Walking Down the Memory of Sunnyside Lane

Morgantown is the home of West Virginia University. Besides a good education, it is known for other things, some not as impressive as others. Last week when I was in Colorado, my friend Craig asked, “What is your alma mater?” I proudly said WVU and he responded, “Don’t they burn the couches there?” I knew exactly what he was talking about.

This rowdy tradition started when I was in school in the late 1970’s. The football stadium was in an area called Sunnyside along with numerous bars and beer joints. In the beginning, students sacrificed their furniture building a bonfire in the streets when our football team beat Pitt. In later years, fires were a symbol of just finishing the game, regardless of who won.

Authorities were stymied about how to stop the unsafe tradition. Then someone decided to try an experiment—prior to football season they would orchestrate a citywide clean up. Any student that had old furniture that needed disposed set it on the sidewalk in front of their house and garbage collectors gathered it for free. For the most part it worked. Some students, however, were wise to the plan and held on to their old furniture so that they could literally add fuel to the fire.

Driving down Sunnyside Avenue today surprised me. On one side of the road was new construction of high-rise apartment buildings, replacing the old houses. On the other side were houses with boards across the windows spray-painted, “Condemned.” Of course, I’ll be the first to say that the houses should have been condemned long ago when I lived there 35 years ago, but it still made me sad to see the tradition of Sunnyside now overtaken by modern buildings.

The building that housed Choosy Mothers, Pie Pizzeria and the College Inn bar were still there, but the businesses had been replaced by an insurance agency along with some vacant space. As we strolled down the street, my college roommate and I reminisced about the good times we had listening to music, eating pizza and subs. Times change, but we still have the memories.

Today’s gift was to make a donation at Taco Bell to help a high school student in Morgantown buy needed books and supplies so they can finish high school. Then they will be able to create their own college memories and later walk down their own Memory (Sunnyside) Lane.

In Giving,

Robin