I recently had the opportunity to visit campus for 48 crisp, early spring hours, all by myself, and it became a magical reconnection with Kenyon and its physical spaces. I’ve not been able to spend significant time in Gambier in the years since we graduated, and it was wonderful to just walk for miles, at once marveling at all of the new buildings and changes, while also appreciating all that appeared exactly as I remembered it.
I had conceived of a photo art project to help guide my wanderings. I brought along selections from my college scrapbook, went back to stand in the exact place where the photo was taken some 30 years ago, and held up the photo to be included in a new photo of the same space. It was a cool way to reconnect with the land and with iterations of my past self, not to mention make my old college friends laugh. Yes, there are a few photos here of college students in the nineties being college students in the nineties! All these years and adult responsibilities later (I’ll save you the math: we’re 50 years old), these are some of the moments I'm so glad I had captured on 3x5s.
Valentine’s Day, 1993. I’m fourth from the right alongside my fellow pledge class members of the now-extinct Iota chapter of the Psi Upsilon fraternity, and we gathered in front of McBride, my freshman dorm, for a photo before parading down Middle Path to Peirce Hall. No one’s costume fit right, and the paper hearts were taped to paint stirrers. It was tradition that on this day every year, Psi U pledges would sing ‘You’ve Lost That Lovin’ Feeling’ for all who bore witness at 6 p.m. in the Great Hall, at a pitch and cadence I’m sure would have made The Righteous Brothers wince. I loved it. The weather was cold and gray, contrasting with the warm, electric reception we received from what felt like more people I’d ever seen in one place on campus. We got down on one knee for the final refrain and it brought the house down.
This is my friend and classmate Meghan Kenny '96, likely taken the winter of our senior year. She’s a talented novelist and teacher today. We became closer as friends as our collegiate careers came to a close, when Meghan lived in Farr Hall, directly above what was the former bricklaid Kenyon bookstore and Gambier Deli. Traveling vendors would sell tapestries and rent mini-fridges in that plaza behind Meghan. The Village Market used to be at the end of this row. Cheap hot dogs served friendly.
I had breakfast that Saturday in the Deli before beginning this project, and I noticed that the ‘Farr Hall’ facade that used to frame the front entrance now hangs on the wall. It made me think of this photo, and of my friend. I pulled it from the scrapbook, went outside, and snapped this shot on my phone. This is the first photo I took. I saw the sunlight, and I knew I was onto something.
Graduation Weekend, 1996. Left to right are Geoff Green '96, me, Rob Zelinger '96, and Todd Krugman '96. These were my friends from the beginning, and my roommates that senior year in New Apartment D-7. My dad took this photo of the four of us, sitting on a bench on Middle Path that’s still right there. The post office is at our backs. We were one more hazy night and hot and humid morning from our diplomas.
I took two pebbles home this year from Middle Path, one from the steps of Bexley, one from the steps of Old Kenyon. Still a perfect view, either direction.
North Leonard, second floor, back bay, fall of 1994. I love this photo because of the way I was able to line up the door; I felt a shiver when I looked at the image to confirm I was in exactly the same spot, 30 years later, having upgraded a click-and-wind disposable camera for an iPhone 15. If you look into the shadows on the left side, you can see the top rung of our bunk bed cutting across the scene. We were kids, and it was the weekend, and we were brave enough to provide the space. The look on my roommate Rob Zelinger’s face predicts the caption that I would later write in my scrapbook: "The party we got in a bunch of trouble for."
Worth it.
Senior year, 1996 roommates in New Apartments D-7. That’s Todd Krugman '96, Geoff Green '96 and me on the right. We really felt like we had made it: we had passed comps and we had a kitchen. This was, of course, an era when tucking your oversized t-shirt into your jeans with a brown belt was all the rage. Geoff was into his goatee period. Todd still had hair. One night Rob Zelinger (not pictured) attempted to make microwave popcorn in a pan on that stovetop. It did not go well.
Thank you to the current residents of D-7 for allowing me back to snap this one, and for taking a picture of me, back in the same spot, 28 years later. The cabinets were a nice addition. Would have been useful, back in those days of CDs, videocassettes and physical textbooks.
Graduation Day, May 1996. Ascension Hall was where I experienced the soaring Professor Tim Shutt regale me with tales of the Green Knight, Dante and Virgil, standing on desks to do it. The first time I ever laid eyes on a Windows 95-based computer with a mouse was in the basement of that building. My favorite academic building on campus, like a castle, its stone construction an enviable backdrop for Commencement. I was wearing a tie that my then-girlfriend, a sophomore, had given me. My Revo shades made me look cool(er than I was).
It was so still, and so hot. Right next to this photo in my scrapbook is a photo of my grandparents, wilting in church clothes. I'd had exactly no sleep, having elected to be present for all of our last night on Bexley Road, now a road no longer. There’s a large bottle of water up my sleeve. It was a beautiful event nonetheless. I was so happy to have attended college here.
It is my view, at 50 years old, that the soul is ageless, whatever time chooses to do. The body may falter, but I’m eternally me. Someone called this a project in Kenyon’s ghostly tradition, to which I vociferously disagreed because everyone featured is alive and accounted for! But if you were to ask, did I feel my footprints reawaken in the specific spots I felt lucky to stand in once again?
Yes I did.
To see more of Mark's photos, you can get in touch with him at markhaggarty@gmail.com or follow him on Instagram.