Kathy John's

Traveling to my alma mater can result in some poignant moments.  It has been a while since I visited so the opportunity to attend a play there last Friday night was a welcome and appreciated event. 

Being spring weekend, there were a couple of sobriety checkpoints that I went through, sign of the times, I guess.  But what got my attention more was something that had been replaced, the old dark reddish brown building that once held the ice cream and sandwich shop known as Kathy John’s. 

Those of us who were students at UCONN in the 70’s may remember it as ‘the place to go’ when parents visited, things needed to be celebrated, and diets needed to be ruined.  Hodgepodge Soup and Turtle Sundaes were the order of the day many times.  Of course, as poor college students, we often had to decide on one or the other.  Turtle Sundaes usually won out.

I remember the day some of us decided to walk to it from campus.  Not really too far but far enough for us to decide we didn’t want to do it again.  No sidewalks and a winding road that isn’t very wide made it not all that safe a walk.  Ah youth, and the crazy things we did.

KJ’s, as we called it, closed down many years ago, but not before being immortalized in a song put to the tune of John Denver’s ‘Country Roads, Take Me Home’.

“Oh, UCONN, UCONN

Huskey’s Pizza, Kathy John’s

Goin’ back now, won’t tell Momma

What we do, at Conn U.”

Never did know who wrote those lyrics.

And now, it’s a Cumberland Farms.  Nice, new, clean.

And boring.

Part of the property was a garage, so it makes sense to build something with gas pumps.  But I miss the place that I remember, where there was a little gift shop and you had to wait in line on weekends, where the local teens often got a first job.

And where memories, though faded and fading, were made.