The things we take for granted

During the course of a lifetime, we take all kinds of people and things for granted.

We just expect them to be there, always. And it's hard to square away emotions sometimes when they're gone.

I'm getting that feeling with the announcement this week that the New England Center at the University of New Hampshire will close within the year.

It may sound odd that I'm feeling a sense of loss over the New England Center -- a hotel, conference center, restaurant and lounge in the woods on the UNH campus in Durham, N.H.

But I have a lot of memories invested there, current and past.

I attended UNH, graduating in 1975, and when my Mom and Dad would come visit from upstate New York my big treat from the dining hall -- or my own cooking at the time -- was dinner at the New England Center.

It was special because a) I had to get a little dressed up, much better than the jeans and plaid shirts I'd usually where around campus b) as I said earlier, it wasn't dining hall food and c) it was Mom and Dad's treat.

Architecturally, the hotel and conference center were the funkiest buildings around, the hotel reaching into the sky along with the pine trees. It was the subject of a photography class project (see picture).

I've come full circle in my life, having gone to UNH then moving on to various newspaper jobs throughout the northeast, now settled back in Durham, where the New England Center became a focal point for me during the UNH hockey season.

Before each Wildcat home game the restaurant would hold a wonderful buffet. You could park, stuff yourself silly, and walk over to the arena for the game. Like having dinner with my parents, this was a self-indulgent treat.

For my wife Jane the restaurant was a place for celebrations, particularly for her Mom and her Aunt Jo's birthday. If Jo was visiting from Maryland and it was her birthday, then the Sunday brunch at the New England Center was a requirement. For Jane's kids and their First Communions and other rites of passage that their Nana visited for, it was off to the New England Center.

But now the word is that the university will close the New England Center, perhaps repurpose the hotel for student housing, repurpose the conference center for university offices.

It costs the university $2 million a year to maintain, too much at a time when a recession-drive economy is forcing everyone to think of ways to save money.

It's tough to put a price tag on memories, but mine are certainly valuable when it comes to the New England Center.