We started in Indianapolis, for some sports thing
I worked. Tigger played and got his picture taken.
After they handed out the big trophy, Tigger and I decided to drive an hour in the wrong direction before we went home. First we passed the great big new football stadium
Then we drove west on I-70 for almost an hour, then about 15 minutes north on Rt. 231. A good friend of mine took time out of his day for a campus tour (WOW, has it changed in the 18 years since I’ve been on campus!) then Tigger and I walked around on our own to show you DePauw University.
This is the main academic quad. Roy O. West Library in the center, Asbury on the right, Harrison on the left. When I was in school, there was a road in front of those buildings. Now it’s all pedestrians. Road totally and completely gone.
East College is the oldest building on campus and the “iconic” building for DPU (oh, yeah. If you ever wondered where my internet “name” came from? I went to DePauw University and they’re the Tigers. DPUTiger. A name I could remember.)
Just to the side of EC is one of the great campus landmarks.
The Boulder! There’s a little part of my brain that’s telling me it’s been moved, but since it had been almost 18 years since I’d been on campus (YIKES!), I’m not sure.
Anyhoo, since I was a history major, I had a lot of classes in EC, and walked by the boulder fairly often. And really, would it be a proper DePauw tour without seeing the Boulder? I think not!
One of my non-negotiable objectives once I was on campus was to stop at the bookstore. When you go to a small school like DPU, shopping for school gear on the internet isn’t exactly easy. You pretty much have to purchase in person. So Tigger and I stopped at the Union Building and paused to take a pic of North Quad.
These are the oldest dorms on campus. Lucy Rowland on the right and Mason on the left. When I was in college, Rector was a single large building in the middle. One morning when I was at UCLA, I was working out in the Wooden Center and some lame MTV-U “news” program was running on a loop. They kept showing a dorm fire and I kept thinking it looked familiar, but since there was no close-captioning and I couldn’t listen to the audio, I just figured I’d google “dorm fire” and the date when I got back to my office.
It was Rector. It was pretty much completely destroyed.
They built a “Rector Village” in its place. Super modern dorm-like thingies, lots of bells and whistles. Kids these days. Sooooo spoiled!
After dropping a bit of cash at the bookstore, Tigger and I headed towards my true former stomping grounds. A view of the Science and Math building (S&M … yeah) from across Bowman Park
Hey, wait ... didn't there used to be a fountain there?
When I was minoring in physics, that building was a bunker. No exterior windows, lots of brick, and built into the ground. It’s a little different now. What a rehab!
A little to the left …
… you see the Performing Arts Center. With another shiny huge new façade that’s good for natural light. But no Bowman Pond. Sad. That (farther away) browned-out chunk of grass? That used to be a pond. The particularly brave could ice skate there in the winter. Otherwise, it was mostly used for your typical college-type shenanigans that would be appropriate for an artificial pond that maxed out at about three feet in depth.
If you want to know where I spent about 75% of my collegeiate life during my last three years of schooling, this is it:
DePauw’s Center for Contemporary Media. That building opened second semester my sophomore year. People you have actually seen in the mainstream media were on camera for the first time in the far part of that building. I even directed some of them. It still houses the newspaper (The DePauw, Indiana's Oldest, Coolest and Best College newspaper), WGRE 91.5, your sound alternative, and the TV station. Good times.
Oh, and this was the only “academic” building I walked through on my own. And look what I found!
I wasn’t a knitter in college, but how cool is that?
Tigger and I finished our tour with a picture of my dorm for three of my four years of college.
Humbert Hall. It was so new when I moved in freshman year that my door didn’t have a doorknob yet. They weren’t finished installing them. Good times.
So that’s about it for campus. From there, we were hungry. And if it’s been 18 years since you were on campus at DePauw, there’s really only one option that’s acceptable for a meal.
Frank’s Fries on the left, a half-GCB … garlic cheeseburger … on the right.
MARVIN’S!
Heaven on a paper-lined plastic basket. Tasted just as good as it did 18 years ago.
I absolutely loved my time at DePauw, both during my four years as a student back in the stone ages and on my too-brief visit at the start of April. And I can guarantee it will be a lot less than 18 years before I’m on campus again. TIGER PRIDE, BABY!
