Visiting Carroll College, now University, where it all began

Yesterday was a beautiful day.

John and I went to Northwestern Publishing House to buy a gift for Nic's confirmation next Sunday.

Always fun to look at all the cool things at the publishing house.

We were lucky and found a few items for  him.

After lunch at Sonic, we decided to take our annual walk around Waukesha, revisiting Carroll College, now University where we met some 40 years ago.

We parked at Frame Park and began by checking out the botanical gardens.  There was not much blooming yet, but the tulips were pretty and made it feel like spring.

Next we walked past the apartment where Courtney and Alissa lived when they were done with college.

I know they had some great times in that apartment and it had lots of charm.

We walked over to the Carroll campus.

I checked out the five fraternity houses that were there and very active when we attended Carroll.

Seems they may all have been shut down.

The first frat house on our tour was the Beta house.
I had lots of great times in this house.
If those walls could talk, the stories they could tell.
The house looks abandoned now and very run down.
I think the Betas may still be active on campus, but live in the old TKE house, but not sure.

 The Delta Rho house also looked abandoned.
I never set foot in this frat house, they were a bit nerdy for my tastes in college although I imagine most of them went on to be very successful.

And here is my favorite house, the TKE house which is no longer the TKE house.
The TKEs lost their charter or whatever you call it for naughtiness.
They finally got caught, I guess.
John was a TKE and lived in this house for three years.
I had many, many fun times in this house, too.

The Phi Theta house used to be here on this corner, that one burned down at some point.
They no longer exist at Carroll either.

Finally, we have the Sig Ep house.

Smart to build that one of bricks since there was lots of smoking going on in there

The parties there were always fun, at least those that I can remember.

It is  now housing for Black students.

That ends your tour of fraternity row.

Not much left of it, glad I have my memories.

One of these houses was the President's home, not sure which one.

On one of the first days of freshman year, all the girls from my floor in the dorm had to dress up and go to the President's house where all the boys from the third floor of their dorm had to come and pick on of us to escort to the President's tea.  It was embarrassing and humiliating.

I doubt they do that anymore!

I was not picked first, but I also was not picked last.

 There are actually Indian mounds right on the campus.  John claims they were labeled when we went there, but how come I don't remember this at all?

 This is Main Hall where John and I first met in speech class. 

I wore short, short skirts and he gave boring speeches, but it still all worked out.

 This is the hill that my roomate, Joan and I roller skated down one day.  We ended up by slamming into the glass doors of the gym  The hill has been replaced with steps, perhaps too many people were roller skating down the hill?  Things that make you go, huh.

John said that it was the job of the TKEs to chop down the bushes that were in this spot each school year so that all of us, college students could cut through this area to get to our classes.
I guess the college got wise and cut the bushes themselves and put in a sidewalk.
I guess this is just one naughty thing the TKEs did.

 

This is the dorm that I lived in for three years of my college life.

Lots of fun times in this dorm.

I lived in rooms 319, 518, and 411 and I have no idea why I remember this.

I also worked the switchboard at the main desk in this dorm

Before cell phones, we had to talk on big wall phones with cords and there were only two per floor, so I had to direct students to the correct phone after I transferred their calls.

It was big important work for sure.

This campus is filled with so many good  memories for John and I.

Of course, the best being the fact that we met and fell in love on this campus.

As long as we are able, I intend to go back at least once a year to revisit this magical place.