Arrived Friday afternoon after a flight from Seattle (changed planes in Sacramento without problem -- unlike coming home from Jeopardy, when a delay in the plane's departure from LAX meant approximately 2 minutes to chug through the Sacramento terminal from the arrival gate to the Seattle departure gate).  This time all went smoothly, and a reserved shuttle was ready to go almost as soon as I stepped out of the terminal.  First drove through downtown LA (dubbed the "garment district" by the Harley-admiring shuttle driver) to leave off three women in the midst of sidewalks full of racks and racks of clothing for sale as far as the eye could see) -- I'd never been to this part of LA before, and it was quite an experience.  Then we left off a young couple at the Grayhound bus depot, and discussed how the neighborhood there had changed a lot since I had taken the bus regularly to LA from Spokane in eastern Washington in the early 1960s. (I remember the dramatic overnight change from sagebrush and pine trees to sunshine and palm trees on the way down each year).  Guess one doesn't want to linger at the bus depot these days.  That left me as the last passenger, and the driver was on his way home, near Glendale and thus near Oxy.  Even as we drove down Eagle Rock Boulevard (the "tallest palm trees" in the world seem no longer to be there, but the "tallest phone poles" still are), I had a hard time remembering the neighborhood.  Either it's changed a lot, or my memory has faded a lot.  Or, probably, both.

We turned up Alumni Drive toward the fountain and were greeted by a mass of purple trees -- "The jacaranda trees are in bloom," noted the shuttle driver.  I don't remember these trees at all -- they were sooo purple!  But this is mid-June, and I had always left campus before this, so I guess they never bloomed when I was there to see them.  They were amazing!  Some of these trees by the fountain were, I was told later, replacements for eucalyptus downed by storms, etc., but there are others throughout campus, including "my" tree in the back of Haines -- it was thrilling to see the clouds of purple scattered across campus.

There are miles of stairs -- some access ramps, but I can't believe all the stairs!  Were there this many when I was here?  I wonder how a disabled person would get around -- we never used to think about such things, but now you become very much aware.  The campus looks much the same, with some revision, renovations of course -- some nifty sculptures here and there on lawns and in courtyards, including, I think, the sculpture in the fountain next to Herrick Chapel (and Interfaith Center).  I love the renovations in the Union -- little patio spaces, coves in which to sit, very southern California/Mexican ambiance.  The library has a whole new wing and looks very different from before.

Trees with bare branches and bright red flowers.  Mosses, banks of rosemary on the ledges in front of Johnson where we Quad sat.  Orange trees -- loaded with oranges -- still in the front yard of Haines.  Masses of pink roses a little past their bloom -- and orange roses flanking the walk from Thorne Hall, not yet in full bloom.  

I'm surprised how unfamiliar the hallways of Haines seem -- I thought those twists and turns were embedded in my brain at the celular level -- but once above the lobby, there are stairs I don't remember, and levels I seem to have erased from view.  My little room is, however, very much the same as the ones I lived in those 2-2/3 years (not counting my freshman year with a roommate and 1/3 year in Chilcott) -- without, of course, the personal touches we all added -- posters and books and little tables and lamps.  (You do need a bedside lamp -- the overhead light is way too dim to read by comfortably.  I remember the bamboo and paper globe lamp I had all those years -- finally gave out at some point in Seattle.  

Haines is still closely connected to Chilcott, where I roomed the first term of my sophomore year with Ann Kert before she left at Christmas to transfer to the University of Arizon at Tucson.  (I was living in Chilcott when John Kennedy was assassinated, but Haines had the TV where we watched the funeral procession with the rest of the world.)  Chilcott is still a dorm, but Orr Hall (where Liz Silva lived most of the time I knew her), just down the hill from Haines, is now the Weingart Center for the Liberal Arts (since 1986), and houses offices for Art History and Visual Arts, International Programs and Cultural Studies Programs.  And of course the dorms are now all co-ed -- it was very strange to see bathrooms in Haines labelled "men" and "women."   When I was there, males were not allowed above the first set of stairs except for special circumstances (repairmen, visiting fathers or brothers), and had to be accompanied by regular cries of "Man in the hall!"  A different world now.