Back Road Whispers

The University of Kansas

2012

Graduates

Kristin Thomsen and Joshua Burdett

Josh is our grandson, our first of four grandsons, and holds a large part of my heart. Not only did he get his Bachelor's degree in Enviromental Studies with a minor in Business, he met a wonderful and as you can see a beautiful girl while there. Kristin's degree is in Spanish and Business, a good combination in Texas. The future should be bright for these two as they start their new life in Houston.

Josh's mother, Trish, is a master party planner and apparently met her match in Kristin's mother. We got off the plane and headed straight for dinner with everyone. The two mother's did a bang up job all weekend. Thank you for a fun time!

Dinner Saturday night was on Mass(aschusetts) Street at Genovese. Excellent choice! Good food, good service, and until the loudmouths moved in behind us, good ambiance.

Mass Street is apparently the place to be in Lawrence, I want to come back sometime just to shop and poke around in the stores.

Looking down Mass Street both ways.

We were up and attem the next morning heading for the stadium and graduation ceremonies.

The reason it looks empty is because everyone that wasn't on the hill was on our side of the stadium out of the sun!

MEMORIAL CARILLON AND CAMPANILE

Pronounced: CARE-uh-lawn, camp-uhNEE-lee

A badly needed field house was among the proposals for a commemortion to honor members of the university community and alumni who died in World war II. Chancellor Deane Malott and others were determined to build a structure that was purely a memorial and was not designed to fill a need of the university, as had been done after World war I with the stadium and the union.

A bell tower was decided on, and a fund drive began as World War II ended. The campanile was dedicated May 27, 1951,. Engraved on tablets in the Memorial Room at the campanile's base are the names of 277 KU alumni, students, faculty and staff who died in World War II. The ornamental broze doors are by sculptor Bernard "Poco" Frazier.

Designed by architect Homer F. Neville, a student in the 1920s, and Edward B. Delk, the bell tower is 120 feet high and built of Kansas limestone. The carillon, played by keyboard-operated hammers, has 53 bells cast by an English foundry established in the 1360s. The bells chime the quarter hours and hours; concerts are performed by the university carillonneur, students and guest artists. A major renovation of the bells, the campanile and the grounds was completed in 1996.

_ This information is from a packet of information put

together by Trish.

Tradition has it that the graduates come through the campanile and down the sides of the hill leading to the football stadium. As you can see it is a long way down, but as one student said, "after you have walked it for 4 years it doesn't seem steep".

Family and friends line the walkways leading from the campanele to the stadium.

I did notice some of the people stayed and sat on the grass to watch and listen to the ceremony.

At the bottom of the hill the students met up to form a double line and marched between two lines of faculty members who cheered them on as they made their way to seats at the opposite side of the field.

This graduation ceremony was a true celebration...nothing stiff, nothing stodgy, nothing that put you to sleep. The exuberance of the students was infectious and we were all pointing out one thing after the other that caught our eye....

We all agreed he had only water bottles in there....yeah sure!

Star Wars????


Several grads had their "cute as a button" children with them.


Decorated hats were the norn

Waldo graduated!


Different shapes of balloons made it easy to find your grad.

I was afraid I was missing a lot keeping the camera trained on the jumbotron - BUT look who I found!!!

After all the candidates for graduation marched in the actual ceremony started. Even that was entertaining! The keynote speaker was Alan R. Mulally, President and Chief Executive Officer, Ford Motor Co., who graduated from KU.

He told the story of sitting in the bleachers towards the top, when Wilt Chamberlain walked in and stopped beside him. "I looked him in the eye and said 'hi'. He said 'HI' back and went on to score 58 points in his first varsity basketball game. I would like to think it had something to do with the pep talk I gave him." The rest of his address was themed to pep talks. Good speech and short!

One thing that drew my attention and pleased me was that the entire ceremony was translated into sign language.

Presenting the College of Liberal Arts & Science as candidates for graduation.

Conferral of Degrees by Bernadette Gray - Little Chancellor of the University

The College of Medicine celebrated with spewing bottles of champagne.

After the ceremony it was off to Josh's apartment for lunch of sandwiches, chips and drinks. Perfect! Kick your shoes off, grab a sammy and visit - no stress, no lines to wait in, no dishes. Guess I did enjoy it, since I have no pictures of the time in his apartment.

Back to the ranch for a nap, a walk, or just sitting...well for everyone but Viv and Trish who were getting ready for that evening's festivities. Have I mentioned what a great job they did?

The gift table is important, of course, as is cupcakes to munch on (Trish put her brother to work on those).

Congrat signs around the room and even blinkie rings and beads to wear added to the festivities.

Someone, who shall remain anonymous to protect Viv's husband, Bruce, hung a KU's rival MizzU banner alongside the KU banner.

Q: Why does Missouri golf courses only have 14 holes?
A: Because they can never make it to the final four!

The table was decorated in KU colors with beads, blinkie rings, and curly ribbons down the middle. The little Jayhawk on the left sat at the "head" table and stared at Josh and Kristin throughout the meal. Trish and Viv strike again. Did I mention what a great job they did?

Dinner was hamburgers, BBQ, salad, corn on the cob, followed by strawberry shortcake.

One of the gifts the "kids" received was a KanJam game. From what I could see it was a Frisbee thrown at a can and you couldn't catch it but you could smack it into the can for a point. Too much energy required for this old woman so I just watched from the sidelines.

Cody and Bruce were on one side...taking on the beautiful Heather and the Burdett boys.

I would like to point out that Heather is single handedly killing the game while the three guys are doing some Vaudeville act of some sort. Good job guys...smirk.

With dusk approaching Trish and Viv (did I mention what a great job they did?) had the staff start the bonfire up.

And it wasn't long before the S'more makings appeared and marshmallows started roasting.

Then it was just watching the fire until it was time to say goodnight after a fun, emotional and proud day and get ready to head home the next morning..