Glory Days.......in the wink of a young girl's eye.....

Yes, we're taking to the road again.....
this time on a college trip with Toni...

Let me start with a little story....circa June 1976

I was a waitress at a little chain restaurant. One day,I happened to wait on a table with 2 couples....one older, one younger. The younger couple had come into town to visit with the woman's parents. During the course of ordering and subsequent conversation, I mentioned that I had just graduated from high school. The younger woman asked me my plans for the future. I told her that I would be going off to college at a little place about an hour or so outside of Pittsburgh. She was very interested in what I had to say. When I told her the college I would be attending, she became very excited. As it turned out, she was a professor at that very same college. So, she asked what I would be majoring in. I told her...."Communications". As it turned out, I was majoring in her department. Fast forward a few months and I found myself in her class. On the first day of class, not being a shy one, I introduced myself to her as the girl she met on that day in June when I waited on her and her family. She had not forgotten. Over the next 2 years, I took several of her courses. She was a fabulous instructor and I always aced her classes. She consistently encouraged me and applauded my abilities and my creativity. I loved the courses and I appreciated her support. The program required a lot of presentations, speeches and oral communications. Things I had always excelled at and enjoyed. However, after my sophomore year, the pull towards writing got the best of me. So, I switched my major to Creative Writing...which resided in the English Department. After that, I didn't see much of that professor. My head and my heart were fully immersed in writing and aspiring to pen the next great American novel. No more presentations or speeches. I was busy launching a literary magazine, writing Beatnik poetry and reading D.H. Lawrence. It was where I wanted to be and I reveled in the intellectual stimulus of being with people who shared my same love for writing and great writers. I busied myself with the serious,sometimes dark writings of Irish bards and the poetry of Alan Ginsburg and Jack Kerouac. It was a great place to exercise my passion for interpreting their words and understanding their motivation. Bantering with like minded folks, sharing a joint or two with them and having deep literary discussions were my thing during my academic hours. When I wasn't doing that---I was doing the sorority girl thing, going to frat parties and dreaming of the days when I could afford great shoes.
Fast forward about 10 years....
We were comfortably living in our first house. Vince was about 5 years old, Toni was only in our dreams, our careers were going well and our lives were very busy. The professor I met at that little restaurant called me. Out of the blue. On a weeknight when I'm living in suburbia. She was nearing the end of her career...she told me...and she had been thinking of me for quite some time. A few weeks earlier, she had been in Europe and she thought she saw me. Which, of course, she didn't. She told me that she had thought of me often throughout the years and had regretted not encouraging me to stay in her program. She told me that I was probably one of the most talented students she ever had and that not encouraging me to stay in her program was one of her great regrets. She said that she interpreted it as "a sign" when she saw me in Europe....she knew she had to find me. Now, to say that I was awestruck that night is an understatement. Unfortunately, with a rambunctious boy running about, a full day behind me and another one in front of me, I didn't have the mental capacity or energy or the wisdom that comes with age to understand that her phone call was important. Especially to her.

We're taking Toni to visit that same little college. It's now a university. Last year we took a little drive up there and Toni fell in love. Although she had visited there several times before, her college days were far from her mind....she could have cared less about the place. It was the place mom went to school and only that. When we took our son to visit during his college tour days, he couldn't get out of there fast enough. It was a little too sleepy for him. But, for Toni, the little campus nestled at the foothills of a mountain on a river bend felt just right. The quaintness of the buildings, the beauty of the landscape and the size of campus were perfect. She felt like she belonged. And, I couldn't help but feel a great sense of joy imagining my daughter's feet walking on the same paths as my 17 year old feet. My heart skipped a beat as I watched her look at the campus with a fresh eye, filled with fascination and excitement. "Yes" I thought to myself...."this is her school" So many times since then, I imagined her being there. Being at my school. The place where I learned and grew and loved and had fun and did crazy things and met wonderful people. The place were I scooped up a lifetime worth of friendships and lived the college life. There, at those foothills, at the bend of that river, I was a young and lively Judi....a prelude to the Judi I am today. Never did I even imagine or think that 30+ years later, my own daughter....my precious, sweet and gorgeous daughter....may find her way to the place where her own story will unfold. Whether she chooses to go there or not is her choice. We have several more college trips scheduled in the weeks ahead. But, for today....going there with her and knowing that she loves a place that I also love is enough for me. To walk those paths and sit in those buildings with my daughter beside me....life is good. But, the cherry on top of that is this....when I asked her what she would major in.....she said "Communications"
Now it's my turn to make an important phone call. I have to find that professor and let her know.








So....did you watch the debate?