Ted_Perry's Blog

Every year at about this time, I like to remind myself that I'm constantly getting older, slower and fatter.

Which is what the Crazylegs Run in Madison is really for. Sure, race organizers say it's a great fundraiser for the athletic department but it's really a chance for alums to come back to a place that doesn't change.

I hate running but I love my brother Dave and it's one of the few chances I get to see him each year.  We plod along the 5-mile course with the urgency of a southern waitress serving a busload of yankees.  This year we set a goal to run our ages--and we would have done it if we were each 58 years old. We rarely get confused with Kenyan marathoners.

Afterwards, we had lunch and went our separate ways. I walked around campus with my college roommate and was amazed at the physical changes to campus--new buildings are popping up everywhere. But the things that Madison is known for don't change. 

The protesters were out in force. They say you could find people to protest a cheese sandwich in Madison and that's probably true. But the current war has protesters fighting for prime location on Library Mall.  This is a serious issue and it stirs emotions on both sides. We didn't have a war to protest against/demonstrate for when I was in school. I mean, we had Grenada but that was over before anyone could even find it on a map.

The usual backround characters are alive and well too.  Guys who were hitting me up for spare quarters 21 years ago are now savvy enough to ask for a minimun of a dollar. Students still do odd things: I saw a bunch of 20 years old throw colored chalk all over each other for about 30 minutes. Why they were doing it I didn't care enough to ask.

Madison is often ranked as one of the best places to live and I guess it is. I know I turned down an anchor job there years ago because I didn't want to live in a place where are large chunk of the population is always 18-25 years old.  I knew it was time to go when I was walking down State Street and a student who I assumed is from this area looked up and recognized me.  "Good to see you here sir" he said.

Sir? Ouch! Maybe Thomas Wolfe was right: You can't go home again. But it's still nice to check in once in awhile.