College Kids Come Home For the Holidays

With 85 percent of the 2011 Mamaroneck High School (MHS) graduates at four-year colleges and universities, many out of state and some as far off as the West Coast, countless households in the area have spare bedrooms during the school year.

Even if their stickers have been scraped from the walls and their stuffed animals have been stowed away, when the kids return for the holidays, nostalgia settles in as they forget about the previous semester in the comfort of their roommate-free bedroom.

College students are desperately in need of shut-eye after the string of sleepless nights they spent studying for final exams. They may not realize their rooms have transformed into guest rooms or that their moms discovered the shoeboxes hidden under their beds.

The kids appreciate the ability to walk barefoot around their spacious homes and to watch TV while lounging on jumbo sofas. Equally, the parents appreciate the presence of their kids and the ample family time.

Jonathan Chapman, who graduated from MHS in 2009, chose to attend Tulane University in Louisiana like 17 other grads since 2008. He said he chose the school for the energy program, and that he also studies finance and legal studies there.

“New Orleans is so warm right now that it doesn’t even feel like the holidays,” he said. “My parents are always really excited to see me and try to keep me around the house as much as possible.”

Homes in the community, decorated with vibrant poinsettias, smell of pine needles or the burning embers from fireplaces. This is a striking contrast to dormitory decorations, which entail cardboard cut-outs according to cheesy themes chosen by resident assistants. The unavoidable scent of a floor mate’s funky microwave dinner is experienced too often on trips to the communal bathroom. Dorm life is endured mostly by freshman as it is usually required, but at many colleges and universities off-campus housing becomes appealing for the following years.

As a freshman at Northwestern University in Illinois, Kelly Cadden lives in a dorm with her roommate from California. She said they met through Facebook prior to school, and now they are best friends. She is one of 21 MHS graduates to attend the school in the past four years. Her first trip home to the Orienta area was for Thanksgiving.

“That was all about catching up,” Cadden said. “Now it’s more back to normal and less rushed. I have time to balance family and going into the city with friends, with shopping and working out.”

On Wednesday for lunch, she sat with her friend, Nicole Gerzberg, by the window at a table in on Chatsworth Avenue in Larchmont. Gerzberg is a freshman at Wesleyan University in Connecticut, where there are 11 other recent MHS grads.

“I’ve been here like 10 times since I’ve been home,” Cadden said. “Everytime a friend comes home they’re like, ‘Kelly, let’s go to Stanz,’”

Her school year is a trimester, so she said her vacation started earlier than when most of her friends’ began. While on campus, Cadden has 14 weekly meals at the dining halls. She said she rarely uses them all.

The perks of bottomless portions in campus dining halls are deterred when stale cereal, room-temperature pizza and mediocre salads and sandwiches remain stagnant options.

College students deserve to come home to delectable stocks of goodies, like the You & Me or Tate’s cookies in pantries, and the fresh apples and pears in fruit bowls. Fridges filled with home-cooked leftovers have better menus for late night snacks than what Domino's delivers.

The kids enjoy returning to the local food joints they coveted while growing up. The friendly folks at the diners, delis and pizzerias have served them consistently. During winter break, on Halstead Avenue in Mamaroneck will have a line of graduates suffering from “Chubby Chicken” withdrawals.

Mario Perez, a familiar face from on Chatsworth Avenue in Larchmont, said he has watched Larchmont and Mamaroneck kids grow up in the 17 years he has been there. 

“Each year I see the young kids here on Friday nights, and then they’re college kids,” Perez said. “They always come back, and the buffalo chicken and baked ziti slices are still favorites.”