5:29 PM |
Ok, that's that wrong Sewanee. Al Jolson's is Swanee. Part of the admissions process at The University of the South is to be able to spell Sewanee correctly. I am here in Sewanee, Tennessee, personally delivering the deposit for my kid's enrollment next year. I thought that would be a nice touch. Besides, I need to do massive purchasing of purple and gold merchandise at the bookstore. We're all very proud. And relieved. Hope he makes it through four years, but as far as I'm concerned he's hatched. I have completed my responsibilities.
I'm laying over for a day because I need to do laundry and get my hair done. This is a very nice B&B, The Monteagle Inn. Monteagle, the town, is on the other side of the highway from Sewanee: The University of The South. It has a population of 1,213. Sewanee, in contrast, has a population of 2,472, with a median age of 21.4. The Volunteer Fire Department has 30 local residents and 15-18 students. The mayor is also the Vice-Chancellor of the University. The Chancellor, by the way, has ceremonial duties, while the Vice Chancellor does the dirty work. Kind of like the Queen and Prime Minister.
I have been perusing The Sewanee Mountain Messenger. The post office has gone from labelling the two slots Sewanee mail and Out Of Town mail, to Mail and Netflix. True.
The traditions at Sewanee (the school, not the town, although they are pretty much the same), are most definitely unique. The students wear sports jackets to class, by choice. I had heard that, but verified by the presence of another (the only) guest's son who came to breakfast. If they reach a certain grade point average (going lower each year) they get to wear academic gowns. The tattier the gown, the more prestige. By now, you get the picture that the school's original library came from Oxford and Cambridge. Sewanee's intention was to be the southern answer to the Ivy League. I asked my innkeeper why it has these two names. Political, he said. A $250,000 consultant was hired to advise as to how to attract more "diversity" to the school. "The University of the South" had bad connotations for the, uh, diverse community. It didn't help that the flags of the dioceses flying in the mail chapel:
included some red, white and blues with X shapes in them. After the change, they got some students from Maryland, enthusiastically decried by a Sewanee mom staying in the B&B with me. Since girls get better grades in high school than boys do, the boys have an easier time getting in. Sounds like old time religion to me. The flags went out for cleaning, and the chalice used by the founder of the Ku Klux Klan "disappeared". This is beginning to sound more and more like a Da Vinci Code kind of place. Here's the school chant:
Rip 'em up! Tear 'em up! Leave 'em in the lurch. Down with the heathen. Up with the Church.--Yea, Sewanee's Right!
The heathens are the Methodists at Vanderbilt. YSR is emblazoned on baseball hats, coffee mugs and the like. It's sort of like those black and white oval stickers with airport codes that nobody but you and the King of France knows. And all those other people in Nantucket reds. You know, they used to be for countries in Europe and they had to put them on for some reason.
Here is an on-line auction from WorthPoint (!) that speaks to the history of The University of the South, including that the first convocation was held in 1868 (note the events in the South at that time), and Robert E. Lee was offered to head the school. This is an Episcopal school. I hope my son will emerge a gentleman, as this was the point to begin with.
I'm laying over for a day because I need to do laundry and get my hair done. This is a very nice B&B, The Monteagle Inn. Monteagle, the town, is on the other side of the highway from Sewanee: The University of The South. It has a population of 1,213. Sewanee, in contrast, has a population of 2,472, with a median age of 21.4. The Volunteer Fire Department has 30 local residents and 15-18 students. The mayor is also the Vice-Chancellor of the University. The Chancellor, by the way, has ceremonial duties, while the Vice Chancellor does the dirty work. Kind of like the Queen and Prime Minister.
I have been perusing The Sewanee Mountain Messenger. The post office has gone from labelling the two slots Sewanee mail and Out Of Town mail, to Mail and Netflix. True.
The traditions at Sewanee (the school, not the town, although they are pretty much the same), are most definitely unique. The students wear sports jackets to class, by choice. I had heard that, but verified by the presence of another (the only) guest's son who came to breakfast. If they reach a certain grade point average (going lower each year) they get to wear academic gowns. The tattier the gown, the more prestige. By now, you get the picture that the school's original library came from Oxford and Cambridge. Sewanee's intention was to be the southern answer to the Ivy League. I asked my innkeeper why it has these two names. Political, he said. A $250,000 consultant was hired to advise as to how to attract more "diversity" to the school. "The University of the South" had bad connotations for the, uh, diverse community. It didn't help that the flags of the dioceses flying in the mail chapel:
included some red, white and blues with X shapes in them. After the change, they got some students from Maryland, enthusiastically decried by a Sewanee mom staying in the B&B with me. Since girls get better grades in high school than boys do, the boys have an easier time getting in. Sounds like old time religion to me. The flags went out for cleaning, and the chalice used by the founder of the Ku Klux Klan "disappeared". This is beginning to sound more and more like a Da Vinci Code kind of place. Here's the school chant:
Rip 'em up! Tear 'em up! Leave 'em in the lurch. Down with the heathen. Up with the Church.--Yea, Sewanee's Right!
The heathens are the Methodists at Vanderbilt. YSR is emblazoned on baseball hats, coffee mugs and the like. It's sort of like those black and white oval stickers with airport codes that nobody but you and the King of France knows. And all those other people in Nantucket reds. You know, they used to be for countries in Europe and they had to put them on for some reason.
Here is an on-line auction from WorthPoint (!) that speaks to the history of The University of the South, including that the first convocation was held in 1868 (note the events in the South at that time), and Robert E. Lee was offered to head the school. This is an Episcopal school. I hope my son will emerge a gentleman, as this was the point to begin with.