Close to Nowhere - Linda Jones


Thursday, August 13, 2009
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Close to Nowhere
By Linda Jones

College-age “mindset”

I spend way too much time wallowing in (down?) memory lane! Looking through the old bound books of the newspaper, working on the Pages of the Past, I ran across a column where I mentioned that I was turning into my father -- I was sure that everyone was fascinated listening to my memories of some particular “good ole day” event.

And, in reality, I’m sure they were as bored as I used to be listening to my dad tell his amazing tales -- one particular favorite (of his, not mine!) was how he had to take an axe and chop through the frozen pond with ice at least two feet thick, every winter day before he went off to school.

Bear in mind that my dad grew up in Gleason, Tenn., about an hour north of Memphis.

But I digress -- I love reading the old newspapers and discovered something that Danny McKenzie wrote about 10 years ago in his column -- the Beloit College Mindset.

Read the Pages of the Past either this week or next, I can’t remember, and you’ll find a bit of Danny’s rendition of the Beloit College Mindset.

Since we have David and Emma leaving from the paper family this year heading off to their first year at college and Jessica only in her second year, there’s a lot of discussion about college life.

The Beloit College Mindset is perfect discussion fodder for this particular time of year.

Excerpts “borrowed” from the Beloit College website:

Most of the students entering college this fall, members of the Class of 2009, were born in 1991. For them, Alvin Ailey, Andrei Sakharov, Huey Newton, Emperor Hirohito, Ted Bundy, Abbie Hoffman, and Don the Beachcomber have always been dead.

1. What Berlin wall?

2. Humvees, minus the artillery, have always been available to the public.

4. They never “rolled down” a car window.

5. Michael Moore has always been angry and funny.

7. They have grown up with bottled water.

8. General Motors has always been working on an electric car.

9. Nelson Mandela has always been free and a force in South Africa.

10. Pete Rose has never played baseball.

13. “Off the hook” has never had anything to do with a telephone.

16. Women have always been police chiefs in major cities.

17. They were born the year Harvard Law Review Editor Barack Obama announced he might run for office some day.

22. No one has ever been able to sit down comfortably to a meal of “liver with some fava beans and a nice Chianti.”

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