Sanna's Bag

“I never seem to have what I need when I need it. I’m going to make a belt-bag that’s bigger on the inside than on the outside, and just carry everything with me.”

Wednesday, April 25, 2007

This is where I went to school

Lewis and Clark College was founded in the late 1800.a while later, a wealthy alum donated his private home and acerage to the school. The home is now the administration building. all offices and copiers inside now, but when I was going to school, we still had classes up on the third floor in the servant's quarters. And on the second floor, see that round tower just to the left of the main entrance? On the second floor, that was the ladies' bathroom. All tile with art Deco Egyptian themed fixtures and a hedonistically huge tub in an alcove with built in candle sconces shaped like nubian slaves holding torches.




I graduataed in 1972 with a BA in english. That left me qualified to wait tables anywhere in America. I got work in yarn stores. In May of1980, there was a "Rennisance Faire" on campus and I took myself up for the fun of it. I got there early, and was able to watch Mt. St. Helen's explode from this patio. The view was stunning, and I will never forget it.









Here is the back view of the manor house. The land slopes down to the East, here, and at the foot of the stairs is a big reflecting pool. When I was a student here, someone had stocked the pool with goldfish. Two neighborhood golden retrievers (Budweiser and Michelob)had discovered that they could always get a came of fetch at the college, so hung out on campus much of the time. One of their less endearing tricks was to catch goldfish and drop them on the backs of sunbathers.




Since the college is Presbyterian, they needed a chapel. The Agnes Flannagan chapel is built to resemble a Native American long house. Only, the chapel is round. The acoustics are delicious. And it's impossible to get stuck in a bad corner.
The old stables went through several incarnations. I believe they are now a series of science labs. I didn't take pictures of all the new buildings. The new theater and the new library and the new art department and the new gym (where Steve Prefontaine trained, and the Blazers come for basketball practice) The new buildings are quite nice, but hold no memories for me.
Nor did I take pictures of all the palatial new dorms. But here's a shot of one of the older dorms with a well-grown rhododendron in bloom. Yes, it is over one story tall. They grow wild around here. Sometime, I'll take you to the Crystal Springs Rhododendron test gardens and we can throw bread at the ducks.
Did you enjoy your tour of my alma mater? Maybe next week I will take you downtown.

4 Comments:

  • At 11:40 AM , Blogger Lyssa said...

    What a beautiful school! I'm sure being there inspired you to great heights of studiousness.

    Aren't you supposed to be writing some books or something? ;)

     
  • At 3:46 PM , Blogger Amy Lane said...

    Triane, Goddess of Joy, that's a gorgeous place... what wonderful memories and what a beautiful school. (Well, I wouldn't say the Mt. ST. Helen's thing was wonderful, exactly, but stunning? OKay...) I can't wait until you read Bittermoon...you will love the University at Triannon. (And I will show these pictures to Chicken--she always claims she wants to go back East, but this is closer, and it's just as lovely)

     
  • At 9:39 PM , Blogger Willow said...

    I went to an evening wedding in the chapel several years ago. It looked like a round room would be hard to decorate for a wedding. The brilliant (!) answer was votive candles all the way around the room. The wedding was lovely. And I sincerely hope the couple is still happily married.

     
  • At 1:25 AM , Blogger Flea-Bites said...

    Roxie, that school looks like heaven - what beautiful buildings and gardens. It must have been a pleasure to get up each day in that environment.

    It's funny how different the terminologies are between the US and Oz. Here, "school" is where you go after you leave "pre-school" at 5 or 6. Infants school covers K(indergarten) to Yr 2. Primary school covers Yr 3 to Yr 6. Kids then go on to "high school" which covers junior secondary from Yr 7 - Yr 10 when kids sit the School Certificate and can then leave if they are ?16 years old, and secondary school covers Yrs 11 and 12 at the end of which is the Higher School Certificate which is essential if kids want to do tertiary study at a "university" (uni)!

    The HSC freaks a lot of kids out because of the pressure to get a really high score for university entrance. Last year a young girl committed suicide before the exams. Our eldest daughter went to the US (Atlanta) as an exchange student in Yr 12, a couple of months before the HSC. The school was not impressed! But she had contacted the universities here before she went and was guaranteed entrance to the Uni of NSW (where Grandpa Flea went) if she had credit averages in her class work at school and got a certain score on the SAT (can't remember what it was). She wanted to study science - I don't think they would have been so accommodating if she had wanted to do law or medicine as there is a very high demand for those courses. She sailed through without any of the stress that she would have had at home doing the HSC. She did need to apply herself to "civics" at school though, as she obviously had no knowledge of the US government etc.

    These days kids seem to need the HSC even to go to TAFE (Technical & Further Education colleges) and do an apprenticeship. The system has beeen falling down for kids who aren't academically inclined. Most Australian kids go to universities close to where they live. Just as well too! Our daughters went to uni in Sydney, but our son wanted to do a course at a regional university and it cost an arm and a leg to support him in a residential college, then in a flat (apartment) for the four years he was there.

    When I left school I studied speech pathology and did some classes at Sydney Uni but the majority were at the Children's Hospital. It was a three year course and you graduated with a diploma. These days it is a 4 year degree course. It used to take me close to two hours travelling EACH way on foot, train and bus to get there. When I was about 35 I went back to study at Macquarie Uni (close to where I live - 10 minutes by car!) and did a BA in psychology - no abnormal psychology but mainly psychology of language and social psych. Macquarie was a great university as you could do courses from any faculty as long as you had a core program. I realised when I was there that I should have studied linguistics when I left school, not speech pathology which I hated and was hopeless at. At Macquarie I mixed some behavioural sciences - anthropogy, sociology, psychology - with linguistics and loved it. But maybe if I'd studied that when I was 16 (which is the age I matriculated) I would have hated it too. Age does have some advantages. It's a shame we can't have the body, brain, energy and sex drive of an 18 year old with the wisdom of a 40 year old when we are young! Sorry I've raved on so much - it happens sometimes!

     

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