Road Stories: Return to Avalon

“Time it was, and what a time it was it was; a time of innocence; a time of confidences. Long ago…it must be…I have a photograph. Preserve your memories; they’re all that’s left you!”

“Bookends”, Simon and Garfunkle’s Greatest Hits

Denise, Debbie, Patty, Debbie, Kathe, and C.J.
We thought we were so clever and hilarious

I don’t feel forty - well perhaps some body parts might feel that and more - but the essence that is me doesn’t feel any different than that seventeen year old who was a freshman at Central Methodist College in 1970. So how could it possibly be our fortieth class reunion? It may be Central Methodist University today but for generations of students it will always be CMC - a very special place.

“The more things change the more they stay the same.” (Jean-Baptiste Alphonse Karr, French novelist, as quoted by John Knowles in A Separate Peace) The town itself, Fayette, Missouri, is still struggling to stay alive in a commuter-age society. In ’74 there was still a drugstore with a lunch counter. You could buy a bottle of aspirin or a pimento cheese sandwich. Today that building houses Emmet’s, a fine dining establishment owned by a CMC alumnus. On the same side of the town square there was a movie theater. The theater marquee was the motif used in the yearbook our senior year. The building has long been abandoned as a theater; the marquee is gone. Chenoweth’s Clothing, an upscale clothing store, hasn’t been in existence for decades. Now the square is home to a Dollar General store and a Subway but the presence of several bars remains constant. I chuckle as I see a riding lawn mower parked in an automobile parking space on the square. On Saturday mornings during my freshman and sophomore years, an old man sold carp from the back of an ancient truck. By my junior year he was no longer present. I often wondered what became of him. One of my most distinctive memories was hearing the call of the rag-picker on early misty mornings just at daybreak in the alleyway behind my dorm, Howard-Payne South. The campus was heated by coal furnaces with hot water radiators in each room. On the fourth floor the only way to regulate the temperature was to throw open a window. In the early morning mist the distinctive clop, clop, clop of the horse’s hooves would announce the presence of the grizzled old black man, faithfully making his rounds. He, too, disappeared sometime during my college days. But much like many of our experiences, I can’t remember exactly when. I guess it is just as well that sometimes we don’t’ know when something will happen “for the last time” or when we will see someone “for the final time.” It would probably be so poignant that we, ourselves, would cease to exist.

View of one side of the town square from the front gate of CMU.

Gazebo at the Howard County Courthouse on the town square in Fayette

The oldest building in Fayette, ca. 1830. It was originally a hatter's shop

Front window of the old drugstore, now Emmet's Kitchen & Tap.
The original soda fountain is still there; now, it is their bar

Fayette is still very much "Small Town America"

The Sinclair station harkens back to days gone by. Even today, an
attendant still pumps your gas and washes your windshield

Since it is homecoming the store windows around the square are emblazoned with sorority, fraternity, and various other college groups’ artistic endeavors. The ideas and the art work remain much the same after all these years. The college band - still a pride and joy - marches with piccolos held high in the homecoming parade.

Window decorated by Zeta Psi Lambda, my old sorority,
for Homecoming 2014

Zeta float. The artwork on the window and the float hasn't changed much in 40 years

Zeta Psi Lambda - the Zeta sisters - ca. 1973

2014 Homecoming - Bonnie (B.J.), friend and Zeta sister

2014 Homecoming parade

The CMU Marching Band, 2014

We go to the football game to show support, but mostly to hear the band and chat. Our group was not really an athletic bunch. It is neither unexpected nor particularly disappointing that our team loses. It is only important that we are there together.

What originally brought ”us” together - a group of disparate teenagers finding their way - was a small, insulated campus with brilliant and caring Professors. At the time, I doubt that any of us realized that "brilliant" and "caring" were sometimes mutually exclusive qualities in the world of academia. “Dean T” and Mrs. Thogmorton were always there for us. There were good people in all departments: Dr. Warren in Foreign Languages, Dr. Sunoo in History, Dr. Momberg in Science (more specifically, Geology), Dr. Smart in Education, and many others. But the English Department was special. The beloved Mrs. Forderhase; the contemplative Dr. Eidson; the reflective Dr. Diamond; the demanding Dr. Winegard; and the animated Dr. Geist were all passionate about language and literature. Through their excitement and passion they helped us step into their world. Through literature we travelled to ancient worlds and future worlds. We started to comprehend that literature helps us to understand the depths and nuances of humanity, and therefore helped us understand a bit about ourselves. Gangly, confused teenagers were allowed; no, encouraged; no, invited to step into a world that held the possibility of insight into human experience. They helped us to understand that that our confusion and unknown needs were a part of our own humanity. They guided us, prodded us, goaded us. But most importantly they felt us worthy to join them in their Avalon.

Graduation luncheon, 1974 (l to r) Dorothy and Tracy Brown
(Yvonne's parents); Yvonne; and "Dean T" and Mrs. Thogmorton

(1 to r) Mrs. Forderhase with students Joanie, Susan and Yvonne on a trip to England, 1974

(l to r) Students Joanie and Susan with Dr. Winegard on a trip to England, 1974

Mrs. Kay Winegard, CMU's Registrar, is shown in her office holding
one of the many Barbie dolls from her extensive collection

Dr. Joe Geist, Professor Emeritus and Supervisor of the Collection
Ashby-Hodge Gallery of American Art, Homecoming 2014

I respect and love my mentors as I do my friends and fellow graduates of the class of 1974. There are a surprising number of our peers who are no longer bound by this earth. The majority of our class was not present at this reunion due to life’s daily demands. But Wanda, Jane, and Lita were there in spirit as I stepped onto the fourth floor of Howard-Payne (which, by the way, is now a men’s floor in a co-ed dorm. This is at a school where “girls” had to sign in by 9:30 p.m. on week nights at the dorm mother’s desk.) I pictured Kathe as I walked into Classic Hall, arguing some fine point in an assigned reading. Classic Hall is no longer a dark warren of classrooms and Professors’ offices. Now it has been revamped and is an inviting space that houses the Ashby-Hodge Gallery of American Art. I felt C.J.'s presence by my side as I strolled the campus, philosophically reflecting that those trees dominating the grounds were mere saplings, just as we, too, were saplings in the early 1970s.

Yvonne and Lita, 1974

Yvonne and C.J. in Colorado, 1972. Again, clever use of a sign!

Howard-Payne South, my home for four years

My world...a view of downtown Fayette from the 4th floor of Howard-Payne

Classic Hall. This building housed the English and Foreign Language Departments. Now
renovated, it houses the Ashby-Hodge Gallery of American Art and music practice rooms

John, Dr. Geist and Kathe in the Ashby-Hodge Gallery, 2009, our 35th reunion

Dr. Geist, John and Bonnie (B.J.) in the Ashby-Hodge Gallery, 2014, our 40th reunion

Cupples Hall / Smiley Library

Swinney Conservatory of Music...more popularly known as "the Conservatory"

Inman Student and Community Center, built on the former site of the Eire, the Student Union

T. Berry Smith Hall houses the History and Political Science Departments

These trees were mere saplings when we were students...my, how we've ALL
grown in 40 years. To the right, partially obscured, is Stedman Hall of Science

I had the good fortune to spend Friday evening catching up with classmates at the All Alumni Social Hour at the restored Howard County Jail. Saturday was spent on campus reminiscing with dear, dear friends.

The former Howard County jail, saved thanks to a Los Angeles investor
who bought the property from the county on eBay and restored it

David and Kathy, classmates from 1974, happily married all these many years

Kathy visits with former classmate John during the All Alumni Social Hour

We attended another alumni gathering after the Saturday
football game at the beautifully restored Rethwisch home

Not everyone made it back for our 40th reunion. This was a group of
friends who were here for our 35th reunion in 2009

Homecoming 2014 - The Class of 1974, 40 years after graduation

Bonnie (B.J. when we were in college), John and I briefly caught up on our current lives – current being relative when you are trying to cover forty years. But a smile and a hug transported us back to our collective youth. “What was” became “what is”. None of us was old, nor fat, nor gray. We were once again the vigorous, inquisitive truth-seekers of our youth. For a moment in time we were eternally eighteen. Bonnie is still the effervescent, feisty young woman, and John is forever “der Gelehrte". Perhaps all of us have been tempered by life’s experiences. No one goes through life unscathed, either physically or emotionally. A Japanese proverb seems appropriate: “Where the vessel was mended, it becomes stronger.”

John, Bonnie (B.J.) and Yvonne, Class of '74, at Homecoming 2014

The experiences and people of CMC are definitely not just part of the past because they are a part of who we are. Those experiences and the people with whom we shared them are the warp of which our lives are woven.