The Hawk Will Never Die

On Saturday, August 5th, Frank and I had a visit from old friends Bill and Mary from the Philadelphia area. Frank and Bill shared their undergraduate college years together at St. Joseph's University which is a private, coeducational Roman Catholic Jesuit university located in the Philadelphia suburb of Merion Station on the historic Philadelphia Main Line. 

The school mascot of SJU is the famous Hawk, which never stops flapping its wings while in costume. Voted Sports Illustrated's Mascot of the Century, The Hawk is the most famous mascot in all of college basketball. By flapping for the entire duration of any SJU contest, this display of endurance is proof that "The Hawk Will Never Die!".

Frank and I were hosting a celebrity in our midst that day. Bill had been the SJU hawk from 1968 to 1970. Frank remembers that he had a part in encouraging Bill to try out for the role of the Hawk. As a gift Bill and Mary brought us a copy of the recently published book Hawk Tales.

Bill and Mary were coming to San Francisco to accompany their nephew, so our house was a side trip. They arrived around 11:00 am and left about 10:00 pm, tiredly but a bit reluctantly. We enjoyed every minute reminiscing about college days, but even more, merely exchanging views about life. Lunch was at our house but we went out to dinner at a downtown Livermore Italian restaurant Frank and I frequent. It was a good choice because the food and historic family photos on the brick walls reflected the feel of old Philadelphia.

I do find it unique when you can get together with acquaintances you have not seen in years and you still have the same priorities and opinions: you are able to pick up, almost seamlessly, from where you left off. We calculated that we had last seen them seventeen years ago. We laughed about that frequency being just like locusts! One episode we recalled was Frank, Bill, and our son Dan, then about elementary school age, waiting in line to board a roller coaster at the Santa Cruz boardwalk. Dan met the height requirement; however, watching it while waiting his turn, Dan puked in anticipation. The attraction attendant refunded him his ticket money in exchange for Dan agreeing to not get on the ride.

Bill was a physics major also. A true nerd like Frank, he loves his present job as a science technician setting up all the demos for the physics lectures at the University of Pennsylvania. He and Mary have a passion for collecting and Mary described to me their home display of a huge congregation of Solar Dancers, well lit with the appropriate overhead lighting of course. I did not know what these were, so Mary Googled them for me and the following photo has a good sampling. These little couple inch high figures jiggle and sway when a bit of the sun falls on the mini-solar panel at their feet.

They are very inexpensive, on the order of $1, so Bill buys one for each student and at the beginning of each term. He hands them out, telling the students that there is a whole lot of physics in these itty bitty cuties. In a few week they should be able to explain it to him: solar cells, magnets, oscillators, LEDs, electronic circuits, etc. For other nerds out there here is a good link to a tear down of solar powered toys.

We were so avidly visiting that we forgot to take any photos. Their nephew took these at the San Francisco airport when they were heading home. Bill emailed them to us shortly after they returned home.

Bill and Mary made point of taking a photo near a typewriter display that was being featured at the airport.

We have an antique typewriter we purchased so the coincidence was at least worthy of note. I guess we both like collecting and old things as well as old friends. 'Twas a truly fun day, a "blast from the past" as it were. The Hawk will never die, nor will old friendships.