Dave Richards: Freshman fears, freedom same for dad and daughter
Erie Times-News features writer Dave Richards.ERIE TIMES-NEWS  I
can think of just a handful of times in life when I was
terrified. One was the day my grandparents dropped me off at the
University of Illinois for my freshman year.  I never felt so
alone as when the door shut and they hit the road for the
180-mile trip back to Waukegan, the only home I'd ever known.  I
looked around my Spartan dorm room with its cement walls, lumpy
beds, and plain-as-Wheaties desk. I would have cried, but the
sound would have echoed throughout Hopkins Hall.  That was 1974,
when staying in touch wasn't so easy. My parents decided calling
home was too expensive, so we wrote letters. My room had no TV,
but so what? Champaign, Ill. had just three channels. Cable had
yet to arrive.  I wish I could show my daughter a photo of that
dismal dorm room and convey the emptiness I felt the first few
days when I didn't know a soul, couldn't find my way around
campus and was c