Journeys remembered

Today is probably the first truly magnificent day of the year. The temperature is supposed to get up to around the middle 70's. The humidity is relatively low. The skies are clear. The dogwoods are in bloom. Some of the late blooming azaleas are in flower. A lot of the deciduous trees have sprouted their tender shoots. It would be hard to beat the day we have today.

I have to drive to Milledgeville this afternoon for a closing. I am looking forward to the drive in the countryside. I'll have to keep my Allman Brothers cd in the cd player.

"You're my blue sky; you're my sunny day. Don't you know that it makes me high when you turn your love my way. Turn your love my way. Yeah, yeah."

I spent some time trying to locate an old friend, Graham Gardner, in Dallas, Texas. I finally got a fax number by calling directory assistance and sent a fax to him. This morning he returned my communication. We had a nice long conversation and decided to renew the call later in the afternoon.

Graham and I drove around the South in 1974, looking at colleges and talking to admissions personnel. Having since had the experience with Kate, I have come to realize that we were way ahead of the curve as far as making trips to visit colleges in preparation for our matriculation. Back then, people just didn't do that, unless some school was trying to recruit you as an athlete.

I remember the trip, driving up from Atlanta to Clarksville on I-24 and visiting Vanderbilt. Heading east on the old two-lane federal highway to Danville, Kentucky and Centre College. Upon the advice of the admissions personnel we crossed back over the mountains to get to I-75, so we could head down to Knoxville and UT. I remember finding parts of the road having fallen from the roadside, down the side of the Blue Ridge. Cabins on the side of the road looking like the last residence of Daniel Boone and Davy Crockett.

That night in Knoxville, we stayed in a Sheraton Hotel on Cumberland Avenue and walked up and down the strip of restaurants, pizza places and bars where the students hung out. Later that night we were watching a movie in our room when all of a sudden we could see emergency lights flashing up to our window from down below. It turned out that our hotel was on fire. We quickly scooted down the stairs and watched from the parking lot as the fire fighters tried to find the source of the fire. I think it was in the kitchen of the restaurant. As you would expect.

The next morning, we headed across the Smokies through Cherokee and Hickory to Durham and Duke University and UNC, Chapel Hill. I will never forget driving over to the campus at Duke and looking at the buildings on campus at night. Those gothic buildings were quite impressive, all uplit at night. I felt like I had found a part in "The Hunchback of Notre Dame."

The next morning we drove over to Chapel Hill and met with the Director of Admissions for UNC. We were there at Chapel Hill for me, since I was the one with the desire to go there. However, the Director was a racist who talked about nothing but the problem caused by the new black mayor in Atlanta and other issues about black politicians in Atlanta. Blah, blah, blah.

After talking about our respective records in school and our goals, he packed us into his Volkswagen beetle, me in the back seat, Graham in the front, and drove us around campus. After finding out about our respective SAT scores, his desire to talk to me was minimized and Graham became the prime recruit.

He did take us down to the football field at Kenan Stadium, which was somewhat of an accomodation to me, and we got to walk around down on the field. But I will never forget exiting his beetle in the parking lot of the admissions office and watching him put his arm around Graham's shoulders and saying, "Graham. There is a place for you at the University of North Carolina. I want you to send your application in as soon as possible."

And turning his head around to acknowledge me, he said, "You apply too, Tom."

I could have told him there was no chance that Graham was going to attend the University of North Carolina. As soon as his acceptance at Harvard arrived, he was on his way to Cambridge.

It was a little bit later, when we were driving north from Durham up into Virginia that my mood brightened. All of a sudden, the country boys in the pickup trucks were waving at us as we passed on the highway. Later that evening, a driving rain shower hit us as we drove on toward Charlottesville. We pulled off the road into a shopping center and got the car stuck in the mud beside the entrance to the center. Out of no where, a bunch of high school students from Martinsville materialized and cheerfully pushed us out of the mud on the side of a shopping center during the driving rain storm. They wouldn't even accept any recompense. It was at that point that I realized that I appreciated Virginia a whole lot more than North Carolina. No wonder I ended up at W&L.

I still don't have much to do with UNC, Chapel Hill. I'd just about rather cheer for the damn Wahoos than UNC or Duke.

And don't get me started on Wake Forest. Kate and Cindy will chime in on that one. That is where we developed the folk wisdom that in Winston Salem: "you are on your own."

Graham and I had a nice time in Charlottesville, looking at the part of the campus designed by TJ. We didn't get to talk to anyone on campus, and it was raining a bit through our walk around the colonade, but we did get to see Monticello before we headed back to Georgia. That was fun.

Later, as we were driving back home from Virginia, my mother mentioned that our neighbor across the street had wondered if we had gone to see Washington and Lee and VMI. In response to the question, I looked in our book of colleges and found the information which would lead me to Lexington, Virginia a year later.

Well, anyway. It was quite a trip for a couple of rising seniors in high school to make without any adult supervision. Most folks would acknowledge that that was definitely a different time. I don't think I would have let Kate go off on a trip around the southeast with one of her girl friends when she was a rising senior in high school.

There were a lot of memories to store away.