Dear friends:
Back when I was teaching I used to get letters from some of you, and I'd write a long Christmas letter that the School of Journalism paid for and sent out. Times have changed, haven't they? It'll be 14 years this May since I retired and 14 years this next summer since I started writing this column. I don't really know much about the university where you (most of you) got your degrees and, maybe, education.
I'm writing in early January, and it has been pretty cold, but today was pleasant and I went out and took down the outdoor lights. I believe the second semester is under way. I go into what I still call Flint Hall and feel lost. Those computers in the reporting labs, few books in the reading room.
Cokie Roberts is coming in February to give the William Allen White address, and I'm wondering what has possessed the Foundation to bring us Molly Ivins one year and Cokie the next and the likes of Bill Kurtis, Al Hunt, Bernard Shaw and Ellen Goodman in recent years. Can this be happening in the state that still seems to regard liberals and Democrats as a lower class?
I see few of the journalism people. Tom Eblen has just retired, and he'll be missed. When I look at the Kansans his people have produced, I remember the little tabloid sheets we produced back when I was Kansan adviser. I still have pride in what you did and in the editorials that sometimes caused consternation in the Kansas establishment. Only one of the editors who got us in trouble for endorsing Adlai Stevenson over Dwight Eisenhower in '52 is still alive, and it was our great pleasure to have that editor, Bob Stewart, and his wife as visitors last spring.
I see some of the old-timers, and I get Christmas cards and letters from some of you, people from France to Lindsborg. I can't believe that so many of you are grandparents (or great-grandparents). There have been a lot of changes in your lives, and in my life, too.
People ask me what I do. Well, I write this column every week. I still do my radio program (it will be 30 years in 2003). I read weekly at Audio-Reader, books, right now an old-timer called "John Adams and the American Revolution." I interview retirees with a tape recorder and then edit the "script." I work a bit in my yard, trying to keep it from looking like a rain forest or sometimes like Death Valley. We travel some, this past year a trip to the West. And we glory in our family, taking special pride in our two grandchildren, who are both scholars and athletes.
I'm sure some of you follow Kansas University sports. Our football team has looked about the way it has looked in most of our years here. The coach was fired with three games to go. Tennis and swimming are no more. Our basketball team may be a giant, but the games with Tulsa, Valparaiso and Colorado made me nervous.
The university is headed toward increasing tuition in these post-Sept. 11 times. I could offer suggestions on how to save money, like getting rid of some people and departments, but I had better stay out of that. I get nasty letters whenever I criticize anything about KU.
My walks or drives on campus are discouraging. Retirees get "universal" parking permits, but where can we find a place to park? It's now apparent that you can buy a place to park. I try to go on campus when there just might be a spot somewhere. We ride a bus to basketball games. When I see some of the students, I'm glad I'm not in a classroom where I'd make rude remarks about hair and costume (my college generation, of course, was always well-dressed).
You wouldn't know Lawrence. Every time we're out riding we see neighborhoods we hadn't known existed. You should see all the homes and businesses to the west and south. And all the restaurants! I remember when I told a campus visitor that there were two good places to eat, Duck's and the Dynamite (I'm sure I misspelled that). Lawrence is a really pleasant town, and I can see why so many people want to live here.
I needn't say much about the terrible year that has just ended. And 2002 may not be much better. We may get Osama bin Laden, but does anyone believe terrorism will come to an end? Will we ever again board an airplane casually? Well, your professor is going to turn 81 this summer, but I feel pretty good, move slowly, and sag some. Best to all of you.
Calder Pickett is a professor emeritus of journalism at Kansas University. His column appears Sundays in the Journal-World.
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