First Night

While in town for the college's 2023 Civil War Institute Summer Conference,  Dave Miska and I drove up to Carlisle one afternoon.   About four miles north of Gettysburg we passed two flea bag motels on the west side of Rt. 34 which probably date from the 1940's.  I thought these had been torn down long ago.  I believe that one of them factored into my arrival as an 18 year-old freshman.  

In September 1968 my parents drove me and my sundry possessions from Ohio to register for my first semester at Gettysburg College.  They had booked a room at the Sleepy Bear Travel Lodge (now Paxton Hall) on Carlisle Street across from the college.   

As I recall all the motels in town were sold out and we were lucky to have reserved a room in advance.   The plan was for me to share the room with my parents,  not our standard vacation arrangement, my brother and I typically had our own room.  But this time my brother had stayed home and for whatever reason my parents came up with this three in a room idea reasoning that it would be just for one night.   Unfortunately my father had developed a migraine headache on the drive down which if anything got worse as the evening wore on until at about 9PM he ordered me out of the room.  Not that unreasonable if you have ever contended with a migraine. 

There was nowhere for me to go so my mother called around and found a vacancy in one of these just out-of-town motels.  She left me there with her credit card and my suitcase,  then headed back to town.   The place was old but relatively clean and it had a small black and white television.   I recall watching a rerun of this Harry Mudd episode of Star Trek that night,  but in B & W.

It was not a auspicious start to college life and I can recall sitting there thinking that at least I was getting the parental abandonment anxiety out of the way a day early.   That's called making the best of a sucky situation.  My two years at Strongsville High School had at last proven themselves useful as they had gotten me in the habit of always setting my expectations low.

I had been to week-long summer camp several times,  a baseball camp in August,  and Boys' State for a week.  I had been dropped off with relatives for multiple night visits;  even staying on a farm with the grandparents of family friends once.   But never anything this far away from home or for this long.   

The next day when I had been moved into my dorm and my parents had driven away I had a flash of panic but nothing like it would have been if I had not experienced that unexpected night in the motel.