Know What I Did Last Summer?

I realized I was living a twilight zone-ish life as May turned into June. I turned to channel 48, settled onto the couch and waited for the next movie to start up on everyone’s favorite channel.

After watching the same unchanged frame of television for a good hour or so, I realized something wasn’t quite right.

So, I jumped off the couch, stepped out into the light of day and walked to the bus stop to catch the Comm. Ave bus to visit some friends in Cleveland Circle. Maybe they would have some movies I could watch.

I sat at the bus stop and waited for a ride. Five minutes turned into 10 and 10 turned into 20 and 20 into 30 and before I knew it, I had waited a whole hour for a bus. Now, even for a former Newtonite, that’s a rather extensive wait.

Confused by the absence of buses, yet still not realizing the gravity of the situation, I noticed it was 6:30 and prime time for dinner at Lower. I shuffled over to the dining hall and encountered an eerie silence.

Lower had closed for dinner at 6:30!

I ran up the stairs to Addie’s. There was no pizza, no pasta, no fresh cappuccino.

I stumbled back to my dorm dazed and confused and looked up just in time to avoid a bulldozer as it worked noisily on some nondescript construction project in the middle of the Mods, the empty Mods.

It was now that I knew something was not right.

No BC movie channel, NO buses, NO food after 6:30, NO easy thruways and NO people in the Mods.....I had entered the “On-Campus-For-the-Summer” zone.

And what a weird, weird world it was.

I have now completed my summer break living in BC dorms and working on campus.

A decent number of students lived on campus this summer, but the feel that permeated the air was very foreign.

The center of action, during the weeks and weekends, was shifted completely to off campus housing pockets or sparsely furnished common rooms. Without classes, meetings, athletic events or performances to attend, it seemed to me that our campus had lost its luster.

Where had everybody gone? People were simply sleeping, maybe working and occasionally eating here, the living was taking place elsewhere.

So I did the only thing I could do; I sat in my room, turned the dial to Magic 106.7, surrounded myself with Kodak moments of the good old days during the semester, and waited for everyone to return to me.

After a couple of days spent moping around my dorm room, I adjusted to our more silent campus and even began to think of the absence of classmates in a more positive manner.

The peaceful feeling of stroll across the Dustbowl unencumbered by quarter sheets, loosely hanging banners and a crowded walkway actually brought a smile to my face.

However, just as I was getting used to that idea, the Class of 2004 began to arrive in droves. Car loads of freshman arrived week after week for orientation sessions and Sunday, Mondays, and Tuesdays were forever marked by bouncy polo-shirted orientation leaders and excited, yet nervous freshman accompanied by their equally excited and nervous parents.

When the mass exodus of now oriented freshman took place every Tuesday, campus was once again mine and I was free to roam wherever I wanted.

And I roamed around not only on foot, but by car. Parking spots were up for grabs during the summer months. The usually ever-present danger of ending up with a towed car and hundreds of dollars in overdue parking tickets was a non-factor. I parked my car almost wherever I wanted, unless of course, it was roped off by orange fencing.

The orange fencing became an indication of what had once seemed obstructive construction but was now transformed into artwork in progress.

I watched stairs spring up at the back of Higgins, more mulch than I thought existed appear absolutely everywhere, and large drainage tubes find their way into the underside of Bapst lawn.

I anxiously awaited the close of each construction project and held my breath as the terrible “wrought iron gated mods” rumor spread through our sparsely populated campus and I had no one to complain with about the ridiculous proposal.

As the summer continued, I became very adjusted to summer life on campus. I spent a lot of time in the apartments of the many off campus residents, enjoyed short lines at Mary Ann’s, and ordered in many sandwiches, as I never quite grasped the summer hours of operation at the dining hall.

In the days leading up to our first day of classes my world began to change again. Cars packed to the brim with belongings and U-Hauls from every state began to disrupt the silent and beautifully monotonous lifestyle to which I had become accustomed.

Suddenly, and it has seemed as though without warning, campus has been reinstating itself as the hub of all activity.

The buses have begun running again, the Mods have begun to fill up with excited seniors, the dining hall has been experiencing more normal hours, the construction has abated, the lineup for the BC movie channel in September is spectacular and plans to gate in the Mods are underway.

And so, after three months of sometimes silent, but always relaxing good times, I am ready to immerse myself again in the craziness of a campus full of activity.

God bless September fifth.