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.
