Rock On!

If you see the title of this post and think it will be about Rock 'n Roll or Heavy Metal (Joel?), you will be sorely disappointed. Sorry. It's about actual rocks. The stone kind. As in boulders or slabs.

And rocks like you've never seen before - I think of them as slab diaries!

You might notice a lot of purple paint in these slab diaries. They are located on the lakefront shoreline of the Northwestern University campus in Evanston, Illinois. Wes was a longtime employee at NU (also receiving his advanced degree there), so we thought we'd mosey over recently to see how things have changed - or not - since he left the campus. The biggest impression: the rocks! These are huge slabs that several people could fit on at one time.

So many marriage proposals in paint...how many have actually come about as a reality? Does the prospective groom bring the intended bride here before or after graduation to pop the question?

This one made me chuckle...at first I thought it was yet another proposal, but it probably came about during finals week while the "author" was in sore need of a cup of java! There were rocks painted with words in different languages. There were rocks painted with names of friends. There were lovers rocks. There were rocks with class titles and teachers. There were some that would forever bond a group together.

I know of THE ROCK tradition on the campus since 1902, but what is the story behind these shoreline rocks? When did it start? Is it a solitary activity done in the darkness of night or to

mark a moment of time? Is it done only at certain times of the year? Is there a name for this rock expanse?

Please fill me in if you know anything about this unique area!