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Post by Deleted on Aug 10, 2014 18:30:04 GMT
I don't know how I would feel if I could visit the schools of my childhood, but there is no risk of that because they have all been destroyed by hurricanes.
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Post by htmb on Aug 10, 2014 18:59:02 GMT
I have no desire to ever visit the schools of my childhood, and they are all still in place. I actually returned for my tenth high school reunion, a two night event. On the first night I realized I had made a big mistake, drank too much wine, and didn't return for the second night. Living in the same town where you attended college is different though, and I was in college for a very long time. I didn't really like my undergraduate years and worked hard to get through, and get out as fast as I possibly could. I also skipped as many classes as I possible while still maintaining the bare minimum in grades. However, in my mid-thirties, after swearing I'd never go back to school, I actually found a sense of purpose in graduate school and enjoyed the challenges very much. So much that I earned two graduate degrees before finally being pushed, kicking and screaming, back into the real world.
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Post by mossie on Aug 11, 2014 15:12:03 GMT
Quite a place, I guess you have some good memories.
BUT, "but taught my children to do their own and completely turned the job over to each of them when they turned age eleven." You old slavedriver!
The two setting up for the football game could do with a few turns of running the stadium steps.
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Post by htmb on Aug 12, 2014 20:18:32 GMT
Mostly good memories, but some not so great. That's life, I suppose. I taught my children how to cook, clean, grocery shop, do laundry, etc, all at a very young age. My sons are probably better cooks than my daughters, and recently my older daughter even ripped out and replaced one of her toilets that was beyond repair. They've learned some fairly good skills. Of course, not ALL from me, but I like to think I taught them some good basics. I wanted to make sure they could completely care for themselves. Growing up, I saw too many men especially who didn't know how to do anything around the house. Couldn't do laundry or prepare a decent meal. That's not what I wanted for my children. Plus, I was a really mean mother.
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Post by Deleted on Aug 12, 2014 20:25:26 GMT
One reason that both my brother and I can cook is that the kitchen was the most important room of the house at both our parents' place and even more so our grandparents' house. It was impossible not to take an interest (and often participate) in the preparation of all meals.
I fear that in modern times, mobile phones, video games and Facebook are of much greater interest to children than the concept of cooking a meal.
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Post by htmb on Aug 12, 2014 20:34:59 GMT
I'm sure you're right, but all my grandchildren participate in food growing, shopping, and preparation on a regular basis, even at their young ages. And, when I taught little kids, I could get them to eat all kinds of foods they'd never eat at home because we were growing and preparing it ourselves. So much is learned through example and simple instruction.
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Post by Deleted on Aug 12, 2014 20:36:37 GMT
I think it is easy to interest children in food, but you do indeed have to start early.
Quite a few of the French food commercials for traditional products show grandparents imparting their food wisdom to their young grandchildren.
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Post by htmb on Aug 12, 2014 20:43:51 GMT
Maybe, but I had absolutely NO interest in cooking and stayed out of the kitchen at all times when I was growing up. I also didn't learn how to iron until I was a freshman in college and my roommate taught me. I'd also never done much laundry. I was just too busy for all that "homebody" stuff. I had very minimal domestic skills, and absolutely no interest in anything along that line. Once I started having children, and I needed to build up a repertoire, I taught myself through trial and error. Then I taught my kids.
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Post by htmb on Aug 16, 2014 16:35:53 GMT
I took advantage of the almost deserted campus this morning and wandered around a bit. Years ago, when I lived in a neighborhood surrounded on three sides by the campus, it was much easier to do, but today I drove and easily found a parking spot behind the administrative building. This had been the scene of the earlier mentioned student protests of the 1970's. It was also a spot where I stood out in the middle of the street and finally told one of my roommates off, but that's another story. I love all the old oaks and magnolias. This is the area my WDCP frequented when in school, but it's also the location of my freshman year dormitory. This armadillo was enjoying a bother free morning snack. Century Tower continued to ring every quarter hour, even though there was hardly anyone there to hear. I used to hate hearing those bells when I was trying to catch up on my beauty sleep, rather than attending class. Most of the old buildings, now recycled, continue to display their original purpose. Most of my undergraduate major classes were taken in this last building. It wasn't air conditioned at the time, and I remember that many of my professors and fellow students smoked cigarettes all through class.
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Post by Deleted on Aug 16, 2014 16:47:21 GMT
Oh my, I don't know what I would do if I ever saw an armadillo!
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Post by Deleted on Aug 16, 2014 16:54:51 GMT
Light up the barbecue?
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Post by htmb on Aug 16, 2014 16:58:58 GMT
Down the street stands the most dreaded set of stairs of my freshman year. This is the building where I was forced to take a biology lab, and I absolutely detested it! The building was closed for many years after my class ended because it was falling apart on the inside and was full of dust, debris, and asbestos. It now looks pretty nice, but I still cringe as I pass by. The main entrance is actually on the University Avenue side of the building. Out front they've planted some of the most wonderful flowers where the bees, hummingbirds, and butterflies were in pollinator heaven. [
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Post by htmb on Aug 16, 2014 17:20:29 GMT
Oh my, I don't know what I would do if I ever saw an armadillo! They're harmless, unless they catch rabies. Most of the time they only come out at night and used to annoy the heck out if me when I was trying to sleep. The silly things would make a whole lot of racket rooting for grubs outside my bedroom window. It always sounded like some giant was outside stomping through the shrubs.I used to have a Scottish terrier I tried to train to chase the armadillos out of the yard, but he had no interest in that pursuit.
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Post by htmb on Aug 16, 2014 17:38:53 GMT
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Post by Deleted on Aug 16, 2014 17:59:31 GMT
Oh my, I don't know what I would do if I ever saw an armadillo! They're harmless, unless they catch rabies. Most of the time they only come out at night and used to annoy the heck out if me when I was trying to sleep. The silly things would make a whole lot of racket rooting for grubs outside my bedroom window. It always sounded like some giant was outside stomping through the shrubs.I used to have a Scottish terrier I tried to train to chase the armadillos out of the yard, but he had no interest in that pursuit. Oh, I wouldn't be frightened of them, I'd be delighted and I'd probably get down on my hands and knees and crawl through the shrubs after them. They are very cute and strange and I don't expect to see one in my lifetime. I image they're about as troublesome as small raccoons. And as for Kerouac's suggestion, well, my father is always cracking that the French will eat absolutely anything and K is living proof!
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Post by htmb on Aug 16, 2014 18:13:29 GMT
Sorry, Lizzie, I misunderstood. I will just bet that after five minutes you will change your mind about their "cuteness." There is absolutely nothing personable about an armadillo.
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Post by htmb on Aug 16, 2014 18:13:58 GMT
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Post by bjd on Aug 16, 2014 18:30:10 GMT
It looks like a nice campus, with the warm-coloured brick buildings. How old is it?
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Post by htmb on Aug 16, 2014 18:42:24 GMT
Some of the buildings in the Buckman area just featured were completed in 1906.
I think, for the most part, architects and planners have done an excellent job of blending old and new architecture on the campus.
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Post by htmb on Aug 16, 2014 19:03:57 GMT
Having now walked from the eastern boundary of the university, NW 13th Street, to just behind the stadium, I looped back around towards the college of Fine Arts to complete my circle. Note here that while I've mentioned my freshman dorm, I have yet to post a picture. Brace yourself. Here are some random shots along the way. Looking back, the football stadium is in the distance. This relatively open area leads down to the student union, which is undergoing remodeling. When Clinton and Gore were campaigning for president the first time this was where the WDCP, who was a baby, and I rode over on my bike to hear them talk. The whole corridor was packed with students, professors, and community people. I never remember the name of this art installation, but it's always been popularly known as the "French Fries from Hell."
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Post by htmb on Aug 16, 2014 19:25:59 GMT
Here it is, in all it's splendor: Marjorie K. Rawlings Hall. Built in 1958, this place was the epitome of an institutional space. While I can see some additions and improvements to areas surrounding the dorm, the only difference I see in the old section is the addition of air conditioning units, though I bet they make an awful sound. My room for a year was through one of the middle windows. I have no good memories of my year in that room. I detested my roommate who was whiny and with whom the only thing I had in common was the fact we came from the same Florida county. I tolerated her most of the time, but the worst thing I ever did was lock her out of the room when I figured out how to make the best use of my accounting textbook. Wedging it between the door handle and the door lock prevented the door from being opened from the hallway, and I employed the option on at least two different occasions.
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Post by htmb on Aug 16, 2014 19:50:54 GMT
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Post by Deleted on Aug 17, 2014 5:40:31 GMT
Except for the lake and details like Spanish moss, a lot of looks amazingly like USC, where I went. All "serious" universities seem to build all of their important buildings out of brick, apparently to give them an Ivy League look. I am absolutely certain that the bricks have an influence on the psyche when choosing a university.
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Post by bjd on Aug 17, 2014 6:23:35 GMT
The older University of Toronto buildings are gray stone, the newer ones, bricks and concrete or just concrete.
I find the combinations of departments rather odd in some cases: philosophy and statistics or astronomy and agricultural communication.
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Post by htmb on Aug 17, 2014 8:59:49 GMT
I was wondering if anyone had noticed that, Bjd. The combinations are odd indeed. I can only assume this is due to the same reasoni as from my early years.....space. At the university, space is at a premium, and as departments grow or shrink in size over the years they are moved around accordingly.
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Post by htmb on Aug 17, 2014 9:15:50 GMT
Except for the lake and details like Spanish moss, a lot of looks amazingly like USC, where I went. All "serious" universities seem to build all of their important buildings out of brick, apparently to give them an Ivy League look. I am absolutely certain that the bricks have an influence on the psyche when choosing a university. Ralph Adams Cram, the Yale-trained architect who would become the "high priest" of Collegiate Gothic as Princeton's supervising architect in the 1910s and 1920s, was even more explicit. "By building [in the Collegiate Gothic style]," he wrote, "Princeton was committed to the retention for all time of that collegiate style of architecture which alone is absolutely expressive of the civilization we hold in common with England and the ideals of liberal education now firmly fixed at Princeton."
By so consciously copying Oxbridge models in stone and mortar, Princeton, as an educational institution, was asserting its academic legitimacy and status. Princeton's quadrangles were powerful visual statements that the University considered itself on a par with the oldest centers of learning in England.From "The Origins of Collegiate Gothic Style" etcweb.princeton.edu/Campus/text_gothicroots.htmlSo it was more than just an Ivy League look. Building in the Collegiate Gothic style was an attempt at legitimizing American universities on a par with Cambridge and Oxford. And Kerouac, I suspect that if USC had been built on a bedrock of limestone, with little sinkholes dotting it's campus, you would have also enjoyed similar little lakes.
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Post by htmb on Aug 17, 2014 12:04:39 GMT
It seems the university is always building something. At the corner of West University Avenue and SW 13th Street construction on an undergraduate hall for the College of Business Administration is in the final stages.
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Post by htmb on Aug 21, 2014 21:17:55 GMT
I assume this house, located near the university, is a student rental. Note the orange and blue recycling bins.
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Post by htmb on Aug 23, 2014 23:14:57 GMT
The old Federal Building, now the Hippodrome State Theatre, is Gainesville's finest example of Palladium Classical Revival Architecture. It was completed in March 1911. The first floor was used as the Post Office, the second floor was designed as a the Courtroom.
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Post by htmb on Aug 28, 2014 19:07:56 GMT
A neat and tidy house in one of the more established neighborhoods on the edge of downtown.
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