Legacy Writing 365:9

I think anyone who follows college football in the US will indulge me with a celebratory moment. My alma mater won the National Championship game tonight. Roll Tide!

I was just looking for a reason to use this photo I found of Denny Chimes in my mother’s photos. I assume one of my parents took it when they were living in Tuscaloosa while my father attended the University of Alabama after they married. I had several colleges/universities to select from when I left high school, but my choice was probably made the first time I listened to my parents talk about their times there. I drank the red Kool-Aid! My brother (Auburn University) and sister (University of Kentucky) did not.

There’s no city on the planet that’s home to me like Tuscaloosa. No place I feel as comfortable as the Quad on the UA campus, where I spent many hours walking, lounging, partying, reading, biking, people-watching, tossing a Frisbee or football with friends, and maybe even a little studying. Denny Chimes is on the Quad, but its music reaches the farthest corners of campus and beyond. Visitors can walk the sidewalks around its base and see the handprints and footprints of all the football team captains since 1948. My very first time there, I put my hands inside the prints of quarterback great Joe Namath.

Apparently when I took this photo my junior year, I was more dazzled by a rare snowfall than getting the top of poor Denny Chimes in the photo.

And here I am at the limestone base of the Chimes the day I graduated. I’m the short one on the right, who didn’t have a blue magna cum laude stole. At least I always dated smart boys.