Roanoke Times
Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: SUNDAY, August 22, 1993 TAG: 9308220038
SECTION: VIRGINIA PAGE: E-1 EDITION: METRO
SOURCE:
DATELINE: BLACKSBURG LENGTH: Medium
Washington Street in Blacksburg looked like one gigantic yard sale Saturday.
Motorists cruised for parking spaces.
Returning students dumped chairs, computers, clothing, musical instruments and other assorted items onto the campus lawns.
Food vendors did a brisk business, as did those hawking mini-refrigerators, carpets and lofts.
Computers, fans, foot lockers, Hefty bags stuffed full of clothes.
Bicycles, economy-size boxes of Frosted Flakes, Frito Lay chips, and soft drinks.
Guitars and amplifiers. Detergents. Toiletries. Linens.
Ironing boards, brooms, VCRs, TVs and stereos.
Shoe racks, over-the-door towel racks, stackable crates.
Poker chips and a playing-card caddy.
The essential items to survive college life.
From the massive mess on the lawn emerged a few snatches of conversation:
"Hey, Holly, how you doing?" a returning student asked another.
"`My mom and I are going to have the hardest time saying goodbye," one young woman told her friend.
"You have got your I.D.?" Mom asked daughter as they went to pick up the room key as Dad and the help unloaded her belongings.
Tech police, parents and students were impressed with the organized chaos. Oversize balloons hung over different quads. Families received mailings earlier this summer explaining what color balloon to look for, easing the traffic mess and the "Could you tell me how to get to. . ." questions.
Once the car was in the right place, volunteers from fraternities, sororities and other service organizations were on the spot to help.
In a matter of two minutes, a mini-van full of boxes and bags could be unloaded. The student was sent to find his resident adviser and room key, either Mom or Dad went to park the car, while the other watched the heap until Junior returned.
Jennifer Greenway, a senior representing Pi Beta Phi, had been unloading cars since 6:45 a.m.
"When I moved in a dorm, they didn't do this," she said.
"We have to get them in here and out to get the [parking] spots open."
In Lee Hall, you could hear the clang of a hammer as a loft was put together.
Rob Dameron of the Dublin-based Collegiate Designs, which manufactures this essential piece of college furniture, was taking the pandemonium in stride. He stood under a tent with a two-way radio, answering the questions of his employees several yards away who were dispensing loft kits.
Dameron said his company sells about 1,500 lofts a year at Tech. Today, he'll be at Radford University starting at 6 a.m. Next week, it's on to James Madison University.
"This time of year, for us, is crazy," Dameron said, thankfully noting that most of the business - which covers 600 colleges - is now mail-order.
By noon, Jennifer Carrier's loft was installed, her closets were full, and other belongings were stacked in a corner.
She was glad her roommate, a high school friend from Kempsville near Virginia Beach, had not yet arrived, because there wasn't any room for her in their fourth-floor Lee Hall room.
But that was all right, because they had mapped out what each would bring. Jennifer had everything covered, it seemed, except for a stereo.
Carrier, a freshman who plans to major in engineering, was putting a shelf together with the hands-on help of her mother, Nancy, and the supervisory help of her father, Joe.
"I would be in their way," he joked.
Sporting a "Virginia Tech Dad" shirt, he swore he had been real busy just minutes before.
"I swear, it looked like the boys' rooms downstairs were bigger than this," he said as he looked around what will be his daughter's home for the next nine months.
Joe Carrier praised volunteers who helped them unload and get into the room. Ordering the loft ahead of time had been a help, too.
"We ordered it in advance and paid extra to have them bring it to the room," he said.
Nancy Carrier, not to be outdone by her husband's shirt, was wearing one that read, "My money and my kid go to Virginia Tech."
This was the first time the Carriers had sent a child off to school. Nancy Carrier was impressed by how smoothly the day had gone. But then again, Tech officials had done this many times, she guessed.
by CNB