This is the last post about College Station before I move forward!
It was really great getting out for a vacation -- we needed it! (Or I did, at least!)
And fun to tell Gabe stories about my experiences as a college student.
Max was kind of a handful ... Here he is taking a second bath after I caught him splashing with both hands in the toilet! Gross!
When I went to Texas A&M, Bonfire was the biggest tradition. Living in the dorms, some jerk someone would come bang on our doors in the very early morning to try to get us to come help build it.
As I mentioned, I was not big into the traditions, so I never went ... I never attended a single football game, preferring to go home every weekend. But I saw the excitement all around me, knew the lingo, saw my peers going to cut and stack ...
So it was quite a shock that this tradition ended just two years after I left.
Of course I'm talking about when Bonfire collapsed in November 1999, killing 12 Aggies.
The entrance to the memorial is called Tradition Plaza, and when you enter you can see a large wall engraved with The Last Corps Trip ...
... the poem traditionally recited before the lighting of each year's Bonfire.
Then you enter a long walkway that symbolizes the timeline of Bonfires. It started in 1909.
In its early days Bonfire was much smaller and built more safely. (Borrowing these images online. This one's from the 50s.)
The only year there was no Bonfire between 1909 and 1999 was 1963, when it was built but disassembled in a show of respect after the assassination of JFK.
In between some of these notches were plaques in honor of the three students who had died before in Bonfire-related accidents, in 1955, 1982, and 1996.
Gabe helped me photograph the place.
Approaching the main memorial site (the "Spirit Ring") from the walkway ...
This is the 1995 Bonfire. The memorial site is erected on the perimeter wall around where Bonfire was built. The layer-cake design apparently originated in the 70s as Bonfire became more and more elaborate, and less and less structurally sound with each passing group of students building it.
There are 12 "portals," one for each student who died in the 1999 collapse.
Each one has an engraved image of one of the students, as well as some information about that student.
Apparently there is a granite marker in the center of the circle representing Center Pole, but we didn't go out there because we thought it would be disrespectful to walk on the grass. Someone had placed some sort of memorabilia out there, but I couldn't tell what it was. One student's portal had some flowers by it (photo courtesy of Gabe). Anyway, this was an interesting, if sad, part of the visit.
Eating out -- Mexican food -- on the day we went home. Max kept pointing to the refried beans on my plate and saying, "Mud, Mama! Mud!"
Max had a no-no snack, some chocolate, in the car. "Chocolate! Mama, chocolate!" (He loves chocolate.)
Since it wasn't quite time for his nap yet, and I envisioned him napping on the way home, we stopped at a park we passed for the kids to shunt some energy ...
Max ran around this tree, up and down the hill, a dozen or more times.
My plans fell through and Max stayed awake all the way home (maybe all that chocolate)! But we made it. All in all a very nice trip!
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