A Trip to NIU-- Part 2

This was one of those extremely raw, sunny days you can get in this part of the country. I mean, the wind just blew the cold right through your bones. Nonetheless, we walked over to the five crosses memorial on an embankment on the southwest corner of the student center. I was so glad there wasn't one there for the killer. The whole front area of the crosses is covered with flowers and other items, including a teddy bear. Two guys were filming it on one of those track setups. Several people were silently sobbing with heads bowed. After a few minutes, we were sufficiently numb so were glad to find the Union open. We went into the bookstore and again didn't find anything regarding the tragedy. A lot of people were also buying NIU clothing there as well. A person I took to be the manager was on the phone and answering questions to customers. All I heard her say was that they were contacting vendors for those articles and that they'd been closed until today. She wasn't too happy that VCB hadn't closed and were way ahead of her getting those articles which were so much in demand. We told her that VCB was making their own items at this time. You could tell she was really starting to get angry. We saw one woman with a really nice ribbon with a large metal Huskie logo. Asked her where she got it and she said she'd made it herself. Walked through what used to be the fraternity hangout when we were there from 1969-1973, the Pow-Wow Room. With school closed, there wasn't much going on. Started up the steps just as a large group of people were coming down and had to wait. I think they might have been TAs and professors coming from their counseling meetings. Finally warmed up, we went outside again to the two tents set up to cover the boards on which people were writing their feelings. There are now four. It was nice that someone had supplied Sharpies of different colors to express the grief. Most just said something about prayers. However, some were quite poignant. A lot said, "We are all Huskies today," some of which were from people from other schools. Also, "Once a Huskie, always a Huskie." Quite a few were religious. We saw the first one that had been featured so much on the news that said in huge letters "We are NIU." There were a few directed to the only male student killed who was a member of the Pi Kappa Alpha Fraternity. I have been at the Vietnam Memorial in Washington, DC, but this one was just as striking. Again, it was hard to keep the teardrops in check. They are going to need some more boards when the students come back. As it was, there weren't many open spaces. I did leave the simple message "Don and Liz. Class of 1973." I hope that someone has the foresight to keep the boards and crosses (as well as some of the articles) for some kind of a commemoration. More...