Visited my old college this weekend

Posted by No_Instruction_1236@reddit | GenX | View on Reddit | 46 comments

Graduated college in 1996 and law school in 1999. I visited both for the first time this weekend in over 20 years. I had a great time then at both places, very positive memories of the schools and the cities where I studied. I had high expectations for my visit.

Both places are still neat, but both places were radically different. My favorite places were gone, my old apartments and dorms were gone. Both places were much, much larger than I remember.

I realized this weekend I don’t love those places anymore. I love them how they were at that time in my life, and those places no longer exist, and they never will exist again.

[-]

Ulfhrafn@reddit

I finished my undergrad in 94. I haven't been back since. I don't even remember a vague layout of the campus any more. All I remember now are the excessive amount of bunnies. Apparently, the bunnies are still there.

[-]

gnortsmracr@reddit

My college closed after I graduated in ‘95. Drive through the area around 2000. The academic buildings were taken by the city and made into a high school. Some years later they built a development in the other side of the street. Wish I could have the opportunity to go back and walk those halls. Oh well. At least I have the memories.

[-]

Thirty_Helens_Agree@reddit

I did that a few months ago.

I went to the University of Wisconsin, and knew that one of the archives kept a near-complete collection of The Onion, so I made it a point to stop at that building and look through old Onions from my school days.

Know what was the most nostalgic? The ads. Ads for restaurants or sandwich places I used to go to, ads for concerts I went to and forgot about.

[-]

ThoughtCharming8917@reddit

Mickie’s Dairy Bar, perchance?

[-]

Thirty_Helens_Agree@reddit

State St. Brats, which he still calls “the Brathaus.”

[-]

ThoughtCharming8917@reddit

For brats, I preferred The Terrace ... good people watching at State Street Brats, however. Middle child is shifting apartments on Thursday and we'll be on hand to assist. Cold one on the Terrace afterwards, to be sure! Mickie's Dairy Bar hasn't changed since forever. Heck of a spot for a too large breakfast along w/a vanilla malt :)

[-]

Cheese-Manipulator@reddit

They've added a LOT of new buildings to my campus. One is so close to another that I swear you could tap on the neighboring window with a broom stick.

[-]

Kuildeous@reddit

I haven't been to my alma mater in over 25 years, but I'll sometimes Google Maps stalk it. I can only imagine how it looks at ground level, but I can definitely see some changes made to the campus on a satellite map.

I bet if I walked into my old dorm room, I would be shocked at how tiny that living space--especially when shared with a roommate. I couldn't do that now.

[-]

46tcraft@reddit

I went to a very small school in the Midwest. Graduated in 1990. My son goes to the same school now. In the fall of 2023 he was assigned as a freshman to the same dorm, same floor and same room that I spent the 1988/1989 school year in. When we helped him move in and when we visited, not much had changed in that room. I immediately thought that there is no way that I spent an entire school year in that room with a roommate. If I had that room today, I would as to talk to the manager…

[-]

Puzzled_Plate_3464@reddit

I graduated in '87.

Went back on a business trip in 2010. I was doing a presentation at my alma mater!

The student union cafe I was the student manager at for breakfast, lunch and dinner five days a week didn't exist anymore.

The apartment I lived in for two years, lived with my wife to be in, did a lot of living in - had burned down, didn't exist anymore.

The bars I went to - gone. Restaurants - gone. Shops - gone. The main drag was unrecognizable.

The campus had changed so much in 23 years. Kinda wished I hadn't gone...

[-]

lovestobitch-@reddit

Sadly my town for college changed only a little. Trying to decide whether to go back for my 50th. I was closer to kids younger and older than my class so am on the fence about making the trip.

[-]

Middle_Raspberry2499@reddit

Don’t rule out going for your 49th or 51st. I’ve gone to my 6th, 29th, and 34th and had a blast each time

[-]

dreaminginteal@reddit

Another class of 87 here. I visited my alma mater about a decade ago. It was much the same, with many of the places I used to go still there. (Though I never went to bars, so I didn't recognize if they were the same or different.) My favorite restaurant was still going strong, still serving more or less the same menu. The campus buildings were still all there, including the dorms. A few things were new, but they were generally smaller.

The main difference is that the school finally got its act and its finances together and reopened one of the historic buildings on campus. It had always been there, but was closed to students when I was there.

Perhaps that's because it was a modest-sized school in a small town in the midwest? Not sure.

[-]

Puzzled_Plate_3464@reddit

Perhaps that's because it was a modest-sized school in a small town in the midwest? Not sure.

Perhaps, mine was the polar opposite. Big name school, a little less than 30,000 undergrad (20+k) + grad (~9k) students. Big'ish city.

[-]

Sneakygit12@reddit

PCU is a moment frozen in time. Still a favorite movie.

[-]

Expert_Habit9520@reddit

I have mixed feelings when I happen to go through my hometown usually on the way to somewhere else. It triggers great memories but also a sadness that all those people and pets are no longer in my life. It was the people I knew that made that town special. With those people all gone, it’s just another place that’s no better or worse than any other and not really special anymore.

[-]

DankOubliette@reddit

I still visit my hometown quite frequently to visit parents, but it has visibly declined - weeds and trash in the streets, the High Street now full of charity shops, gaudy barbers and nail salons, and vape shops. There are still some nice pubs, but they’re virtually empty. And there’s an air of despondency from my friends who still live there.

Part of me wonders if the town has changed, or if it’s me - as a kid there’s a lot of don’t notice or think about. But it sure makes me sad that those formative years are long gone.

[-]

ktg1975@reddit

Moved to NYC at 21, lived there 13 years. Moved away a decade ago. Each time I go back to visit, it’s less and less the place I knew…. Not better, or worse, just different than my years there. It makes me sad for years past - but I have so many great memories. It just feels like a photo album in my mind now.

[-]

polishprince76@reddit

I went to Indiana. Every time I visit Bloomington, it feels like it dies a little more. It was such a cool place back in the day. Felt like an Austin in the midwest. The corporate blob has swallowed it whole. A lot of the old, colorful, interesting places have been torn down and replaced by grey and glass cubes with chain restaurants inside them. My old art store I got supplies at that had a couple cats roaming around is now luxury apartments scamming kids out of entirely too much in rent. I hate it all.

[-]

tomNJUSA@reddit

Graduated in 90. Met my wife at college so we go back frequently. Nearly every Homecoming. Every year another piece of familiarity disappears but we still love to visit.

There are two stairways in the student center that have not changed. Same paint, same steps and, most importantly, the same smell. We make it a point to always visit "our steps".

[-]

Status-Effort-9380@reddit

I went to college in New Orleans. Nothing has changed. It’s weird.

[-]

Beneficial_Fix_7287@reddit

I still live in the same town I went to college in but don’t really get up there too much anymore. Today, my daughter, who also graduated from the same University and who was born in 1991, sent videos of my grandsons running around and chasing each other out on The Quad. It blew my mind to think I graduated in ‘93 and now those two boys will probably grow up and go there, too. Definitely gave me hometown vibes, which was cool, but also made me realize, “oh. Holy shit! I AM 57!” 🤯🤯🤯

[-]

Tardislass@reddit

I remember visiting my old college 10 years ago and realizing all the cool quirky coffee houses I went to in the 1990s are all Starbucks. 4 Starbucks in 2 sq mile radius.

You can't go home again.

[-]

arkensto@reddit

For me it was the independent street food vendors. I remember being able to get Burrito sized egg rolls from this one particular Vietnamese vendor. Now they are all replaced by corporate shit like pizza hut slices, and the cheapest hotdogs suppliers can find sold for at stadium concession prices.

I'm sure they sold it to the school as "jobs for students"

[-]

SHDrivesOnTrack@reddit

“You can't go home again because home has ceased to exist except in the mothballs of memory.”

― John Steinbeck, Travels with Charley

I read that book in high school, and it took another 20 years before I appreciated what he was saying.

[-]

whippy_grep@reddit

My son is currently a junior at my Alma Mater (I’m ‘89), so my wife and I visit him at least once per semester. I like walking around the campus I was a student at (there is a different campus that was built for a lot of the STEM programs) and remembering my times there, but I fully realize “my time” was 40 years ago.

[-]

Civility2020@reddit

I’ve ended up working in the town I went to college in.

I deliberately avoid going to the places I used to enjoy because it was the people I was with that made them special, not the places themselves.

I would just be lonely there and it would ruin the memories.

[-]

Efficient-Video-9454@reddit

I’m at mine all the time, especially sports but I only live an hour away. I distinctly remember a time about 15 years ago after a big growth spurt on campus when I literally got lost. I guess technically “turned around” but I never thought that would happen

[-]

funkdafied818@reddit

The musty smell of a basement with stale beer still exists

[-]

ontherumline@reddit

After 35 years away I now teach at the college I went to and it’s different but I still love it. I share a connection with every student. But my favorite bar is still here too. So that helps.

[-]

Tim-_-Bob@reddit

My old college apartment is gone with the wind. There stands a parking garage.

[-]

ErringGlarer@reddit

It’s so strange, remembering places that don’t exist anymore. Often in great detail.

My elementary school was remodeled and recently closed. My middle school was torn down and a new one with a new name built in its place. My high school has been remodeled at least twice since I graduated. I remember them all so well, but they’re not there anymore.

[-]

Wooden-Glove-2384@reddit

you can't go home again so don't bother

[-]

Chemical_Butterfly40@reddit

In the Before Times, I would go to my alma mater campus every now and again with my co-workers (also alums). We'd go for lunch or dinner or evening events. It was a lot of fun to walk around, see what's changed and what hasn't.
Unfortunately the campus is now closed to visitors because of the protests that have been going on. So even if we still worked in the area, we wouldn't be able to just drop in.

[-]

Advanced_Nose_7738@reddit

I'm glad I moved on after graduating and kept the good memories and nothing more. I don't want to be one of those middle aged guys whose alma mater is their identity, still into the rivalry thing and can't move on from it.

[-]

Chemical_Butterfly40@reddit

I feel attacked!

[-]

eejm@reddit

One of my college apartments is gone. I wouldn’t be shocked if it was condemned. (Sweet Jesus, it was a total shithole in 1997.). But my dorm and two other apartments are still there. So many other restaurants, shops, and bars are gone. The downtown area is much, much nicer.

It’s still my town, there are still familiar places. That said, there are different spots there that are familiar haunts to those who came after me. And that’s OK.

[-]

Techchick_Somewhere@reddit

I’m teaching at my University now, and it is WILD. It feels like I was just there - not 35 years ago 😬

[-]

PositiveRock@reddit

And I went down to my old neighborhood. The faces have all changed, there’s no one there left to talk to, and the pool hall that I loved as a kid was now a 7-Eleven.

[-]

flicman@reddit

God, how fucking awful would it have been to have had all those places still there, 30 years older, 30 years shittier, 30 years more outdated? You're lucky that the place you cared for is still vibrant, growing and changing, able to give current students more than rose-colored nostalgia from decades before they were born.

[-]

KatJen76@reddit

I had that experience and it was very weird and kinda awful. Stopped by three of my old student apartments. They all looked the same. I painted one of them and 25 years later, still the same color. Another one still had the abandoned TV antenna place across the street. The pizza place down by the bars looked the way it did the last time I was there 25 years ago. More charmingly, the main student bar which celebrated its 100th when I was in college was also unchanged. I bought a 125th tshirt from them. It was weird, very weird, and I wonder if the students of today still like it there.

[-]

MeanWoodpecker9971@reddit

I live semi close to my Alma Matter and still visit the city it was in, but I've never visited campus or my old haunts on campus . I still love the city but as you say, all the spots we would hang out in are gone. Can't imagine what it's like on or near campus.

[-]

zer00eyz@reddit

"You can go home, but you can never go back"

But I like this one better:

"anyway what was the use of my having come from Oakland it was not natural to have come from there yes write about it if I like or anything if I like but not there, there is no there there."