I had a few things that I wanted to share that just don’t seem to fit in anywhere. I’ve devoted a lot of time recently to talking about library things and I had let a few “regular person things” build up to have enough to justify writing a snippet or two.
Last week Mary Baldwin University celebrated Apple Day. I completed my BA at Mary Baldwin, back in the Mary Baldwin College days… and back when Mary B was a women’s college. They went coed a couple of years ago and it has been very sad for many of the alumnae. I was disappointed in the lack of social media attention that Apple Day received this year. Alums and students generally enjoy Facebook countdown posts, statistics about how many apples were gleaned (students visit an alumna’s family orchard and collect the apples from the ground–“gleaning” the ones that cannot be sold–and donate the gleaned apples to the hungry). This year, we didn’t get very much in regard to the social media, so I know for many alumnae this just contributed to the disconnection that we have felt with our beloved alma mater.
One of Apple Day’s traditions is by far one of my favorite Mary Baldwin traditions–Apple Day t-shirts. Mary Baldwin hasn’t wised up enough yet to sell these online, so I have a friend who works on campus snag me one and mail it to me every year. I’m always thankful that she’s willing to do this for me. She really ought to go into business… I know a bunch of alums who would happily pay for her to pick one up for them, especially since they look so awesome this year.
Enough ranting about Apple Day. My dad visited a couple of weeks ago and one of the things that he commented on was how well kept things are “up here in Appalachia”. I couldn’t resist snapping a picture of this old car that was parked in the parking lot at the workshop I was at this weekend.
I really think he’s right about things being taken care of better here. Where I grew up, everyone is so hard on things. Trucks get tore all to pieces working on the farms, getting stuck in mud holes, pulling out trucks and equipment stuck in said mud holes, etc. It seemed that everywhere we went while my Dad was visiting that there were old trucks and tractors. I think some of it is also the way of life. Things might be appreciated more here, so folks take better care of them.
Lastly, I visited the snack machine yesterday. Yesterday was… definitely a Monday and I needed a drink from the soda machine next to these delicious snacks. That bag of chips that is in the snack machine upside down is enough to drive me crazy. If I ate that kind of chips, I probably would have purchased it just to see if the one behind it was right side up.