In 1971 my father spent a few months over the summer taking some Geology courses at Southern Oregon College in Ashland, Oregon. Our family lived in Ashland for much of the summer, and as we were planning our 2007 road trip I thought it would be fun to stop in Ashland and see if I could find things I remember.
Back in 1971 we spent the first week or so of our time in Ashland staying at Emigrant Lake, camping at an Army Corps of Engineers site. When I started planning our '07 trip I saw that the county now manages a full-fledged RV Campground at Emigrant Lake. Of course, I reserved a site.
As we pulled in I immediately recognized the lake. It is a reservoir, with steep sloping banks and an irregular shape. It seemed much smaller than I remember it, but as we drove in I saw the exact sites where we had camped in 1971. They have no hookups, and they're too steep and small for modern RV's (big motor homes), so the county had a new campground on the far end of the lake. It was right next to a beach of huge reddish rocks. If my brother reads that last sentence he'll know exactly what I mean, because he and I spent hours exploring those rocks from our canoe. I'm sure there was danger at every turnpoint back then...now we just saw the "Cougars have been spotted" sign and spent the evening making bad cougar jokes to scare Theresa.
In the morning Theresa and I drove around looking for the house we had rented after camping the first few weeks in 1971. It was gone. Not only was the house gone, but the street was gone, and the entire neighborhood was gone. What used to be a valley is now a hill, a hill covered in fake-old condos and a golf course. Ashland is now a town of 20,000 people. I suspect in 1971 that fewer than 10,000 lived there. The two lane main drag through town is now two roads, each a one way street. The library (a big old white frame house) is now part of the University (not a college) and there is a brand new library built. The mineral water fountain in Lithia Park has been removed "for restoration" and the big water fountain at the end of the park dispenses fresh city water. It was odd how things looked similar, but changed just enough to make it seem like a weird type of deja vu experience.
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My family spent a summer in Greenville, PA at Thiel College in 1972. I'm sure I'd have the same disappointing experience if we drove through there now. But I might like to do it someday anyway. I still remember the pistachio ice cream in the cafeteria and watching the scariest Star Trek ever (when William Windom flew into that cone thing).
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