Times change, but what things do you miss?

Submitted by UMdad on

I have been out of school for a decade now, but was in town a few weeks ago to take my cousin (freshman) to dinner, and it occured to me how quickly things change. There were new buildings and some things missing, and I started to think of some of the traditions that have disappeared or changed.
I miss the marshmallow fights (they stopped those while I was there)
I miss being able to walk into Michigan Stadium and run the bleachers
I miss walking up to the stadium and thinking how short it looked and then walking in and being amazed when you walked out of the entryway and saw the inside.
I also miss Touchdown's and Mitch's on South U. Goodbye dollar pitcher night at Touchie's...sniff...

TTUwolverine

January 14th, 2010 at 8:56 PM ^

That day was always special, for all of the reasons you mentioned. Even though here in Texas the girls never really go into hiding like they do at Michigan, I still miss the first day of spring back home. By the way, have you ever wondered what campus would be like if Ann Arbor switched climates with USC? I have, and its better than the Avatar world.

M-Wolverine

January 14th, 2010 at 10:11 PM ^

I don't know about you, but that never seemed to happen in March for me...it always waited till the first day of Finals studying period. Go out on the Hill to study in the nice weather...then see all those boobies you mention...AND not a whole lot of studying got done. I wonder what the grade drop was from Fall finals to Winter Finals...

steve sharik

January 14th, 2010 at 5:20 PM ^

1. Season football tickets for $54.
2. Season hockey tickets (bought after season started) for $50 and 10th row center ice.
3. Geppetto's Pizza. It occupied the space that is now Quickie Burger--Southwest corner of Hill and State. Mondays and Tuesdays at Geppetto's were all-you-can-eat pizza for $4. Add all-you-can-drink soda for an extra $1. I remember Steve Shields coming downstairs and stuffing his humongous hockey bag with two extra larges and heading back to West Quad.
4. LA's Club Cafe. It occupied the space that is now Rod's Diner, and then LA added another one where University Cafe now resides. LA's was a popular hang-out for the fab five, Desmond Howard, Elvis Grbac, and other famous athletes. Consequently, hot chicks were abundant there, as well. The food was outstanding, as an added bonus. Excellent burgers, chicken sandwiches, curly fries, and frozen yogurt. Rumors abounded about drug sales going through the back and LA sold his places to Rod and University Cafe. He started the $2 car wash on Washtenaw Ave. near Golfside Dr. in Ypsi, IIRC.
5. Playing pickup ball at the IM Bldg. almost every day.
6. Being able to run up and down a basketball court w/o blacking out.
7. Having way more talent than the opponents in both football and basketball. Methinks this is being rectified gradually and ethically by our current coaches in each sport.
8. Class. And by that I mean I missed them.

One thing I definitely don't miss: female students wearing baggy sweatshirts and guys' 501's. You current male students don't know how good you have it. The "Freshman 15" was the "Freshman 50" in my day. Today's fashion really motivates those young ladies.

M-Wolverine

January 14th, 2010 at 10:34 PM ^

Right before they closed.

I remember Gumby's pizza, that had great GIANT pizzas for cheap...then immediately cut costs by making their ingridients shit, as well as the rest of the pizza.

And I remember the semester that Bell's misprinted their XXL coupon with the price of like a medium in the booklet, and we offered to take the whole coupon booklet box off the homeless guy passing them out, and used them to order pizza nearly every single night (they were probably so mad that we insisted they honor their coupon that they were probably pissing on the pizza by the end of the year).

But I was more an outdoor baller behind Couzens. Because the wind can make the ball shift 6-8" in either direction...

HelloHeisman91

January 14th, 2010 at 5:21 PM ^

I miss not having a thousand different ways to be available. Anybody remember when you could be out with friends and not have your phone blowing up? Wow just dated myself.

gobluesasquatch

January 14th, 2010 at 5:30 PM ^

Living in East Quad as an engineering major and athlete my freshman year - and that being far different than the RC hippie freaks who never showered or got out of their pajamas to go to classes in the basement (Oh how many times at dinner some bad smelling hippie would go off on athletes, and my friends and I would just smile and wait until they noticed it .. and then I'd let them know - priceless)

NUBS - torn down my senior year

National music acts playing at Ricks and then sneaking over to the Half-Ass in EQ to play a quick set before anyone realized it.

The Blind Pig showcasing up and coming talent or quality, already established talent

Sexy Grandpa working in the dining hall up in the Burlodge (Okay, he might still be there for all I know, but I miss it)

Sledding on hills surrounding Palmer Field and on North Campus next to the Dow Building

The window at Scorekeepers boarded up (thanks Brian Griese and more importantly, thanks Scott Loeffler from preventing that scene from getting worse)

Pizza House actually being in an old house

Going to Rod's Diner and seeing his wife hard at work while he was out front smoking a cigarette. Not getting charged tax either.

Schoolkids Records (records where those vinyl disks that you put on a turntable and ... nevermind)

One way streets...

8-4 records for football (though a MNC in 1997 was nice)

Temptation being played without ending in "you suck" (really, that's the best we can do ... how boring and unoriginal)

Seeing the sun rise over the Hill dorms from the parking structure next to the dental school

Walking through Couzens Hall and it reminding you of a creepy old hospital (okay, that was taken care of while I was still in school)

Red Hot Lovers!!!

Engin77

January 15th, 2010 at 12:19 PM ^

was the computing center where I ran my first program, written in FORTRAN, punched onto cards. Now, that's dating yourself. You'd turn in your card deck on one side of the building, the operator would hand you your job card, you'd walk though a long hall to the other side of the building and watch the monitor; when your job appeared in the completed section you'd go to the output window and an operator would hand you your printout wrapped around your card deck with a rubberband.
Thanks for that memory.

EGD

January 16th, 2010 at 3:32 AM ^

That game wasn't part of the season ticket package for that year so despite being a junior the best I could get was an end zone ticket in section 33 or something--anyway, I remember thinking "what a shitty ticket" and then Mercury winds up pulling in the winning TD on a fade route literally right in front of my face.

SFBlue

January 14th, 2010 at 8:41 PM ^

Oh, I imagine you'll be similarly rhapsodizing ten or fifteen years from now (with any luck, about witnessing firsthand the resurgence of Michigan football and the first Rose Bowl win of the new Millennium).

Still not convinced? We can switch places for a week...

PSALM 23 Rod N…

January 14th, 2010 at 9:22 PM ^

I miss the following from Ann Arbor:

1. My Hairnet and Apron from working in West Quad Cafeteria
2. Taking Cases of Beer (Goebel Weideman), half gallons of Aztec, Fifths of Bacardi 151 into the Football games
3. Roman Sports and Daily Leisure
4. Beers in the Diag
5. Sorority Date Parties/Crush Parties/Barn Dances/Hayrides
6. All Campus BASHES at Off-Campus Fraternities
7. Winning Football Seasons/Bowl Games
8. The FAB FIVE
9. South Quad West Quad Snowball Fights
10. The Holding Cell at Ann Police Department
11. The Cards in Residence Hall Cafe that asked a series of questions about drinking, I usually answered yes to almost all of them, then you flipped the card over, it said if you answered yes to ONE, you may have a drinking problem....
12 My College Friends

M-Wolverine

January 14th, 2010 at 10:48 PM ^

I replied to most that hit on some I remember...we could list a million of them... But in reply to the OP-

Touchdown, back in the day. I went in the day they opened for some wings 10 cent Tuesdays), but it didn't really start rolling till Rida took over. NTN Trivia; Friday night dance nights that sways ended with people all singing Living on a Prayer; all day NCAA Tournament/St. Paddy's day party...heck, 4 day party where you got there at 11am Thursday, stayed while the staff cleaned up and Rida ordered us pizza till after 3am, home, sleep, up again in the morning bringing donuts or Chinese for the staff (read: hot waitresses), and start the cycle again through Sunday, where everyone was bleary-eyed after having slept (the only time you were sober) for 21 out of 96 hours. Being there to watch Florida take out Florida State to clear the way for our National Title after we took care of business that day, with the tv news there.

After the economic downturn after 9/11 and the parking lot reconstruction killed business and he sold, it instantly wasn't the same. And the idea it's become a place called the blue freakin Leprechaun...

TTUwolverine

January 14th, 2010 at 11:00 PM ^

I lived across the street, and would always stumble in for a piece of pizza after a long night of drinking. That pizza was HORRIBLE unless you were hammered, but it called to me at 2:30 AM on a Friday night.

allansrule

January 14th, 2010 at 11:33 PM ^

Watching girls lick soft serve ice cream from cones at south quad while eating delicious chicken nuggets.
Wearing a lot of free T-Shirts.
Some house had a bong that was 2 floors high.
Snow ball fights between South Quad and West Quad.
Biking in the arb (which I think now is not allowed).

Bocheezu

January 15th, 2010 at 8:45 AM ^

I really do miss going to football and hockey games, and going to the Rose Bowl in 98.

Homework sets that took days to do, open-ended projects, crappy groupmates, crappy roommates, pulling all-nighters a week before the project was due because you knew you were just that fucked, 4 hours of sleep a night, back-to-back midterms/finals...don't miss any of that.

JimBobTressel-0

January 15th, 2010 at 10:30 AM ^

Wow you guys are staring through rose colored glasses. I'm an engineer and that stuff you guys are talking about....it's obvious you weren't...I stopped partying about halfway through sophomore year. I'm a senior now. Work Work Work.

Seth

January 15th, 2010 at 10:34 AM ^

Before online registration, there was CRISP.

Who could forget, when there is one spot open in the cognate class that you must either get now or have to come back for the summer term, and you are sweating bullets while trying to calculate the maximum speed you can dial each number of the course so that the C.R.I.S.P. lady will register it (hint: it's just over a second between digits).

Then she misreads it and you hear

"You are registered for... L S A"
"HISTORY....Three-HUNdred.....Seventeen."
"HISTORY....Three-HUNdred....Forty...Five?"
"BIO, ANTHROPOLOGY....Four-HUNdred.....Fifty...four.

"Press '1' to register for another course."

[111111]

"You are registered for.... L S A"
"You are not registered for any courses."
"I'm sorry you're having trouble, goodbye."

M-Wolverine

January 16th, 2010 at 7:14 PM ^

Yeah, everyone in the time block would be crammed into the hall there, trying to read the classes off the board, as the lady would come out to cross them off as they got filled. Then when it was your time in line, you'd have to hope it didn't fill up from the time you left the board to the time you got to the front of the line to see the lady and see if all the classes you wanted were still available.

Phones were hi-tech, not to even think about how it's all online today.

Michigan Arrogance

January 15th, 2010 at 9:27 PM ^

-- NHL '94 every day for at least 45mins

-- going to Yost to see a hockey game.... in shorts

-- Ice cream bar at SQ

-- All you can drink chocolate milk

-- water gun battles in SQ

-- the ability to wake up at 11.02, go to your 11 o'clock class... and not be late.

-- waiting for the last Nite Owl from Markley

-- going from the stadium directly to Yost for a DH

-- 1/2 off cottage inn pizza the Tuesday after M home hockey games.

EGD

January 16th, 2010 at 3:39 AM ^

In NHL '94?
I was a stud with the Calgary Flames. This was before you could really play with line changes, so I'd have Gary Roberts and Theo Fleury at forward, Al McGinnis and Gary Suter on D, and Vernon in net. I used to take out Nieuwendyke and replace him with Joel Otto, who would totally mash people at the other wing.

Can't believe I remember all this. Ugh, all those hours a-wasted!