Homecoming Weekend at Vanderbilt University
It was Homecoming weekend at Vanderbilt University in Nashville, Tennessee this weekend. And this homecoming was special because my daughter Ellie is a senior engineering student at Vanderbilt. My husband Tim and I both graduated from Vanderbilt’s Engineering School in 1979.
So it was special homecoming for all of us. And adding a bit of additional drama to the weekend, my youngest daughter Hannah, a senior at the Lovett School is applying to Vanderbilt University this fall in hopes of being a freshman in next falls class.
Hannah tagged along and spent Saturday night in Ellie’s dorm room. One of Ellie’s suite mates was out of town for the weekend so she actually had a bed to sleep on. Tim and I stayed in the Vanderbilt Marriot which is across the street from the football stadium.
We left Atlanta early Saturday morning and arrived in Nashville just before lunch where we met Ellie at Noshville Diner and Delli (near the Vandy campus) for brunch.
Afterward we strolled through campus and watched the homecoming parade. We also visited the Vanderbilt Campus bookstore for some Vandy apparel and ran in to a bunch of former classmates who were doing the same thing. We also met the children of several classmates who were students at Vanderbilt.
After checking in to the hotel and freshening up we hit the tailgate picnics. Ellie and several of her friends put together a tailgate. The girls, from several different sororities, had made the food and done a great job of getting their friends together. We also dropped by tailgates by the BUCs (Brothers Under Christ), at the AOPi house and at the KA fraternity house. About an hour before the game Tim hauled us over to the stadium for the Football Letterman Club tailgate in the endzone fo the stadium. Ellie and Hannah were amused by Tim’s former team mates who were giving him high fives and telling old war stories as the game kicked off between Vanderbilt and South Carolina.
After the game we went back to the hotel and watched the Giants cling the National League championship and then Tim and I went for a walk through campus at around 11:00. Hannah and Ellie had long ago bolted for the Dorm and then parties off campus.
Sunday morning we chilled out a bit before joining Ellie and Hannah at Midtown Community Church, a contemporary worship fellowship. Afterward we had lunch with my fromer suite mate at Vanderbilt, Susan Sharp and her husband Lew. Susan and I laughed because Ellie’s furniture in Carmichael Towers is the same furniture we had as seniors living in the Towers.
It is great to see old friends and to make new ones with Ellie’s Vandy classmates. Ellie knows this is all coming to an end quickly and is already interviewing for jobs. And it may or may not be the last time we attend Vanderbilt Homecoming with an active student. Hannah is filling out her Auburn University housing application as I write this post. She will know more about her Vanderbilt opportunities later this year.
