This past weekend was ACU’s Homecoming, and my daughter came home to enjoy the festivities. She is currently working on her PhD at Texas A&M and is so busy, that she doesn’t get away very often to come see us. Yet, for the last several years, Bethany has made a point to visit for Homecoming. She always warns me in advance that I need to get my writing done early in the week because she intends to hijack me for a mother-daughter day filled with alumni activities. Girl time is rare for us, so I happily oblige.
The first event of the day was the Homecoming Parade. There were horses, floats, antique cars, balloons, and the marching band. Since my daughter is as much of a book nerd as her mama, our favorite float of the day was sponsored by one of the sororities that featured a Beauty & the Beast theme with our favorite book-loving Disney Princess.
Next was a chapel service with lots of great worship and an inspiring speaker. Chapel let out at about the time that the solar eclipse was happening, so everyone milled about outside afterward with their ACU solar glasses to enjoy the phenomenon. In Abilene, we didn’t get the complete solar coverage, but we still got to see all but a slim crescent of the sun covered.
We didn’t have anything on our schedule until the musical that evening, so Bethany asked if we could walk around campus and see buildings and spaces that had changed since she’d last visited. Since she hadn’t yet seen one of the new spaces in the library, I figured we could go there first. Like many university libraries these days, it can be hard to find the actual books. The main floor hosts a coffee shop, our IT support center, and various collaborative spaces for students to gather. All of the books were moved to the lower level years ago and housed in space-saving shelving units. It seems wrong somehow not to be met with the welcoming sight of books upon entering a library, but in an age where the majority of information is stored online instead of on pages, I can understand the change.
A few years ago, however, ACU renovated a space on the library’s main floor as a dedicated reading commons. It has a glass wall/display case that separates it from the main coffee shop space and it is filled with comfy chairs and even a couple of bean bags. The thing I love most about it is that it is focused on fiction. This is highlighted beautifully in the decorative glass wall overflowing with the signatures of famous novelists and poets. If you enlarge the photo below, you’ll see signatures such as C.S. Lewis, Jane Austen, F. Scott Fitzgerald, Harper Lee, Robert Frost, Maya Angelou, J. R. R. Tolkien, and Madeleine L’Engle among many others.
I just love this space!
We ended the day by attending the homecoming musical – a production of Matilda. It seemed a fitting end to the day to enjoy the musical story that celebrated a little girl who loved to read books.
Did you see the eclipse last Saturday?
Have you noticed libraries cutting back on books to make room for technology?
What is something fun you did last weekend?
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What a special time with your daughter! (She’s beautiful!) There’s just nothing that fills my heart like time with my grown daughters. Such a joy to see the delightful young women they’ve become. That is such a cool space at the library, and I love that it focuses on fiction!
Thanks, Deb. Bethany and I share so many interests, and the older we get, the more I treasure the time we can spend together.
Sounds like fun. As a teen I never wanted to hang with my mom, but now I look forward to our times together. Glad you and your daughter enjoyed making some special memories.
ASIDE: The painting at the top of your blog is BEAUTIFUL!!!
Isn’t that pretty? I found it on a stock photo site and it just spoke to me. 🙂 Love the colors.
Glad you had this great time with your daughter. Looking forward to heading back out to California in about a month to see mine. Thanks for sharing!
Hope you have a great visit, Betty!
Glad you got some time with your daughter. My oldest just moved 4 hours away for her first grown-up job. She is a high school English teacher. Brave woman! We didn’t get to see the eclipse because it was clouded over in Eastern Washington, but we had a great day. We went to our two high school sons’ X-Country meet and watched them run. They both ran for Varsity and had great times despite the 300-foot vertical climb they had to make on the course. Proud of them. No thanks, on running up that hill for me! 🙂
A 300-ft vertical climb? Yuck! Definitely will be leaving that to the young athletic folks. Ha!
I loved hearing about your mother-daughter day and getting an update on what Bethany is up to now. Her PhD!! Good for her!
Thanks, Becky. She still has about 2 years left, we think, but she’s been working hard. The faculty at ACU are hoping to get her to come back and teach. I would be just devastated if she came back to Abilene. Ha! Nothing would make me happier. 🙂
What a fun post, Karen!
Mother-Daughter time is the best!!
I love doing special things with my daughters – – especially since neither one lives close by (and my son lives even further away, sniff sniff).
You asked about something special we did this past weekend, so I’ll share that I attended my high school reunion, and it was wonderful! 🙂 SO special seeing friends (some I’d not seen in decades!) and we even sang our Alma Mater together. Amazing how those words came back to us from so many years ago!
What a fun time, Patti Jo! I’ve never actually attended a high school reunion. Sometimes I wonder what has become of the friends I shared so much of my teen years with.
The library where I worked was facing major budget cuts before I retired and I’m sure that this is still an issue in most public libraries. We were blessed to receive some grants to help purchase more computers but print book purchases were greatly reduced.
It’s such a challenge to remain relevant to what the community needs without losing the core identity of being a home for books. So thankful for the grants you were able to get!