Drove to Lancaster, Found the University and the Green Dragon Pub…..

But it wasn’t like I remember it. The university has really grown, but down the hill in the other direction from where I attended classes. Still it was interesting to walk around the campus and try to find old hangouts. The university consists of a group of colleges (I studied Politics in Bowland College but lived in County College) and everything has changed. Lancaster was a hotbed of student radicalism in the early 70s—today all the signs and posters are for job recruitment, investment plans and financial loans. All the colleges had cafes and little pubs but today the cafes are all faculty offices and the pubs have been converted into computer labs. Most of the students I saw (it is summer session) were Asians. Frankly, I was disappointed with it all. I went to the library and checked out a copy of my graduate dissertation (they still have it) and some girl who hadn’t been born when I wrote it tried to hassle me about not having a library card. I’d had about enough, threw a minor fit, and her supervisor let me look at it in the reference section. I glanced through it, photographed the cover, and turned it back in.
For lunch I walked two miles into Galgate, a nearby village that is usually overrun by students during the regular school year, and believe it or not the Green Dragon Pub is still there! Many a student has patronized the place and I’ve had more than a few ales there myself and thrown a few darts at the board. Finding it was the highlight of the visit so far but lo and behold, it’s a bed and breakfast now so I found another pub and ate there.
I caught a bus into Lancaster and didn’t remember one single landmark in the city. Granted we spent most of our time on campus or traveling around on the motorcycle, but I didn’t see anything that looked familiar. Caught another bus into Morecambe and they’ve torn up the promenade along the ocean and rebuilt it as an amusement park. Many of the old, old flats and row houses have been torn down but I did find the first place we lived for three months when we first arrived there.
Caught busses back to Lancaster and the university and went to my room. Around 10:00 I decided to take one last walk around the campus and Alexandra Square but it started raining and I was starting to get depressed so I shut it down and went to bed for the night. Not exactly what I was expecting…..