October 25, 2016 - Another treasure from my archives while I am under the burden of a head-cold

Vintage Potpourri – Thoughts and Observations from the Perspective of the Older Student on Campus.

Column No. 1  

          There is fog in the meadows and heavy dew on the fall grass.  The pungent odor of fallen persimmons and dried leaves gives the air that tinge of autumn.  It’s a new school year with new faces on campus mixed with the old familiar faces. Book bags are fresh and clean; book covers still have that shiny new gloss; pencils have erasers and pens still have their caps.  You hear laughter among old friends, mixed with anxiety, “I’ve got a research paper to do.”

          So much is the same and so much new, but for those who have been on campus before there is something distinctly missing.  That slow, melodic sound of sweep, sweep, sweep of a broom on the steps between Building One and the Library is missing.  That nice old man sweeping away the daily debris of acorns, twigs, and fallen leaves who always paused to greet you with a nod or smile is gone.  John Savino, age 74, a full time custodian at ICC, died on September 14, 1989.  Somehow, passing by those stairs he used to sweep is not the same anymore.  John Savino, you are missed by many.

          The other day an eight year old asked me to name one of her three new gold fish.  “You name the boy fish,” she said, “I think the other two are girls.” Without hesitation I named him “Pyrite.”  Those frustrating Geology 101 labs came in handy.  Now I have great names for pets.

          Already you can look around and start to pick from the new crop of students the excellers, and the scholars – the students whose names will be called next spring at Student Awards Day.  They are huddled in the library in study sessions or already deep in their research papers.  They are the ones who always have a copy of the campus Calendar [which comes out every Thursday if you didn’t know] and are taking note of the upcoming events.

          They are the ones with tight class schedules and are seen running ‘cross campus to make class. They are the ones who are ingenious and tear the accounting manual in half, leaving parts one and two at home now that they are in Accounting 3.  This makes the book lighter.  They are the ones that highlight the text books and write out every answer to the syllabus.  To their surprise, probably they’ll be called out one by one and recognized for their hard work, persistence and excellence on Awards Day in the spring.

          Someone reflected my sentiments the other day exactly:  “I thought the second year would be easier than the first, but it’s not.”  Together we looked back on Western Civilization 101-103, English 101-103 and Geology 101-103, thinking how difficult we thought they were then and how easy those classes seem to us now in our memory, compared to our current class load.  Hopefully, at the end of this year our heavy burden of studying will not seem so bad in retrospect.  We’ll get there, one test, one paper, one exam, one day at a time.  We’ll get to the end of that tunnel.  Take heart and keep at it.

Reprint from The Patriot, Volume XXIV, No. 1, October 20, 1989. [The College newspaper at Isothermal Community College, Spindale, North Carolina.]