THIS week, my neighbor Lisa, who owns a smallish Honda, asked if she could borrow our minivan to help move her daughter to college in New York City, about 40 minutes away.

No problem, we said. But as it turned out, with all the belongings her daughter was taking, Lisa needed to supersize and borrowed a friend’s much larger sport utility vehicle.

“I thought we’d have the most stuff of all, but far from it,” she said. “People were there with U-Hauls.”

And remember, this is to move freshmen into furnished dormitory rooms.

What’s going on? I know I sound like an old fuddy-duddy, but when I went to college, I took a couple of suitcases. And nothing was brand new. I used whichever sheets and towels my mother decided she didn’t need anymore.