Okay, okay, okay! I will admit it! I MISS THE QUAD!!!!! No, not the newspaper, the Residential Quad! No, seriously. I know that West Chester University is planning to make new dorm buildings, and the world knows we need them, but they could have warned us. I mean, come on! We left in December anxious to return to see the quad, to play in the quad and to be in the quad; and now it is all fenced off! I was shocked. I was baffled. No wait, I was sha-ffled! I mean, I did not know why the quad was gone. Someone told me that the plan was to build these residence halls to replace old ones like Wayne Hall. And let me just say something for those of you who do not realize the repulsive condition that Wayne Hall is in. Wayne Hall has creaky windows that whistle when the wind is over five mph. And the windows do not just whistle, they whistle old 80’s songs, including Michael Jackson’s “Billie Jean” and Guns N Roses’ “Sweet Child ‘O Mine.” The window in the fourth floor computer lab whistles more modern day music, and thus has become the outcast of all Wayne Hall windows. It is a shame!
Getting back to the point, do you remember spring semesters in the quad? Remember the different groups? Come on, people, I know you remember the tanners! If it were at least 50 degrees outside and at least one ray of sunshine, you would see girls in bikinis laid out on towels in the grass. I never understood how much of a tan you could get in 50-degree weather, though. I tell you, they were the epitome of making lemonade out of lemons. The Tanners practically had their own beach in the quad. They probably called it Quad-wood, or maybe At-quad-ic City. Oh no, I think it was called Quad-cean City, West Chester. Regardless of the name, I know the tanners are missing the quad. I feel for you tanners!
More frequently than you would see the tanners, you would see basketball players on the courts. I know you remember! You would always find someone out on the court. I heard from someone that the basketball players had their own pact. I think it went like this: “Neither rain, nor sleet, nor snow, nor dark of night will keep us from our appointed free-throws, jump-shots, lay-ups, and three-pointers.”
You know what is odd? For those of you who see the construction, does it seem to you that they may be keeping the courts there? So what if-stay with me here, people-what if they build the residence halls around the court? What if they put a dome around the court and have a retractable roof and a scoreboard? What if, people? Developers, if you are reading this, you can make history! The power is yours!
Back to the topic at hand, I miss the quad and I know you miss it too. Among these groups, I know you remember the cookout people, the football players, the volleyball players, the extreme sports skateboarders and stunt guys, the jump-ropers and the random walkers and sitters who just tried to fit in, but never really did because they were not athletic enough and they were already too tanned or too vegetarian to eat burgers and hotdogs. Everyone had their own group!
The quad was for everyone. And now it is gone people! It’s gone! IT’S GONE! I have to learn how to face it! She is gone! Why?! I would pay West Chester to replace her! This is titled “She’s Gone” by Hall and Oates, one of the many songs coming out on the quad’s greatest hits album, free with the purchase of any Wayne Hall’s whistle soundtracks.
Donald Beaver is a third-year student majoring in communications. He can be reached at DB620237@wcupa.edu.