Autumn in Athens is my favorite time of year. The burden of summer’s heat wilts my spirit, draining me of any desire to fulfill all my good intentions. But that first ‘nip in the air’ lifts my soul and I feel renewed, resurrected. Hot, steamy summer days give way to cool evenings followed by crisp, clear mornings with just a touch of chill in the air. The afternoons warm up, summer’s last grasp on its season. Then the sun goes down, coolness returns and the daily cycle begins again until fall really gets a foothold in October’s door.

Fall sparks a blaze of UGA memories for me as rich and brilliant as autumn’s colors on the trees around North Campus. Trudging through this part of my mind is like wading knee-deep through a pile of crisp leaves. As clearly as I hear the crunch of the leaves crumbling to dust beneath my shoes, I can hear the distant ringing of the pay phone on the third floor of Creswell Hall, my dorm in 1968, years before girls were allowed to have private phones in their rooms, decades before cell phones were invented. I wait expectantly, hoping to hear my name called. Sometimes the phone is for me - often times, not.

As vivid as the flaming red, burnt umber or deep golden leaves at this time of year are the memories of classmates from my first quarter at Georgia. Each personality was so unique and so different from the high-school friends I had left behind only a few weeks earlier. I remember many of the faces of girls in my dorm, each from cities and towns I had heard about all my life but had never visited. I often wonder where many of those faces are now and what they are doing.

Feelings come alive for me during late September and throughout October’s cooling-down days. Chilly mornings call for a sweater even though I know it will be discarded by late afternoon. A sudden cold evening signals the first cup of steaming hot chocolate, rich and smooth, warming me all the way through as I drink it in careful mini-sips so my tongue isn’t burned. In my dorm, the main switch for the heat was turned on by some magical, unseen hand on a predetermined date. Not a minute before. Sweaters, hot chocolate from the vending machine downstairs and chicken-noodle soup heated up on a forbidden hot plate in our room kept my roommate and myself comforted on those October nights until that blessed morning we heard a rumble and rattle from our wall-heater announcing warmth!

Autumn awakens memories of walking to classes at a time when riding the bus was just too much trouble. English in Park Hall, introduction to Journalism in the old C-J building and political science in Peabody Hall kept me occupied during fall quarter of 1968. Professors who were both intimidating and inspiring introduced me to a new experience in my life - studying. What had been so easy in high school was now very difficult. I had much to learn beyond what was printed between the covers of my text books. Self-discipline, time management and how to balance a checkbook were like a foreign language to me that fall. I lived to regret these elusive areas of my personal education.

Georgia would not be UGA without football on autumn weekends. The weather may have chilled the bone all week, but Saturday welcomed a bright warming sun blanketing the student section on the north side of Sanford Stadium. Girls dressed up for football games in 1968. The dress-code was usually a Ladybug shirtwaist dress with tiny tucks sewn down the front, tasseled Weejun loafers worn with stockings and of course, pearls. That was the fall cobalt-blue dress shirts were the rage for guys, worn with ties and jackets. Dressed exactly alike, we’d all stand to cheer at the opening strains of “Georgia On My Mind” played by the Redcoat Band and never sit down again until the last seconds on the scoreboard clock had ticked off. The next morning a sunburned nose and forehead were proud battle scars of a dedicated Bulldog fan.

As autumn days remind me of my freshman year at the University of Georgia, I hope they awaken some of your own memories - classes, professors, dorm life, classmates. Let me invite you to make a trip back to Athens this fall. Walk the quad on North Campus or stand on the bridge overlooking Sanford Stadium. Let your senses take you back to your first experiences in Athens - to a younger, more innocent part of your life that only this time of year and this place in Georgia can provide. It’s one of the best things about being Franklin College alumni.

 

Ruhanna Neal
Coordinator of Annual Giving and Alumni Relations