University of Delaware Logo
Alumni & Friends

Make a Gift >

It’s time to take a trip down memory lane. Revisit campus life by listening to our Remember When voicemail series. Press play on these quick audio stories to hear funny, touching and heartwarming recollections from UD days.

Better yet, tell us your story! Missed connection? Memorable mentor? Hilarious prank? We’ll be listening. Send us a voice memo or email at alumni-friends@udel.edu. 

Personal information will be edited out as necessary.

By leaving a voicemail, you are giving the University of Delaware permission to share your story on its various communications platforms.

 

Please note: The phone line is no longer active. Please submit your memories via email. 

Remember When Line - The Voicemails

Janine, AS92: Who Put the Cookie?

Transcription

Hi, my name is Janine Elliot Carruthers. I am Class of 1992 and a proud Blue Hen. My worst summer job story was working in the Pepperidge Farm cookie plant in Downingtown, Pennsylvania, and I was on the belt putting lids on Milano cookies, complete with a hairnet and rubber-soled shoes. And that cookie belt was set quickly, at its highest setting, as fast as humanly possible, putting lids on cookies. And every 20 minutes, a bell would ring. We'd take one step to the right and continue putting lids on the second row of cookies. This went on for eight hours a day. One point, I did pass out from the conveyor belt going on and on at the Pepperidge Farm cookie plant. Worst summer job ever. But the pay was good. Well worth it, money well spent back in Newark! Bye!

Collapse

Lauren, BE85: Friends From the Fourth Floor 

Transcription

I came to UD in the fall of 1991 and found myself in a triple. Second semester I moved out to Thompson Hall, and that's really where I found my footing and my closest friends at UD. The girls that I met on that fourth floor really became my closest friends and we spent so much time together over the next three and a half years and continue to make memories after graduation, including trips and vacations and spending time with our families. There are so many UD memories that I hold close to me. Hanging out on the Harrington Beach, eating in the Scrounge, trips to the dining hall. Once we moved off campus, fun memories made on Main Street and in our house on North Chapel Street. I'm so grateful for all the friends and memories that I made, the education that I received, and for the lifelong friendships. 

Collapse

Sue, AS83 | Just Add Water

Transcription

This is Sue Forster Ulrich, Class of 1983. I swam for the University of Delaware women's swim team and one year we were, we had a really good swim team and we were swimming against Drexel. And we all pierced our ears just to really get ready for the swim meet. And we won and we beat 'em. We had a really good swim team and I'll never forget it. And I still have that ear pierced. It was the second hole. I have a lot of good memories with the swim team. And Edgar Johnson was our coach. Buh-bye.

Collapse

Carly, EHD09 | From Dance Class to Campus

 

Transcription

My now-best friend Mallory and I first met when we were just 4-years-old in dance class. It wasn't until our freshmen year at the University of Delaware that we reconnected through pledging Alpha Epsilon Phi sorority together back in 2006. And we've remained friends ever since, and next month I'll be the maid of honor at her wedding. Carly Bergstein, Class or 2009.

Collapse

Bob, BE79: For Sale (But Not My Car)

Transcription

Hi, my name is Robert Thomson and I graduated from Lerner in 1979. I'm also the president of the Los Angeles chapter of the Blue Hen Alumni Club. Gosh, I've had so many, so many wonderful memories back during my days at UD. One of my favorite pranks is when I tried selling one of my fraternity brother's brand new car that he had gotten as a gift from his grandfather. 

I put an ad in The Review. At the time, I think The Review was just on Tuesdays and Thursdays, but I put an ad in The Review with the phone number for our fraternity house. And I was selling his car for $1,500 and what the ad said was that I need to pay my spring tuition. I think, I'm sorry, we must have gotten 50 calls the first day. He was so mad. Because every time the pay phone rang in our fraternity house it was for him and people wanted to know why he was selling his car for so cheap. He did get me back, but I'll save that for another time.

Collapse

Jacqui, AS14 | Dining Hall Meet Cute

Transcription

Hi, my name is Jacqui, Class of 2014. I met my best friend, that jokingly felt like a "meet cute," during our first semester of our freshman year at UD. We were standing in line for brunch at Rodney Dining Hall. I was not expecting to make new friends, but instead I ended up leaving that day, and 11 years later, with my forever best friend who will always joke with me about our first encounter. Love you Sheila!

Collapse

Samantha, AS16: Forgot Keys, Could Never Forget UD

 

Transcription

Hi, this is Samantha Owen Baruch, from the Class of 2016. I spent my four years of undergrad at Delaware on and off campus and then went to graduate school in Philadelphia. Moved to Philly for my first year of grad school and missed UD so much that I spent my second year of grad school on campus at Delaware. So many good memories there. And now this is our five-year reunion this summer. It's bringing back lots of really happy memories.

One of them, I remember sophomore year, we lived on campus at Sharp. I lived with my best friend and one of our good friends lived upstairs and he would always lose his keys when we would go out anywhere, to class. And I remember needing to put a sticker on the outside of my window. We lived in the basement of Sharp Hall and he lived on the first floor. And I remember needing to leave a sticker there for him, so that he can knock on my window late at night when he forgot his keys, so that he could be let back into the building. He was quite forgetful. 

I also recall now, I married my Blue Hen boyfriend. We grew up 20 minutes away from each other in New York and were in the same circles, but never met each other until we got to college. We got married last year. My sister-in-law is also a Double Del with her boyfriend, and three of my bridesmaids from my wedding are also Double Dels with their boyfriends. Two out of the three of them are married, the other ones are on their way. So it's really fun to be surrounded by so many Delaware people, so many Blue Hen lovers. It's great. I really miss campus and, yeah, thanks!

Collapse

Jess, AS11: Blue Hens, Best Friends Forever

Think you've got a lot in common with your best friend? This UD grad reflects on discovering a surprising connection on campus.

Transcription

Hi this is Jess from the class of 2011.  I met my best friend in my second year at UD and upon talking further we realized that we were born the same day, same year and in the same hospital. So we like to joke that we've known each other since we were born and been best friends since we were born but we had a few years where we weren't talking and then reconnected at UD. So thanks to UD I have my best friend. 

Collapse

Robin Wray, AS80: Quasars, Black Holes and Snow Days

A winter walk across the Green stirred reflection on one Blue Hen's place in the universe.

Transcription

I remember the day that I was walking in the snow on the Mall, from Mitchell Hall to Memorial, and just marveling at the beauty of the snowflakes as they were falling and the silence that came with it. The snow must have really stirred something inside of me because this was the very first time in my life that I realized how much I did not know about the world. It was also fueled by my 10 a.m. class with Dr. Shipman called “Quasars, Black Holes and White Dwarfs.” But there in the snow it came to me, I was struck, that the world is a very, very big place and I know so little of it. It was really inspiring and really terrifying at the same time – and I have to say it’s still true today!

Collapse

Tywanda Cuffy, AS04: RA Surprises at RAT Camp

An uninvited guest at Residence Assistant Training Camp brought new RAs together.

Transcription

 

This is Tywanda Cuffy, Class of 2004 maiden name Howie, My story is when I became a resident assistant RA through Residence Life and we had to go to what they called RAT camp for resident assistant training. It’s out in the woods somewhere deep in Maryland I believe and I was just terrified that at rat camp, we would find rats. So when we got there, we had to go on these little bunks and make our little beds or whatever. It was definitely a Campground and I'd never been out in the woods before and I was like, okay I can manage this I can do this and then all of a sudden we're all hanging out in the different Quarters on our bed I was like alright I'm going to put my bed sheets I don't want them to get on the floor because I'm afraid a rat is going to like crawl on it or whatever up onto the bed. So we're all on the bed and everyone has their sheets stuffed really tight. And out of nowhere comes a mouse and he hops onto one of my friends, a fellow RA’s, bed. And I was like, pack my bags, I’m ready to go home right now because I did know that the mouse could get up on the bed from the floor. That was my first time seeing a mouse, my first time in the great outdoors, and I was just not for it. So I will never forget RAT camp and I'm always when I meet other RAs who are currently students at UD and tell me about their RAT camp experience, I remember that story. So that’s mine.

Collapse

Annabelle Camp, AS19: First Day at Old College

After a year of feeling lost, transferring to UD helped this graduate find a mentor and home in the Department of Art Conservation.

Transcription

Hello, this is Annabelle Camp, a 2019 graduate in art conservation and anthropology. I transferred to UD as a sophomore and it was one of the best decisions I've ever made. I'll never forget meeting my advisor, Vicki Cassman, for the first time in old College. She immediately made me feel welcome in the art conservation department and after a year of feeling lost in college, that meant the world to me. For the rest of my undergraduate career Vicky and all of my professors in art conservation and anthropology made me feel so welcome and they helped me land internships in prestigious museums throughout the United States. I am now going into my final year as a graduate student at UD and I can't thank all of my amazing UD mentors enough for helping me along the way.

Collapse

John H, HS87: The Five-Year Plan

From mug night to ski trips to the first Macintosh computers in the library basement, this Blue Hen recalls the highlights of his five (yes, five!) years at UD.

Transcription

Hello, everyone! My name is John and I graduated in the Class of 1987 after five fun-filled years on campus. Yep, I was on the five-year plan. But it was five years of great times and great memories, all of them, honestly, all of them were directly related to the friends that I hung out with during that period of time. So many great friends and quite a few of them are still close friends to this day.

I'll start with a couple things, like, first of all, social life. I can't say how much fun it was at places like the Deer Park on Mug Night and Stone Balloon happy hours and out on the deck at Klondike's. Lots of great memories there. Winter session. I could never forget all the great weekend ski trips that we did with the UD Ski Club, again just amazing memories. And, of course, back then, we really did enjoy our football tailgates. Again, just a great time to socialize and hang out and just have fun at that age.

And, I'll give you I guess one memorable thing. The Apple Macintosh personal computer was launched during my sophomore year, and by my senior year, there were probably a handful of these new, crazy Apple Macintosh machines, the first ones to have a graphical user interface, built-in screen and a mouse, of all things. And they were maybe 10 or 12 of them in the basement of the library, that was the little computer lab that we were able to use. But I've been an Apple user ever since.

And, again I love UD. It's a beautiful place, beautiful campus, and for as much as things have changed, many things have stayed the same. And just just really, you know, grateful for the experience and all the friendships that I made.

Go Blue Hens! Have a great day. Buh-bye.

Collapse
Blue Hen Strong Fund.

We are Blue Hen Strong

The Blue Hen Strong Fund directly meets the ever-evolving needs of our students to ensure their success at UD and beyond

Learn More

Alumni Benefits

It pays to be a Blue Hen! UD and the Alumni Association offer a variety of benefits, discounts and services to our alumni.

Learn More

Connect With Alumni & Friends

Stories >

Update Your info >

Events >

Alumni & Friends

Connect

Learn More

83 E. Main Street, 3rd Floor, Newark, DE 19716   alumni-friends@udel.edu 302-831-2104