NonInformative Letters

The last time I spent a summer at Concordia University Wisconsin I was producing a newsletter called The NonInformer. This was a low tech effort created with the simple but important goal to get mail over the summer. That was the stated reason; the truth was that it was all part of a plot to catch a husband. But I digress. The newsletter, typed on my Smith Corona Word Processor Typewriter, had regular features like: Szedlak’s Typical Day, If you care, this is my life and the annual Company Report that vented disputes among the President, Writer, Editor, Art Director and all around Supreme Authority of NIL Co.: Ruth Szedlak.

Being back at CUW has been a bit of a surreal experience for me. I used to live there. I fell in love there. Those were some of the happiest and silliest days of my life and it is easy to get nostalgic and tell stories. But a college is sort of like a river. You can never step into the same water twice. The professors who were new and working on advanced degrees now are doctors and hold top administrative posts. Summer students still all live in Augsburg, but those with east windows can’t see the lake because Coburg is in the way. The campus belongs to the students that are here now. I’m just one of the staff they have to deal with and in the future may tell stories about. “Remember that librarian who did those instruction classes. She told those lame jokes and always started with the search on ‘alien abduction.’” Sort of like how I remember Richard Wohlers whose retirement last year paved the way for me to come back. In explaining Boolean operators he would always say, “Now let’s say you want to do a search on “dolphins,” but you don’t want the football team…..”

REG

lhg edited and approved