CHESSNOID

This was an unusual week for me. About a month ago, I was reminiscing about my college days at Woodbury University. I think it was just that time of the year when you reflect on your life and smile when you realize how much time has passed since then and how your feelings have changed. I am 42 now and that period of time was over 20 years ago.

I kept looking for pictures of the old Woodbury University building when it was on 1027 Wilshire Blvd in downtown Los Angeles.   I found a few dated pictures but it wasn’t exactly the way I remembered it.  This is the house that existed next to Woodbury before a building was put up in its place.  Amazing history on this lot!  Amazingly, these are still the same lamp posts from over 100 years ago!

Partial picture of Woodbury University Building.

I kept trying different search engines on the Internet but just could not find what I was searching for.  I contacted the school and asked if they had any old pictures, but the Woodbury employee couldn’t help me. I wish I had kept the old school stuff I had from many years ago, but back then I didn’t realize I was going to have these nostalgic feelings.

Old Woodbury University from across the street.

This old picture definitely jogged my memory a lot (but without the cars that were made before I was born).  I remember parking on the side street and walking down the inclined sidewalk.  You were quite lucky if you got the free street parking on the side of the building.

I signed up for classmates.com with the plan of seeking out old classmates that might have saved the memorabilia, but instead found myself just looking at their profiles. Then, I got sidetracked and looked at my old high school classmates. It was a surprise to me that they had their 20 year class reunion 5 years ago, and I never thought about it. The great thing was someone published the class reunion photos online, and I got to see everyone. WOW! Everyone is old. No one really looked like the way I remembered them. And sadly, there were many people I could not even recall.

My original plan was scrapped because honestly it seemed dumb to ask friends (or distance acquaintances at this point) if they had saved stuff from 20 years ago. The funny thing is in about a weeks time, I had about dozen people try to contact me via the website. When I clicked the links to see who these people were, that’s when they get you. You have to pay to see who these anonymous classmates are. They are real, but I wasn’t interested in getting a hold of them or catching up on old times. My real interest was more selfish. I just wanted old pictures of my old college building the way I remembered it.

I think the difficulty of this task was the timing. There were no digital cameras back then,  cell phone cameras didn’t exist, and all the newspaper archives are pay per print with no guarantees I would find what I was looking for. Heck, they didn’t even have the internet back then.

After some considerable obsessing and personal time spent, I did find this picture and was very happy. Maybe happy is too strong a word, but I was at least content that my endless searching came to a conclusion. I wanted to re-publish the photo in case someone ever gets the same feelings I get about this place.  I literally remember walking to school and looking up many times to see this image.

Woodbury University, 1027 Wilshire Blvd, Los Angeles, CA (downtown L.A. building)

Then something unusual happened this past week. I received an anonymous email asking me if I was me. I replied back, “yes, I am me”.  A long lost friend who just happened to find me on the internet. Let me remind you, I am not a social bug and am more of an antisocial guy. But with certain relationships I have already established, it was easy for me to just start chatting away. It was a good feeling to know that this person was alive and well. We did a lot of catching up.

That inspired me to email some of my old contacts. I found an old college classmate online I happened to volunteer with to do a canned food drive at Woodbury. I sent him an email and he responded the same day.

It is kind of weird sending out the initial email. ‘Hey, We know each other but you may not remember me because I was a nerd back in the day.’ Who am I kidding? I am still a nerd now and proud of it. It all ended on a good note and we too did some catching up. He said my email made his day.

Corner of Wilshire and St. Paul

The school is gone and a parking lot remains in that same spot.  The only thing that remains familiar in that spot is the old surviving street lamp post that was there before and after the building.

A view from the parking lot side facing downtown L.A.

It is funny how my search for old pictures found some old friends, too.  Have an excellent day and thanks for stopping by.

Cheers!