Max Borchardt's Awesome Adventures: A Very Special Grandma Cathy's B-Day

12 November 2012

A Very Special Grandma Cathy's B-Day

So, for my mom's birthday this year, I hatched a secret plan that I didn't even share with Paul. She and Joe came up to Lawrence for the weekend, and we went about things as if we were having a nice, normal birthday celebration.

On Sunday night, we went to the Oread for dinner. After dinner, we went up to the 5th Floor Terrace for the view!

The happy couple.

I like to think that Joe is looking over campus and thinking,
"Boy, KU is awesome. I will never tease Susan again about their losing."

Sweet picture of the Campanile, Spencer, and Strong.

Wrangling the kiddo for a picture!

Oh boy! Party time!

Little did my mom know what I had in store for her the next day. Ha, ha, ha.

My mom attended KU in the late 60s, a time of tension and upheaval in the small town of Lawrence. Lawrence itself was targeted by Vietnam war protesters, the Black Panthers, and the Weathermen as a place where they could "work" with very little interference because of the small population and weak police force. Needless to say, that did not make for a comfortable situation in many ways.

A month before my mom was to graduate, this happened - the Union was set ablaze.

Because of this, the war protests, and the racial tension, the university did not have its usual graduation proceedings. Usually, my mom would've walked through the Campanile, down the hill, and into the stadium to graduate. In May of 1970, KU held a very small ceremony in Allen Field House.

So, every time my mom comes up and we visit the Campanile (because Max loves it for some reason), she laments a little that she didn't get to go through it at graduation like I did.

Well, we all know that I will ask anybody for just about anything. So I made a few connections through the Chancellor's office, and so this is what my mom got for her birthday: KU GRADUATION!