Revisiting the past!

Friday
Another cool gloomy start, but by the time we were heading up to Hueston Woods for our daily walk, the clouds were beginning to break up, and it turned into a beautiful day. We walked the west shore trail and then part of the Big Woods trail. We passed a few people on the trail, but there were more people out fishing.than hiking, either from the dam, or out in their boats. When we’d finished hiking, we went into the nearby town of Oxford, home to Laura’s university Miami University - named after the Indian tribe that had called the region home. Laura had gone back with a university friend a few years ago one Christmas break, but Roger and I reckoned we hadn’t been since before moving to France for the years 2013 - the beginning of 2017. They had engaged on quite a number of building projects the summer after Laura left, but they’ve mainly continued the classical bricK-built style, and the campus has retained its lovely open grassy feel. Roger and I had a totally different experience some years ago now, when we revisited our university, Loughborough University (where we met!), after several decades. Most of any green space we remembered had been filled in with new buildings, not necessarily attractive, and overall we found the experience rather negative, feeling we’d rather have remembered it as it was! It was a weird, almost eerie feeling to see the town and campus so empty, with all colleges and universities being closed down due to the Coronavirus - even over a normal summer, you see more people around, as they hold some summer classes. Normally, the Main Street would be teeming with students and cars and parking would be at a premium, but today, there were plenty of parking spots available (and they were free!), and the campus was virtually deserted except for one or two small groups of students wearing their red graduation gowns, taking photos in some of the classical spots - probably the closest they will come to a graduation ceremony this year! I feel so much for all those students graduating from high school and university this year, having all their proms, graduation ceremonies, parties etc taken away from them - although no doubt some of the parties are still going ahead despite social distancing measures, since so many young people seem to think of themselves as being immune to this deadly virus! Then on top of that, their immediate future is in such uncertainty - Will universities be reopening in the Fall, and trying to find a job well nigh impossible I would imagine. What times we are living through!