Sunday, August 5, 2012

The preparations


When Judy and I arrived at college, we didn't bring much with us. We've been trying to remember details, but well, it was forty years ago...

I came with the patchwork spread my mother had made me in high school. She'd cut squares from the fabric left over from many of the dresses she'd made for me, my sisters, and herself. Judy had a brand new bedspread, a heavy woven cotton fabric in blues and blue-greens. It turns out that these two items made big impressions on both of us: I loved the colors and stylishness of hers, and she liked that mine was hand made.

Other than those two things, we packed light. Judy had sheets from home; I'd signed up for the college linen service. I still remember those rough bleached sheets and skimpy towels. She had a brand new hamper that survived well into her son Michael's childhood (he just turned 30). I brought a few things like my red Tensor lamp, a little desk book stand, and my snazzy alarm clock with the burnt orange face (it was the '70's, you know). Both of us packed our favorite books.

Times have changed in forty years. The other day we took the girls and their best friend on a college stuff shopping trip. We started out with a quick meal at Panera. We had to have the strength for what was ahead.


Then we stopped at Best Buy for the fastest two-printer purchase on record. After that, we stormed Bed Bath & Beyond. It was almost 9:00, and the store closed at 9:30. Becca and Rachel (or their mother) had a long list, and everything needed to be purchased in twos. We went into overdrive, which involved a lot of talking and gesturing, a little confusion, and some very quick decisions.

After about 20 minutes, all that was left to do was make the final choices on sheets. The cart looked like this:


And the wall of sheets looked like this:


We made it to the cash register at just about 9:30.

In 1972, going to college seemed to be a simpler proposition. There were no mega-stores with walls of sheets and dorm must-haves. There were no smartphones for texting photos to your mother (as Best Friend did when she found the comforter set of her dreams). There were no decisions to be made about renting versus buying a mini-fridge.

Did we just pack some boxes and go, or did our mothers have lists and worries? Did we?


No comments:

Post a Comment