http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Tn5D-3xouu4#
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=O-D2iES2uFg&feature=quicklist#
The above You Tube should play Carolina In My Mind once you hit the arrow in the middle of the screen. By the way, this set of Clef Hangers appear to be the same young men we saw this weekend. I recognize a good many of them. The top two addresses should play other Carolina songs as sung by the Clef Hangers. Just click on them to play the clips and then, when they are finished playing, click on your back button to come back to read the blog if you choose to read it.
UNC Graduation and Reunion weekend. Don had his (50th) class reunion. There was not a free minute anywhere to be had and I have never seen anything so well-coordinated and easy to maneuver. Buses to everywhere and at all times of day. We stayed in Granville Towers which is a high-grade dormitory. We had basically towels, sheets, a blanket and a pillow per bed provided. No tv. Towels weren't much to brag about. We never did figure out how to get connected to the internet on his Apple. But we didn't need the room much so it didn't matter. There was a private bathroom since we got both rooms in the suite. This meant a lot to me. We were able to get out much cheaper by staying here than by going to some of the higher priced places such as the Carolina Inn and we both thought it was worth it.
Thursday was check-in with no planned activities. We got there around 6-ish I believe and went to Franklin Street to look around. There was basically a drug store and a few restaurants open. The stores close down at 5:30 or 6:00 p.m. Unbelievable. I wanted to go in Johnny T-Shirt so bad but no luck there and it opened at 10 a.m. the next day, just when the reunion activities were scheduled to begin. We did see that the Shrunken Head would open at 9 a.m. and it has the same or very similar Carolina merchandise so we resolved to be there at 9 and help them open for the day on Friday. On Thursday, we ate at the Carolina Coffee Shop since there is no more Rathskeller. (Non-payment of taxes 18 months ago closed them down we were told.) Chapel Hill will never be exactly the same to me with the Rathskeller and Intimate Bookshop both gone from the middle of town but so be it. I will just have to recover as I still love the place and feel like it is my home away from home. The food at the Carolina Coffee Shop was excellent and we filled up, then went to our rooms and watched a little of an NBA basketball game (Don brought a small tv), then slept.
On Friday, we went to the Shrunken Head where I racked up on new Carolina merchandise for myself. I got a really pretty bracelet for $8.95, a mug with an Old Well picture, a tasteful throw with UNC on it, and a bunch of post cards. It soothed my Carolina soul and it is my spending fix for a while for Carolina items. I could have found more but time was limited and so was money. The lady who runs the store said she had been in business for 45 years and on a football weekend, they get 20,000+ customers in one day. She feels like almost everyone in the state shows up at one time and they have to limit the number of people who get in the store at one time.
Then, we went to register for the reunion events. We registered for a luncheon (free for 50th reunion people so it is something to look forward to maybe) and 2 seminars on Friday, then a barbecue in the evening. The luncheon was good and we had some speeches and the Clef Hangers sang at the event. The Clef Hangers enthralled me as I had not heard them before. They are an a capella group that includes the Chapel Hill campus Chancellor as a member. The group also sang at graduation on Sunday and the Chancellor ran down a ramp to meet up with the group and sing with them before the graduation audience. I really loved it and think it shows real personality by Chancellor Thorpe. The Clef Hangers are absolutely professional and wonderful. Here is a Website about them:
http://www.clefhangers.com/
At the end of lunch, everyone sang "Hark the Sound of Tar Heel Voices" as we did at some event every day of the reunion events. It became our Carolina devotional of the day almost. In the evening, we went to a place that served barbecue (probably pork) or barbecue chicken. The barbecue was great with lots of time to visit with folks. Don knows lots of his fellow classmates so we had lots of folks to visit and I made real friends of a couple of them. We are going to continue to converse by email at least. Earlier in the day, though, there were seminars. We had to choose which ones to see as it was not possible to be at them all. We chose one on the waterways of the Outer Banks of NC where there were videos of a boat trip down the coast. Then I went to one on Thomas Wolfe as Don went to one on new media forms of today. Mine was really really good with a professor who loved his topic and who was very enthusiastic about it. He talked about Thomas Wolfe, the man, and what he means and has meant to UNC. He did not specifically discuss much about his literature. He said that Look Homeward Angel was once required reading for every UNC student but now, it is hard to get students to stick with a book of this length although he says that every student knows who Wolfe is and certainly every UNC leader knows. Our Wilson Library safeguards many Wolfe items and is doubly careful with them since the Asheville home of Wolfe burned down a few years back but has now been refurbished. But the original material is reduced because of the fire. Professor Flora was the seminar leader's name and he came later to the barbecue and I introduced him to Don. He was very personable and I told him I might join the Thomas Wolfe Society as it is not that much per year to be a member. Did you know the library is almost never used by students? Everything is now done on the internet. This was incredible news to me and sort of sad.
Then, still on Friday, there was a slide show narrated by Andy Griffith and another by Charles Kuralt, giving a nostalgic look at UNC mainly up to the 1970s and a little beyond. Those were some of my times at Carolina so I found it very interesting. Then later there was a fireworks display at the new baseball venue, Boshamer Stadium. The baseball stadium is new and is pristine and beautiful. The fireworks display was the prettiest we had ever seen with some of the fireworks centering right on a full moon and branching out with brilliant colors. The guy coordinating getting people seated and the start time of the display, etc. had his family there and his sons, Christopher and Joshua (there were 2 others who seemed to stay to themselves), talked with me a lot. Joshua seemed to be about 9 and told me his other brother's name is Isaiah and he wants a brother named Jeremiah. Quite Biblical I would say. He kept running around and asked me how much he could get to mow the entire stadium's grass. I told him not nearly enough as it might take him more than a whole week to mow with a regular mower. He's about 9 so this did not discourage him. He still wants to try and he wants to get paid too. Then the Clef Hangars sang again and again with the "Hark the Sound" for the crowd.
Saturday, we had a 7:30 a.m. breakfast where you could just go through a buffet and get all you wanted. We again visited with former classmates of Don's. Then Don and I went to find a Thomas Wolfe memorial (with an angel sculpture that is hardly recognizable as an angel) near Greenlaw Hall (Greenlaw was Wolfe's favorite professor at UNC in the 1920s.) In the Wolfe seminar the day before, Professor Flora said there was much debate on where to put the memorial with some wanting it in front of Wilson Library and others adamantly opposed to that. It was finally placed near Greenlaw (which is close to Lenoir Hall in case you ever want to go see it when you are in Chapel Hill). Then there was a seminar with students from various times to discuss how things were when they were in Chapel Hill vs. how things are now. There are major differences, let me say and I remember every single thing the 1969 reunion lady said went on "back then" such as NO MEN ON THE HALL EXCEPT ON MOVE-IN DAY. I could relate to the older folks version more than to the 2009 version of how things were/are. There was a female on the discussion panel who said she graduated in 1969 (another reunion group) and that she was in the first group of females accepted to the general college. This means she started in 1965 and graduated in 1969. I started in 1967 and graduated in 1971 so I was pretty close to being there with the first group of women to be allowed in Carolina's General College. This first group had only 125 females accepted. She said the ratio of men to women was at least 10 men to every woman. Incredible. There were no minorities to speak of. Incredible again. Now, we were told, the school is about 70% women and 30% men. What a turnaround. A little later, there was a seminar conducted by a political sort who is now a professor at UNC, Hodding Carter III. I think he was good but I was tired by this time and my mind could not stay on target to get some of his points. In the time between seminars, I visited the Student Stores and found a copy of "Look Homeward Angel." I read this years ago and found it slow go and depressing if anything. But after the enthusiasm exhibited for Thomas Wolfe by Professor Joe Flora yesterday, I wanted to give Wolfe's most famous work another try. Isn't it interesting what a little inspiration will do!
Then we went to a luncheon which elected new dignitaries for the General Alumni Association. There were long speeches and I was a little tired and restless but managed to get through it. Again with the "Hark the Sound of Tar Heel Voices," which I love by the way. Then Don and I had planned to go to the (also new) basketball museum but had to opt instead to go to the room and rest. I was just too tired to go traipsing around a big building. Everyone who did do it though were very complimentary of it and Don and I want to go see it sometime maybe during football season or in conjunction with a basketball game someday. I am very sorry I could not hold out for that. It is my only regret of the weekend and I think we can remedy that regret sometime in the next year. Besides my 40th reunion will be in 2 years and there might be another opportunity there.
The 50th reunion reception and dinner was Saturday night and we needed to dress less casually for that. We had steak and salmon, a nice change from the chicken at both the luncheons. Don had Bob Timberlake in his graduating class and Mr. Timberlake left all the reunion classmates in attendance a small picture in a frame with his signature on it. These were at the table and I wanted one too but did not qualify. Then Lou (her husband was a classmate of Don's) and I went out into the hallway to stretch our legs a minute and ran into George Hamilton, IV, a Grand Ole Opry country singer who also was in Don's class for one year. He came to entertain at the reception and Lou introduced me to him. He was very gracious and kind and I liked him immediately. Lou asked him if he would sing a song for the group and he said he planned to sing more than one. A little later, he was introduced and said to the whole group that if they ever came to Nashville to the Grand Ole Opry to ask to come backstage to see him. I am told by his classmates that he is completely serious with this invitation so I now want to go with Don to Nashville as I would love to go backstage at the GOO. He then sang Abilene, Out Behind the Barn, Forever Young (a Bob Dylan song), A Rose and a Baby Ruth, and talked about Little Jimmy Dickens (I remember mom talking about this character) and Patsy Cline (just a little). He said some people are disappointed when he turns out to be a country singer and not the movie actor, George Hamilton. Then, guess what, we sang "Hark the Sound" again. Don't get me wrong, I love "Hark the Sound" so I enjoyed every single note we sang of it. And I have fallen in love with the Clef Hangers. They are all cute as can be (and I think they know it too) and I love the music they make.
Sunday, the 50 year ago alumni were to march in borrowed robes across the football field at graduation. We had to be at the old Kenan Field House by 8:30 and they were to march around 9 a.m. We made it there and talked with Don's classmates for a long time until the guests (me and others with the classmates of 1959) had to go sit in a reserved area to watch them march. Thank goodness, the weather was a little overcast and cool, better for me than hot and sunny or rainy. The 1959 classmates marched as a group across the field and then the current graduates began to file into a section of the stands on the other side of the stadium from me. At first, it looks like 3 blue streams trickling down the steps on the other side of the stadium, then it develops into a sea of blue as they get to their seats in the stands. A Carolina student graduating on Sunday sang with such a beautiful voice. Don got her on a video with the camera I believe. Her name is Sarah Christine Dempsey, Bachelor of Music and Bachelor of Arts in English. Such a voice she has!!!
The main speaker was Desmond Tutu. HE WAS GREAT - a good speaker with a few humorous stories mixed in. He said he was in Michigan a little while ago and they were whining and crying because he was coming to see the Tar Heels who had beaten them so badly in the tournament. He also asked everyone to "give some claps for mothers" (meaning of course, applause) since it was Mother's Day and then he said "and maybe give some claps to Dad's too since mothers can't become mothers without a dad's help." Then he laughed and laughed at his own joke. People started laughing just at his laughter. He spoke of apartheid some but he mainly congratulated those in the "sea of blue over there" for their accomplishment in getting finished with their university degrees. I am very proud that UNC got Nobel Prize winner and Archbishop, Desmond Tutu. Duke wound up with, of all things, Oprah Winfrey, as a guest speaker.
Then the Clef Hangers who were sitting 2 rows in front of me and Don went onto the field and the Chancellor (who is a member of the Clef Hanger group) ran down a ramp, heavy robes and all, to join the Clef Hangers, and they sang "Carolina in the Morning." Then guess what song we ended with!! Yes, Hark the Sound. It was all so very beautiful. Many people, whose loved ones marched out early and then left the field, departed early before the speeches at this graduation since they had no one graduating. I reckon they wanted to beat traffic. As far as Don and I were concerned, they missed out on a really good thing and besides, we love welcoming new Chapel Hill Tar Heels into our huge and still growing Carolina family. Don and I got lucky anyway. We were able to get out of the stadium fairly quickly after the ceremonies were over and we made it onto a bus back to Don's car. I climbed those football stadium steps with NO trouble and really quickly. Don was behind me asking me to rest after we got about 75% of the steps behind us. Then we really had no trouble getting out of town.
We decided to go by Asheboro on the way back to Charlotte and ate at a Chinese restaurant there. It was a good meal and a great weekend. Can't wait for my own reunion in 2 years and hope there is another generation of Clef Hangers to hear at that time. But there won't be a George Hamilton IV or a Bob Timberlake, I don't think anyway. I don't know who the celebrities in my class will be. John Swofford is the only one I know who has gotten publicity over time. If he comes, I know Don and others will enjoy talking sports with him. Maybe we'll all get a DVD of a football game - or something.
