Fort Hays State University...or was it a movie set?

Hays, Kansas---I sat crying under a huge oak tree on a park bench
in the middle of Fort Hays State University. I was 18 years old and didn’t know what to do. So reminiscent of me in dilemma, I first had a good cry. But soon I heard a voice say, “Can I help you?”

I looked up to see a kind face of a man who looked like he worked there. In one breath I said, “I-want-to-enroll-to-go-to-college-here-but-I-am-supposed-to-find-the-administration-building-and-I’ve-looked-all- over-and-I-can’t-find-it-and-I-don’t-know-what-I-want-to-major-in-and-I-don’t-know-anyone-and-I-can’t-even-find-the-building.”

He smiled and said, “Follow me.”

And then he walked me 20 feet to the Administration building.

The two full years I lived in the Western Kansas town of Hays felt like a dream as I drove into town with the long I-70 drive from Denver behind me. I didn’t really know where I was going but yet I did. A subconscious memory took hold and soon I was on campus for the first time since I left in 1980.

As things passed me, memories that had been buried in time suddenly flooded my mind. It was overwhelming.

“The Hardee’s I worked in was torn down but that is the Kwik Trip I worked in where that weirdo came in and flashed me and now it’s a liquor store and oh my god, the Brass Rail is still there but man! it looks so small. The railroad tracks! I forgot about the raidroad, seriously did I hop a train to Salina only to be discovered by the engineer who found out I had midterms and stopped the train and kicked me off a couple miles down the line to walk back and finish the school year?  Wait that's the limestone house next to campus where my first serious boyfriend lived looks exactly the same and there is the pool and fountain in front of the campus..wasn’t that larger? And there are the pillars my boyfriend stood and sang "Three times a lady," to me one night,  how did that song go? He asked me to marry him and I was 19. OH MY GOD I would still be in Hays, Kansas right now.  McMindes Hall, no way! it is still standing and 6^th floor East my first dorm is right there, whoa! Custer Hall is the Police station!?…that was my co-ed dorm with a campus run bar in the basement; wow how we all loved ‘The Back Door’, did they really have belly bust nights where the beer was free until someone had to pee...” my mind was having a hard time processing everything. My mind was my own drive in movie.

In 1980 this was a campus bar. It currently is used for the campus police and is the city's emergency back up location
...my how things change!

This was a reunion with buildings not people. Who knew brick and mortar could leave me shaking. But with each building, it was the memories of the people and the experiences with those people that left me so bewildered. I missed Roger. I missed The Three Musketeers/Bonnie and Debbie. I missed Carol and Deb and Shelly and Big Bird. I missed Doctor. I missed Ron and Betty. I missed Dave Adams (RIP). I even missed Disco; the dance...not a nickname.

So I stopped at the old Kwik Trip and stared at the ceiling remembering how when I worked a shift there in this predominately Catholic town, not knowing I had tried to wipe the dirt off several customers foreheads on Ash Sunday before I got yelled at.

And now it’s a liquor store and there was only one thing possible to buy: Seagram’s Seven.

The memory came hurling back: It was 1979 and my group of girlfriends had found out that a non-college oriented motorcycle bar on the edge of town was having a wet t-shirt contest and the prize was $50. We had our eyes set on a 5 liter collectors bottle of Seagram’s that was in a liquor store’s window shining like a new bicycle before Christmas and tempting us like Sunday fried chicken before you prayed. If only it could be ours we would be the coolest dorm floor in School. The bottle was HUGE. So, making a pack of “All for one and one for all” even Big Bird, the six foot plus Black girlfriend who weighed at least 180 was game.

I did not win the contest but we did.

I still have a torn corner of a $50  bill in my jewelry box back home, a reminder that I didn’t dream up this story. Five college girls in a biker bar in the 70's was not a good idea so beforehand, we had also made an exit strategy of “take the money and run.” With someone getting the car running and waiting at the door, dripping wet we ran for it as soon as my roommate had the cash in her hand.

I don’t remember the week that followed. But to many, we were the coolest dorm room on campus.

The last time I was on campus was the summer between my sophomore and junior year in college. I had a strong bond with Dave Adams, my college advisor who taught at Fort Hays, but in my heart I really wanted to go to Kansas State. After explaining my dilemma with him and asking for his advice. He looked at me with an ornery grin, closed the file he had on me and said, “I can no longer advise you on this matter since I have taken the position of Student Publications Director at Kansas State University.” It became an easy decision to go to KSU.

Back to reality, with a small bottle of Seagram’s Seven and some 7-UP in hand, it was getting late and it had been a long day of driving so I went back to my fancy Days Inn and called an old college boyfriend in Arkansas to talk to someone who could relate to the strange emotions of re-connection that I was having.

The next day I did a photo shoot only to have the campus police pull up to my vehicle to inspect my wrong-way park job. A short conversation later, and a very slow summer day for FHSU campus cops, I had a nice officer letting me on the roof the Observatory Building to take pictures. I had forgotten how beautiful this university of about 7000 students is. The campus seriously looks like a movie set of, well…a perfect college campus.

Recalling some of our pranks, I asked the officer about the students of today. Yes, they are still putting soap in the fountain and they have a full supply of de-foamer at headquarters. No, he doesn’t know if the boy’s dorm still does “panty-raids” on the girls dorm. Yes, there is still a student newspaper; The Leader. As a brand new journalism student I loved being on staff during my years there. It was the heart and soul of student's views and opinions.  He explained that it had been shut down due to the “digital age” but the students protested and they brought the paper version back.

Nothing could have made me more happy and proud of this school. For now, it's not just the buildings, the hearts of today’s students haven’t changed.