Wednesday, May 7, 2008

A part of my past is gone. . . . .

In the course of getting my degree I went to three colleges --- a small private school, a community college, and a fair-sized public university. Our Lady of the Lake University in San Antonio wasn't very big --- 1600 students including the grad school --- but it had a big effect on me. I'd done a lot of traveling with my family, but for the first time I was by myself, almost 300 miles away from home. The small size kept me from being too overwhelmed as I adjusted to a new life. Here's a link to a tour of the campus. Just search by name.

http://www.ecampustours.com/collegesearch/collegesearchresults.htm?state=TX

Last night the heart of the campus burned.

The Old Main building was built in 1895. It had wide halls with high ceilings --- about 12" even with a dropped ceiling for AC. It held the cafeteria, the computer labs, and lots more. These days, part of the building had been turned into dorms (I think for the international students).

I remember taking computer classes (back when that meant programming, not using a mouse). The BASIC and SPSS (used by the social work students) databases were on the same computer system, but SPSS really slowed the system down. We joked that if 3 SPSS users were on at the same time, anyone who needed a printout had time to go down to the cafeteria, get a drink, return, and finish it before the printout was done --- IF the fates were with him.

Now a lot of that beautiful piece of history is gone, along with a lot of historical papers and photos. Here's a link to a video of the aftermath.
http://www.ksat.com/news/16181762/detail.html#

A lot of the building is still there, but it will never be the same.

And neither will I.


1 comment:

Chris Stone said...

sorry to hear about that!