See ya later, Lincoln

I've been in my office in 172 Lincoln Hall for ten years. Lincoln Hall is just about 100 years old, so I have had this office for 10% of Lincoln Hall's life. Apart from these folks who had apparently had the office immediately before me, I have no idea who else lived their academic lives within the walls of 172. (I do, however, have it on good authority from a visiting former student that undergraduate men used my office as a dorm room in the overcrowded post-WWII years of the GI Bill).

As I've mentioned before, Lincoln Hall is being evacuated for what looks to be (at least) a three-year renovation, after which time we will move back into a new and improved Lincoln Hall. But I won't ever see 172 again because there won't be faculty offices on the first floor anymore. I won't miss the crowded, noisy hallways, the bells twice every hour, or having to time my bathroom breaks to the rhythms of undergraduate class schedules. I will miss the tall ceilings, the lovely view of the flowering trees next to the English building, and the feeling that I have a Real Professor's Office in a Real Professor's Building where Real Professors do Real Professor Things.

We picked up our new office keys today and I closed the door on 172 forever. When we return from vacation all of my stuff will await unpacking in our new, "temporary" digs. That place will do just fine; my new office has hardwood floors and a fireplace, for crying out loud, and it's a great location next to coffee shops and restaurants. But I will miss good old 172 and its particular view of the world.

Comments

[dhawhee]

so sad!!! *I* miss 172.

[KWT]

Hey, I think I remember seeing your desk in campus surplus... About 8 years ago.

[V]

Um, I've only been there twice, and this picture is making me get a little weepy.

Wouldn't it be a fun project to create a slideshow of people in their campus offices? It has been a while since the last First Efforts challenge; I'm just sayin'.