Skidmore College - Scope Magazine Spring 2019

21 SKIDMORE COLLEGE Roma’s Last year I landed in Saratoga Springs to work on a new writing project, and it took me three days to step out of my lodgings. It had taken twenty years to return to this town, and a dread of being hit with unpredictable memories or painful nostalgia had been brewing. Finally, I put on sneakers and walked into the pale sun of a November morning. The little city was the same and different, like a dream remembered hours after waking up. Wandering through streets, I must have looked lost because I kept stopping to gape at places like Sperry’s and Wheatfields, (where we pretended to be adults), floored not just by their longevity but by how swiftly the sight of them unlocked the past — the smell of upstate snow and the feel of a long-lost vintage coat. Same with the Parting Glass, where I tried my first beers from Africa and India and Scotland. And Compton’s! Instantly I could taste that 4 a.m. grilled cheese, and I felt all the other stuff too — the friendships, the puppy love, the rebellion, the excitement, of being 20, of being there, of talking and laugh- ing with the beautiful, crazy people who sat around that table. There was the sacred house in town where professor Barry Goldensohn served us homemade soup and Mrs. London’s bread and June Jordan poems during workshop, feed- ing us wanna-be writers in a way that sustained me for decades. I strolled past the ghostly horse track and remembered Siro’s from the summer I stuck around — caviar and champagne on someone else’s dime. But it was Roma’s — dear lovely Roma’s — and its simple bologna-and-mayonnaise sandwich that got me. Because I had forgotten. And then I remembered. I was just so happy here. — Jardine Libaire ’95 Libaire has published six novels, including “Here Kitty Kitty” and “White Fur.” Food Memories Alums share their favorite Skidmore and Saratoga Springs food memories. “I’ll never forget…” Chicken Finger Friday “I was having a really hard time at the beginning of my sophomore year and was somewhat consider- ing leaving Skidmore. I was sitting in my window seat, crying and con- templating my life when a friendly lady from across the hall, who I didn’t know that well, popped her head in and asked if I was OK. She managed to get my tears dried and brought me to the D-hall for Chick- en Finger Friday. It was at that lunch that I met the ladies who are now my closest best friends to this day, 11 years later — all because of a really lovely caring person, and a Chicken Finger Friday lunch.” —Sarah Holland ’08 Pope’s pizza “A mandatory late-night stop.” —Matt Kavet ’94 Doughboys (now Oboys) “A Sheldon Solomon creation … nuff said.” —Ian Selig ’86 Moore Hall dining hall “Sunday mornings were a highlight as many of us would come down to breakfast in our PJs with the Sunday New York Times!” —Nancy (Cohen) Kotz ’84 Butterfly buns “When we took a break in the middle of morning long studio art classes in Clark Street Studios we would dash two blocks across campus to the snack bar in the basement of Fathers Hall salivating for a butterfly bun: a sweet Danish with gooey icing — sliced, buttered and butterflied open face down on the grill. The more butter the better. —Izzy Maccracken Winn ’67 Subway on Broadway “My senior year I lived in the apartment above it. I don’t remember ever eating there, but our stairwell always smelled vaguely of cold cuts.” —Sara Adelman Ring ’97 Roma’s: Jardine Libaire ’95; Moore Hall: Scribner Library Special Collections; Chicken Fingers: Erin Covey