Historical Newspapers of South Carolina

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Waiting for No One Sands BY RUSS BURNS "Time and tid wait for no man. Tempus fugit. The sands of time sift ever downward." Time is indeed an integral part of our civilization as these and myriad other factors bear out. Almost everyone has a watch or a 'lock around the place. We dash to keep appointments at the certain hour. We punch the time clock for the day's work. Our car's speed is calibrated in miles per HOUR. Everywhere one looks, he finds time deeply meshed in the processes of life. Yet it is seldom that a person gives the concept of time a real "going over" in his imind. ' Implications Of Time~ H. G. Wells in his story The Time Machine probably first in trigued the layman with implica tions of past, present and future time. Does the past and future e xis t simultaneously with the present? Can we view the past and future directly, etc? Answers to these questions lie o. in the realm of the scientist's probability and mathematics. How ever, there are enough aspects of time left over to provide a lifetime of wonderment for the average person. Yes, we can really look back into time . . . and without an elaborate time machine either. An ordinary telescope will do fine; in fact, your eyes are a good time machine. When you look at a light flash on across the street, you aren't seeing it the instant it is lighted since light can only travel at the speed of light which is a finite speed. Therefore what you CANDY M AT LOC SS I Invisible Salem re paper th """U \ than ev Of Ti see is really a view of the past of a split-second earlier. Taken On Meaning This really takes on meaning when we view far distant objects. Case in point, stars. The light from the sun which you see on a sunny day actually left the sun some eight minutes earlier. If the sun "went out" this instant, it would be eight minutes before anyone on earth would know about it. Our astronomers tell us that the sun, which is really just an aver age star, is a relatively close neighbor in space. What happens in the case of a more remote star huch as Sirius, the bright -Dog star. Sirius is about 12 light-years away which means the light which the earth receives from this star tonight left Sirius more than 12 years ago. You are actually seeing Sirius as it was 12 years ago. The star may really no longer exist! We won't know about it until in the future. Even Sirius is considered a near neighbor in space compared to the vast reaches of the Milky Way, our home galaxy, which Is estt mated at 100,000 light-years wide; that is, it takes light 100,000 years to traverse the distance from one side of the galaxy to the other. Some of the light you see coming from the Milky Way left the in dividual stars almost 30,000 years ago. In reality, you are seeing stars that were there 30,000 years ago; if they all extinguised right now, it would be 30,000 years be fore we could detect it. Far-reaching Implications Now all this may not sound very ILK COFFEE SAND MANY CONVENIE ATIONS ON CAMI DISTRIBUTING C aIemse1 -Sof tens porous openings blend fresh air a milder, cooler, more refreshing search creates a revolutionary nei at makes Salem taste more Spring -! Richer, too. Smoke refreshed-. ..sn -ment NOW MORE THAN EVM ne Sift catastrophic, but it does have a a few far - reaching implications. k Since Einstein stated that nothing a can exceed the speed of light a (186,000 miles per second), then a our spaceships of the future will have to observe this speed limit I which means even at maximum o velocity a trip to another star a system would take a tremendously a long time . . . er, that is, from p the earthman's point of view. t Here is where an unusual aspect o of relativity comes in. When the a space traveler of the future finds a himself racing through the heav- t ens at near light speed, he will v also be' living much slower. All b o d i 1 y processes, all physical changes of the traveler and his vehicle would progress at a snail's pace. To be blunt, then, the faster one goes, the slower one goes. A man traveling out among the stars might return in 15 years by his reckoning only to find his hometown had been destroyed a million years before. a Getting Back But getting back down to earth I so to speak, we see the U. S. is 8 facing a problem in space which 8 stems directly from this relativity- h t i m e passage phenomena. In a a little valley in West Virginia there t resides a vast parabolic antenna a which is part of our latest radio telescope. H e r e scientists keep I vigil around the clock listening v for radio signals from outer space. 3 Somewhere in these signals they hope to find a message sent by intelligent beings in the star sys tems of Tau Ceti or Epsilon Eridani. Sounds fantastic doesn't it, like e 0 y WICKES a li WNICHES NT 'us t si ai a) nl :0., INC. D ti ecial High Porosity every with each smoke. v cigarette time-fresh toke Salem. sids Tobacco Company hol fresh - rich tobac Salem. Slowly omething out of science fiction? tevertheless, it's true, and these cientists have high ho p e s of omeday reeiving this intelligent Ignal. Here again is where our old riend time steps in with his bag f tricks. Since time goes by lower for a fast traveling person nd faster for a slow traveling erson-remember this is all rela ive-then the people, if they exist, f the Cetus and Eridanus star ystems would develop culturally t a rate inversely proportional to he relative speed of their planet rith respect to the earth. Intelligent Beings Therefore, to our way of think rig, Tau Ceti's intelligent beings right have flourished and died out billion years ago while Epsilon ,ridani's beings might still be in he simian stage, or vice-versa. Added to this barrier is the cold act that the Cetus and Eridanus ystems may not have any life at 11. However, the U. S. has even arger telescopes in the planning o as to explore even more distant ystems which are thought to have abitable planets. Eventually, time nd conditions right, we may get he message. Our scientists feel ure that life must exist elsewhere ,x the galaxy because they calcu Ate there are 50 billion suitable rorlds scattered throughout the filky Way. Just Couldn't Be Man just couldn't be the only uch accident, they reason. There i no reason to think we are the ne and only, nor the first life to xist in the galaxy. Somewhere ut there may be a race a million ears ahead of us; they probably rould consider us savages playing vtith our toy H-bombs .They might e listening to us, too. So the listening has started, and ime willing we'll get that elusive ignal . . . unless everyone is stening and no one is sending. See Dick R simplicity BY ANN WFBSTER Special Writer There once was a little brown nd white dog named Spot. He is ie leading character of all the ;ories about Dick and Jane in an ricient c o p y of a first-grade ~ader. (Same book now used for ngl'ish 220.) Spot was an unusual dog . . . he iver did anything bad. He was ways retrieving sticks and run ng merrily around the yard. He as even friends with the yellow Lt, Puff. This interesting n ovyel begins ith the words, "See Dick. See ick run." These are words des ned to go down in history, along paper >4f co taste - modern rhuhe you1 Sa.n, Nefrd, Spome. ON CAMPUS At Ocean Drive-Did anyone see a 1936 Plymouth, piloted by two Kappa Sigs heading across the Atlantic Ocean in search of a promised land? Coed pouring honey on her turnip greens thinking it was vinegar. Coed commenting that it sure would be cool if her fan had lit tle ones. Students seen hailing boats from shores of Lake Murray during a Sunday afternoon hike. Local "Beatnik" seen writing a poem entitled, "The Dangers of Work and the Uselessness of Effort." Student dropping coed he was carrying down hall so he could speak to the dean of men. Coed eating cigarette when she thought she saw a prowler outside her window. Two students quitting school and heading for Alaska to seek their fortunes. Coed falling out of elevator on second story, Russell House, to awaiting audience when it stopped about six inches short. Student going home and astouding parents by declaring a nightly cocktail hour. The Walker iw-ho drives his sportscar to classes and coffee break. Student in Gamecock Room ordering his coffee "without onions, please." Coed wearing Bermudas un der lacy formal explaining, "My legs get cold." un' Ah, Bac Of A Primar with such famous phrases as "I shall return!" and "We found the secret that unlocks the flavor . . . but we aren't going to tell because then it wouldn't be a secret." Problems Spot, the dog mentioned way back up in the first paragraph (in case you lost it, like I did), had several problems in the pages of this best-seller. One of them con cerned his house. The family had decided to build him a newv one and burni the old one. The most pathetic scene in the entire novel is where Spot stands wvatching his old house burn. Stories such as this should meet a censor before being pre filter, too r taste - Gems Ofi That Ma 4y BY JUDY KILLOUGH Feature Editor Among all writers of a n y status whatsoever, or, as in my case, no status whatsoever, there are millions a n d millions of stories floating around with be ginnings but no endings. Some of them deserve better treat ment; some deserve never to have been started. Witness: The stranger rode slowly into town. His horse was lathered as from a long, hard ide. The stranger's clothes were covered with the dust of the Plains. Townsfolk eyed him suspiciously as he rode along Main Street. Strangers were rare in Twin Forks in the year 1869. Or . . . All of a sudden Kim was won derfully, magically ,in love! The object of her affection sauntered slowly down the walk ahead of her. "Barbara, isn't he just the dreamiest!" she exclaimed. Bar bara looked bored . . . Or . . . Evil Iridescence Dr. Jerney poured the con tents of one small flask into another. The mixture turned a dark, shade of green. He swirled the flask slowly. The syrupy contents flashed with an evil iridescence. "Aha," the old doc tor chuckled, "let the fools laugh at me now, if they dare!" Or . . . Jeanne drove slowly through the quiet darkness, letting the solitude of the north woods penetrate and soothe her tense mind. Another hour and she k To The Reader sented to s u c h mature minds! Shades of "Peyton Place"! But, enough of this, as I'm sure you will be glad to hear. Adventures Ah, the joy of remembering the books of days gone by. Wonder why they don't write good stories anymore? Isure do miss those adventures of the good old days . . the days when I could read i book and actually understand it. Plots w e r e relatively simple ~hen. There wvasn't any psychologi.. ~al interpretationi necessary to niake any senIse out of the storie's. vow, if you don't have at least a naster's in psychology, you just an't enjoy reading. Take the case of a recent novel. ~ntitled something like "I Hanted dIy Father So I Killed My Dog To let Even." It's quite an intriguing tory, for it keeps you from ever ~uessing who the characters are. Simple It's really quite simple. You see, he leading character, our hero, ~ot mad at his boss, b)ut he ouldn't showv his anger or he'd ase his job. So, he comes home, tarts an argument with his wife, ihich he loses, of course. So, he' tarts in on his kid, wvho Promptly icks him in the shins. Then, he meets his father on be stairs, and is greeted with a e r y pleasant "Good evening." 'hat does it. Our hero wanders ito the back yard and there is be dog. So, there you are. Simple tory, isn't it? And this is the element of a ood story . . . simplicity. THE DRINK WITH A Vanilla, Chocolate, "FROS Raspberry, Strawk Lime SI "FROS Jo.. Corner State and aterature DNever Be would be at her family's cabin. Alone to think things through. The soothing music of the car stopped suddenly as an excited voice broke through to tell of a break-out from the mental hospital. A small frown creased Jeanne's brow for a moment. Then she told herself she was being silly. The hospital was twenty miles from the cabin. She drove on . .. Or . . . Heat. and Bongos The Beat patted the bongos absently. Like he wasn't really there at all. He was way out, like in the ether, man. A pusher walked into the smokey pad. For some reason, this angered the Beat. He stood up slowly and threw the bongos at the fat little pusher. He sat down, snap ping his fingers rhythmically ... Or . . . With a powerful surge, the boat left the landing, took a wide circling turn, and headed for the mainland. Jose stood facing forward, the spray in his face. "This is the last run I'll have to make," he thought with something like triumph wash ing through his mind. Just then, he heard the purr of a faraway motor, g r o w i n g closer and closer. "Oh, God," he thought, "not on my last run. Not the Coast Guard!" And the sound pursued him Or . . . There was a splash. Johnny had hooked him! The King! The King was rumored to be at least twenty years old. He had eluded every fishing lure known to man. And, now, with twenty years of wisdom stored up in the fish, ten-year-old Johnny Bur rows held him with a trembling rod . . . Miss McPherson With brave little flowers wav ing gaily from her little straw hat, Miss McPherson took her weekly pilgrimage to the bus station. She was not meeting anyone. This was a ritual de veloped from the time when she had met her sister every day after work. But her sister had been (lead eight years now Or. .. The shovel struck a rock and scraped with a cringing noise. The boy paused in his digging and glanced at a small hox lying besidle the shallow hole. Tears again started down a face that was tracked with dampness and dlirt. He wiped a dIirty sleeve across his face and t ightenedl his jaw. The shovel went to work again. In the box was his he loved dog, B3eany v Or . .. The windl shrieked dIismal ly tbrough the tall 01ld pines. The sto)rm was~ almost over. Old Mrs. Tandy drew back the edge of a ve'lvot drape to see what dlamaSge had been done. She winc'ed as she saw t.he roof of the bar-n leaning to one side. A nd then she heard t he noise.... Or ... A lithe figure jumpe~d the fence with a dlesparate' grace. The boy landed running and was (ot of sight by t:he t.ime t.he copt couldl get the ga,te open. As -he watchedI t fast disappearing figure, M urphy thought. "That's the fourth break-in this week. I'll get him yet."... Well, you get what I'm talk ing about now. W~rite your own enduings, or write your own be' ginnings. I give you these free, gratis, for nothing. YOU EAT SPOON. Coffee or Mocha TEE" >erry, Orange or ierbet rEE"