School Daze

Last weekend I made one of my hockey trips, this time visiting Brown and Yale University. This was my second trip to Brown, and I must say that the Providence neighborhood where Brown resides is a very nice one. The campus is tucked into an urban area, but unlike say, an NYU, the campus is not flung over several areas. So, a student gets both the self-contained campus but also is footsteps away from a thriving commercial neighborhood (very similar to Princeton). If I were a prospective student, Brown would attract me for that very reason.

The college I went to, SUNY-Stony Brook, did not have this. As much as I enjoyed college (in some ways I peaked during those years), I missed out on this aspect. The campus there is entirely self-contained, an unless one had a car, there was little of the community to see. Even if you did have a car, there were only malls, aside from a nice area in Port Jefferson.

The main drag of the neighborhood is Thayer Street, which is full of eclectic shops and restaurants. I had lunch at a Middle-Eastern place, and when I went back for dinner I looked at a lot of menus in windows but ended up eating at Johnny Rockets, which is one of those chain restaurants meant to evoke nostalgia. The place is decked out like a burger stand from the forties or fifties, with the help wearing those paper hats, the place lit as a bright as an operating theater, and oldies on the jukebox. I enjoyed it, but I looked around and wondered about the nature of nostalgia. I was certainly the oldest person in the place, the rest mostly college age. Now, I'm creeping toward AARP eligibility, but even I barely remember restaurants of this kind. There was a place called Parker's in Dearborn, Michigan that my grandfather took me to, with a counter and stools, and the distinctive white exterior, but that was the last of a dying breed. So what Johnny Rockets is doing is creating an era that its customers have no memory of.

My lodging was a bed and breakfast, and the breakfast was communal. I ended up dining with a couple who were taking their daughter on college trips. She is an artist, and had just visited the Rhode Island School of Design, after also visiting New York schools. Also at my table was a teacher of art, so the girl picked his brain on all sorts of art school questions. Her parents were very supportive, even though art school is not exactly a fast-track to financial security. I couldn't help but get caught up in her enthusiasm. The time when a kid is choosing their college is a pretty heady time, and is one of those decisions that really has a major effect on the course of your life.

Oh, and Princeton won both hockey games!