Cornerstone Moment: Alumna Susan Ryan on growing up in college town

Well you know, and maybe you don't know, but growing up in a college town is kind of like - it's magical. It's like living in Disney World it really is. I grew up on North Main Street across from the Waffle House my house is now torn down but I would always walk to school in the morning and coming home I would come by the Highty Tighties and that was always a great memory they were practicing you know on the drill field and that was fun and then um when the students went home the campus became ours and by hours i mean my friends we'd get on our bikes our roller skates you name it and just go everywhere on campus all by ourselves it was it was our very own campus in the winter we skated on the duck pond both the small one and the big one and my mom would drop me off with my skates on and off we go and skate skate skate until our feet froze and and go to the ball games we'd always go to the football games and homecoming was especially fun we dressed up we always wore a suit we had a big mum on our shoulder with the hokey colors hanging down and we attend the parade which went down the war memorial lots of floats and of course the heidi tidies and then go to the football game and it was just it was kind of glorious it was a just a time we looked forward to so much my mom and dad housed what we called dancing girls and these were the young ladies who were the dates of the cadets at the time to go to the cotillion german club and the formals so my sister and i would give up our bedrooms and there were the girls would call and make their reservation but we got to watch them get dressed and what fun it was um all the beautiful dresses and all the makeup and everything so that was great and then my mom had a very pretty living room and the girls would come downstairs and sit on the red sofa and wait for their dates and so we'd be on the stairs stairway watching them come in and then go out on their date for that evening and that's just a memory that i will always keep it was a real treasure so it really was a magical world we had opportunities the ballet came speakers were here and it was a real mecca in in southwest virginia so i had a wonderful experience i really did