By Scott Shephard
East Hall - University of South Dakota
I have found that blog titles like “Naked in Walmart”, and “Driving Drunk” tend to garner considerable interest. I guess you’d call it “click bait.” Thus, as an experiment, I have, put “sex” in the title of this post knowing that the subject (an old building on the campus of the University of South Dakota) is likely to have very limited interest. So, if you’re looking for sex, read on.
But first . . . This is a photo of East Hall and (as if you might be interested) I spent more class time in this building than I did in any other. It was the location of the Classics Department and in the course of 4 years I attended 8 semesters of Classical Greek and 3 semesters of Latin here. Also throw in Greek Art and Archaeology, Roman Art and Archaeology, Classical Mythology and who knows what else. Whew! Who has time for sex when you’re wrapped up in the likes of Homer and Aeschylus?
Besides the classics, It occurs to me that I also took a course in Old English in East Hall:
Hwæt. We Gardena in geardagum,
þeodcyninga, þrym gefrunon,
hu ða æþelingas ellen fremedon.
Oft Scyld Scefing sceaþena þreatum,
monegum mægþum, meodosetla ofteah,
egsode eorlas. Syððan ærest wearð
feasceaft funden, he þæs frofre gebad,
weox under wolcnum, weorðmyndum þah,
oðþæt him æghwylc þara ymbsittendra
ofer hronrade hyran scolde,
gomban gyldan. þæt wæs god cyning.
Yes, I could actually translate Beowulf 45 years ago. But it’s Greek to me now. I can tell you that the last sentence says, “That was a good king!” The strange letter in the word that became “that” in modern english is called a “thorn.” Try to find that character on your computer keyboard.
I am not real nostalgic about college. Life was good then and, believe or not, I am proud to say that I went to USD to learn, not to party. That’s enough to remember, I guess. But a little while back, when Deb and I strolled through a largely empty campus on a warm December morning, it was hard not to be overwhelmed by a tsunami of memories. I loved life in so many ways back then. But I guess I still do.
Finally, if you’ve read this whole post looking for sex, thank you very much. But there’s no sex to be found here. Frankly, Classical Greek, Old English and East Hall are cool. But they’re not all that sexy.
Canon 5DIII 1/200 sex f/7 250 ISO
