sometimes take to the top of the Jeff Hill.  I showed her my old townhouse on Miliron that I am shocked we never burnt down and the Ridges that went from being haunted to administrative buildings while I was there.  We wound our tour up at the College Book Store where I had my favorite memory of the trip.  My wife, a proud alum of the University of Miami (FL) with all their top tier sports teams, was blown away by the number of OU shirts available, far superseding those of her Hurricanes.  This spoke to Bobcat pride and dedication.  And yes, we spent enough money at the bookstore that I thought I was buying books.

I enjoyed seeing the changes that had taken place over the years like the new Bentley Hall and School of Communications

Buildings.  And I do have to admit there was more than just a twinge of jealousy at the new Baker Center.  To quote a fellow OU alum who lives in my neighborhood in Charlotte, “A-freaking-mazing.”  But it was good to see some things didn’t change, like the state of the bar bathrooms.  Actually, they did change.  They are even more disgusting than they were ten years ago.  And I was wearing sandals.  Thank goodness I had my tetanus recently.

Since my visit, OU has once again been labeled as the number one party school in the country, and I am constantly being asked, “Aren’t you embarrassed?”  Well, no, I’m not.  Why?  Because OU is and always has been a student body of bright, friendly, caring students.  Every student I encountered while on campus and every alum I meet always greets you with open arms, a warm spirit, and maybe even a pint.  Part of me thinks that the words that are printed on the College Gate that most of us probably never read while a student have somehow been branded into our souls.  “So enter that daily thou mayest grow in knowledge, wisdom and love,” and “So depart that daily thou mayest better serve thy fellowman, thy country and thy God.”  I truly believe these words live in the hearts of everyone part of the OU community and supersede any reputation of being a party school.  Meet one of us and you will know it to be true.  But we are also proud of our party reputation and that doesn’t make us bad people.