The Four Senses of Tuesday

Yesterday was an absolutely beautiful day on campus.  It was sunny with a light breeze, low 70s.  Warm if you sat in the sun, cool if you sat in the shade.  The sky was full of very large and puffy white clouds.  It was the kind of day where it would have been great to be a student and spend an hour just sitting on the Quad grass watching the clouds go by while you ate lunch or studied.

To try and help give you a mental image of the day, let me paint a picture of what I experienced during my brief stint on the Quad using 4 of the 5 senses (I did not eat, so we’ll leave taste out of it).

I saw:

– Leftover strands of toilet paper in the Quad trees.

– A cafe table outside Reynolda with two female students sitting in the sun.  One with open laptop.

– Another cafe table outside Reynolda with only one student, a female sitting in the shade.  Laptop also open.

– Several groups of students at the cafe tables outside of Subway.  They looked relaxed and happy.

– Two students plunking down in the grass mid-Quad to eat their lunches.

– Lots of big, white, puffy clouds in the sky.

– A profusion of flowers in the beds near the ground floor of Reynolda.

– An older man – grandfather? – watching two very young boys, maybe 3 years old, run around in the Quad grass.  The kids’ smiles could be seen from some distance.  They seemed delighted (and energetic!)

– The slightest hint of the leaves starting to change color in the trees on and around the Quad.  Just starting slightly to redden a little.

I heard:

– Laughter from a group of students walking out of Reynolda.   They were chatting and laughing and sounded happy.

– The thwap-thwap of students’ flip-flops as they walked the Quad.

– A staccato click-click of an administrator’s high heels on the Quad.

– A faint sound of equipment coming from the north side of campus where the dining commons is being constructed.  Think of the sound a woodpecker makes while hitting the tree, then make it metallic sounding and that’s what I heard.

– The scraping of large plastic tubs at the Deacon Shop as they were being dragged by a staff member across the brick to the side of the store.

I felt:

– A gentle breeze.  It was enough to gently rustle the leaves in the trees, but not enough to blow your hair around.

I smelled:

– French fries.   A male student walked by with a white bag which ostensibly contained his lunch.  Distinct smell of fries, even with the bag closed.

– A second fried-food smell coming from a female student with a to-go container from the Pit.

That’s your bird’s eye view of the Quad at midday Tuesday.  Hope you could visualize it in your mind.  And if you couldn’t, here’s a picture I took before I sat down to write my observations.