‘Back home again’

Alvin Tyndall’s 50^th Class reunion wasn’t just about seeing old friends.

As he walked down the long familiar hallway of a residence hall on the lower quad, he quickly picked up his pace as he neared room 301. There, the trip back to Chapel Hill became much more than just a reunion weekend.

“It’s about going home,” he said.

Tyndall, a member of the Class of 1966, celebrated a half-century since graduating from the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill with the rest of his class on May 6 and 7. And unlike most of his classmates, he also got to spend those two nights back in the dorms as part of the General Alumni Association’s Spring Reunion Weekend.

“It’s sort of like camping out,” the Winston-Salem resident said.

The Wilson, North Carolina native arrived in Chapel Hill as a first-year political science student in 1962 and moved into room 301 of Stacy Residence Hall that September. Five decades later, Tyndall found himself standing in the doorway of that room one more time.

Pacing through the room, he pointed out where his bed once stood and noted the now-much-taller magnolia tree outside the window. The room looked much different, he said, but still felt the same as it did when he was 18 years old.

“It’s very familiar,” he said. “Once you’ve been here, you aren’t going to forget it. I grew up in Wilson down east and in my family nobody had been to college. This was a different world. It was superior. I’d leave here, carrying all my books, go to class, then wind up at glee club practice and then I’d wind up over at the Scuttlebutt.”

Tyndall and his wife, Sylvia, ultimately spent May 6 and 7 at nearby Everett Residence Hall because Stacy is undergoing renovations. Throughout the weekend, the square dorm room served as a hub for Tyndall’s larger plan — the 50^th anniversary of his glee club’s European tour.

For six weeks in 1966, Tyndall and 40 members of the vocal group toured Europe, performing, ultimately appearing up on the Ed Sullivan show alongside the Dave Clark Five. Half of the Carolina group returned to Chapel Hill on May 6 to sing at the Old Well and Hill Hall.

“We have about 20 of the guys back together, and it’ll be fun,” said Tyndall, who served as the group’s tour manager. “It’s been 30 years since I’ve seen them. We’re all back together again.”

And at the end of the day, Tyndall returned to the lower quad for one more night in a twin-sized bed.

“The initial idea was to go back home again,” he said. “After 50 years, you might as well go back one more time.”