For fans of W&M

I am in the process of cleaning off my bookshelves before I move, and I have stumbled across a little gem. For my Abnormal Psychology class, we read The Outsider, which is a moving account of a man's descent into mental illness. The author, Nathaniel Lachenmeyer, follows his father's struggle with schizophrenia; once a brilliant sociologist, Charles Lachenmeyer lost his job, his family, his home, and his sanity to a disease that has no known cure. Needless to say, it was a little depressing to read. However, there was one section that made it all worthwhile for me: Charles Lachenmeyer attended the College of William and Mary (Go Tribe!), and Nathaniel visits the campus to talk to several professors of his father. During his stay in the 'Burg, Nathaniel Lachenmeyer makes several profound and hysterical notes about the area (bolds are my additions):

Colonial Williamsburg, the large-scale recreation of Colonial life dedicated to the belief "that the future may learn from the past," dominates the town of Williamsburg, creating a surreal environment where the eighteenth and twentieth centuries compete for attention in a marriage of history and commercialism. As I walked down Duke of Gloucester Street, ... an actor in period costume confronted me with an archaic greeting and a theatrical bow. This invitation to participate in his conflation of the past and present reminded me of Church Street, where a transient had invited me into his delusional world with a similarly misdirected look of recognition (Lachenmeyer 56).

haha! The reenactors being compared to homeless crazy people! So funny if you know how Williamsburg is. Nothing compares to seeing a man in leggings, cape, and tricorn hat step out of a car and scamper into Wawa for a cup of coffee or sandwich. It is so bizarre and unique to Colonial Williamsburg.

My other favorite quote from this section was just a paragraph later, as he described the campus itself:

... and an endless array of commemorative plaques. As I wandered across the quadrangles I discovered without trying to that Thomas Jefferson, James Monroe, and John Marshall were all alumni of William and Mary (Lachenmeyer 56-57).

And that's really how it is, too! You learn more than you were really planning to, especially about all the important people who attended W&M. We've got plaques and statues in every nook and cranny of campus; even out in the bushes! Next time you visit, try to find the statue of the two children listening to a book on tape (I'm not making that up; there's an old-fashioned tape player in the grass next to them), or the fat little duck statue (a personal favorite).

Just wanted to share that little bit of bizarre humor with my fellow W&Mers.
:D