September has yielded to October. The leaves are falling, the night air is getting cooler and the rhythms of fall have set in as the sun rises later and sets earlier.
This is the time of year when night walks on campus are incredible. Sunsets seem clearer with deeper shades of orange to purple. There is electricity on campus in the fall. The anticipation of a big game weekend. The excitement of settling into the new semester.
During the day, the mums are in bloom. The leaves are awash in color. But at night, it is the eerie lights of empty ancient buildings, footsteps taken under dim streetlights. There is the rustling of fallen leaves amid the sound of your footsteps on sidewalks. A light breeze gently pushes those fallen leaves across your path.
Generations of students walked these same sidewalks into many of the same buildings. Years ago, they walked by candlelight or lantern. They traveled by train to Bellefonte or Lemont and traversed the last few miles by equine power. And we think this is a hard place to get to now?
Walk into Rec Hall and you see the black-and-white photos of teams from decades or even a century ago. Many of them thought life on this campus would never end. For those few years of college many of us felt we had reached some level of immortality.
Through windows you see black and white photos in libraries, or old places like The Tavern… those photos of youthful faces now gone remind us of our own mortality.
One of the magic things about being on a college campus at night is the history that lingers and the ghosts that you know are there. This campus existed long before us and will last long after us. We just happen to be at a particular point in time.
As we walk, the moon casts spooky shadows.
Over the years there were two campuses where I loved to walk at night, whether it was my time at the University of Virginia or here at Penn State. The history of both places extends well into the past.
Virginia dates back over two centuries, to its days being founded by Thomas Jefferson. Even today history rises from the rich soil where Jefferson laid out his vision.
Dorms on “The Lawn” date back to the founding of the university. There are two cemeteries on that campus, and brushing leaves off grave markers reveals faculty members gone for well over 150 years. Walking along Rugby Road the white columns of stately fraternity and sorority houses rise into the night sky.
In much the same way, Penn State’s campus has 170 years of history. And given the enduring love this place has instilled while we walked through childhood’s gate to be shaped by the hands of fate, is it any wonder why some would want to be here even after the sands of their time on earth have passed?
From Old Main to Pattee Library to Schwab Auditorium reports of ghostly sightings are common.
You may not see them, but if you’re quiet enough, it seems you can hear them or at the very least certainly feel them. As the bells of Old Main sound the passage of time, is it the distant laughter and footsteps of current students or the phantom footsteps of someone from beyond this life?
Certainly many ghosts would want to haunt a college campus after their time on earth is through. For many, the years on campus were among the best of their lives. The time in classrooms, labs, libraries, dorms and bars leaves imprints on one’s soul. Some met first loves, some met forever partners. Some suffered loss and return to find solace from beyond.
The spirits of those past seem most present in October as time transitions into a glorious burst of color before the gray winter descends upon us. In this month we celebrate the dead. Halloween bleeds into All Saints Day and All Souls Day. Why wouldn’t a ghost want to walk their campus at its most beautiful time of the year?
Mortality is a part of our humanity; the time and place of our passing known only to God. But what I do know is after the time and place of my passing comes, don’t be surprised if I walk this campus long after I’m gone. And I suspect I won’t be alone.
