Why is it that college years stay with you?
There are large chunks of my post-college life that mix like a stew of memories, one part not completely distinguishable from another.
But my days at WVU (1974-77) are firmly imprinted, a lengthy slideshow where the images, although slightly tinted by time, remain remarkably vivid.
Many of those memories were created in the Sunnyside section of Morgantown. For two years I lived on McLane Avenue, right behind Summit Hall.
And so the news last week that WVU is buying five acres of Sunnyside property with plans to tear down the old student houses and build new, modern, mixed-use housing leaves me wistful.
It’s not that Sunnyside should be preserved as any sort of sacred ground of student cognizance. The place has been falling down for years. It is a blight on a city that struggles to keep the garbage collected and low-end student houses from falling down around them.
Sunnyside needs to be razed, and it makes sense for WVU to buy up property adjacent to campus and build the kind of housing students want these days: new, convenient, slightly upscale.
I emailed the news to a couple of my old college roommates. “Sort of like tearing down the old stadium,” wrote back one, “inevitable but a twinge of regret.”
There is no progress without some destruction. The past, having served its purpose, has to make way.
British politician Harold Wilson said, “He who rejects change is the architect of decay. The only human institution which rejects progress is a cemetery.”
Change-resistant Sunnyside has been decaying for years.
I really don’t want to be the aging curmudgeon who grouses about the new and different, while pining for “the good old days.” If WVU delivers on its promise, Sunnyside will be transformed into a clean, safe place for students. That would be a significant upgrade from my student apartment, where the electricity came from an extension cord affixed to the baseboard.
Still, those memories from Sunnyside are powerful and heartfelt, perhaps because we were all living on our own for the first time and discovering what our lives as adults could be like.
The physical circumstances—the shabby apartments, the rundown neighborhood—were just part of the inaugural life experiences we were having and would later romanticize about.
I need to get back up to Sunnyside and take a look around before the University starts its massive renovation project. I’ll run that extensive slideshow through my mind again, just for old time’s sake.
Then I’ll return to my place in time and watch with interest while the new Sunnyside takes shape. Soon thousands of WVU students will call the renovated area home, where they will make their own life-long memories.