Let's hope they do better than they did with Penland.

Thee University has announced plans to demolish the 85-year old dormitory in which Your Humble Blogger and some of his little friends, as well as many other university denizens of the male persuasion, spent their formative years. Those who are not among that select group can get a glimpse of its amenities here. (More news stories here.)

I note that a few amenities seem to have been introduced over the years since I was there. Cable TV connections and additional phone lines, for example.

Darnit, when I was a young 'un, we trekked down to the central TV room on each floor and we watched TV shows together. And we liked it! (Uphill in the snow both ways, etc., etc.)

Or at least those who managed to wrest control of the channel changer liked it. Those of us who wanted to watch something other than sports or Saturday Night Live had to resort to various underhanded strategems and bluster and persuasion. ("Hey, did you know they're also watching this up on the third floor? ANd they have pizza and popcorn?")

Many are the stories of students coming home in a ... shall we say, less than sober ... condition, and of their roommates and friends smuggling them into their rooms through the many stairwells and exterior doors that bypassed the designated nighttime door and its university-appointed guardian. (I'm sure it helped when they weren't singing tipsily at the time.)

Actually, my favorite part of Brooks Hall was the unused top story, which was accessible through one or two neglected doors. I spent quite a few sunny afternoons lazily reading and watching the campus from its dormer windows.