Historical Newspapers of South Carolina

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GLENDA MILLER INTERIM EDITOR HOLLY GATLING ART FRANK INTERIM MNG. ED. AD MANAGER EDITORIALS One doesn't reflect 800 In today's issue is a special section on drugs. One of the stories concerns a faculty member who sells drugs. The investigative team tracked down this individual over a three month period. Instead of being an indictment against the USC faculty, this article should point out the degree of the problem as far as drugs are concerned. Out of a community of 800 people it is not unusual to find at least one person involved in some sort of illegal activity. Before this issue was printed, we talked to Dr. Jones and other administration officials. These people are aware of the problem and concerned with it. They are also con cerned with the welfare of the students and the University community. They are willing to attack and solve the problem, but they have no course of action. This state has done nothing in the past to get to the roots of the problem, the high schools. If you think am phetamines are bad, even when used just to get through exams, what about the high school where the only use is to get high? High schools have a greater use of LSD and other hallucinogens than colleges or universities. Drug use is like alcoholism. We don't understand it, so we condemn It. Most of us agree that an occasional joint Is not so bad. Maybe an amp before exams Is all right. But, where do we draw the line? What do we do for the guy who can't stop with doing It occasionally? No one seems to have the answer. But, as the problems worsen, the answer will get harder to find. Does anyone have a constructive program? Busting the occasional user solves nothing. There are too many of them. Pushers are replaced as fast as they are lost. Most pushers are doing it only temporarily anyway, just for some quick money or friends. Illegal drugs only complicate the problem. An overdose is easy. A rip-off Is common. The horror stories are funny, because they will never happen to me. And so, It 1s a vicious circle. Instead of help those who need It receive only condemnation. Fat financiers get rich off our hardships. Our best friends become speed freaks, or OD and we worry, but do nothing to help them. How do you separate the potential addict from the guy who Is just doing it for kicks? Which one are you? Share a book Manning Correctional Institute may soon have its library. The Carolina Community has shown great enthusiasm for this projected by donating many volumns on various subjects. Reid H. Montgomery Jr. has done and Is doing an out standing job In heading this drive. And for his contribution of college level books to the InstitutIon we congratulate him. This Is truly a worthwhIle project and one that each students can participate In. Therefore, donate your old or used or new books. Share wIth those who really need the books, Instead of leaving them In the attic or in boxes In the basernent The insti BY HARRY HOPE Columnist Freaking has become the ac cepted pastime at USC. Actually, it has been "in" for a good while. But as the winter melts and fashions come out from under warm coats, take a look around. Freaking is now as com monplace and sanctioned as joining fraternities and sororities: blue jeans have become the uniform. National Lampoon has replaced Mad. Grand Funk Railroad has replaced the Tams. Marijuana has replaced Pabst Blue Ribbon. Rock concerts have replaced dances. James Bond has been replaced by Abbie Hoffman, Jerry Rubin and Eldridge Cleaver. The old cut-off khakis, starched shirts, alpaca sweaters, knee socks and tassled shoes have been replaced by blue denim bells, polo shirts, no socks and hiking boots. And every good freak has aban doned his frat or sorority house for his reserved seat in front of the Russell House. Women are no longer encumbered by bras, makeup and dresses. Life is one big re-run of "Easy Rider." Hooray for the institutionalized freak! All those people who really don't like all that hair in their Nichols' By BOB CRAFT Columnist "Nichols" is the best new television show to come out of the disastrous fall lineup. The program is set in the fading west of the teens, sometime after "Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid" and before World War I. The location is a small town called 'Nichols, Arizona'. James Garner plays the part of Nichols, an ex-cavalryman who leaves the Army after witnessing the power of the fifty calibre machine gun. He feels that the army has become too powerful with the advent of this weapon and he goes back to his hometown, Nichols, in order to work his Daddy's small piece of land and maybe, in some way, become a millionaire. This is all he really wants, to be left alone and to be able to makte some money. Nichols comes home after about fifteen years in the Army to find out that his Daddy's place no longer belongs to the Nichols family. His parents have died and the powers that be have sold the land without the knowledge of Nichols. Through the finagling of the Ketchum family, primarily the crusty old Ma Ketchum, Nichols is trapped into becoming the sheriff of the town very much against his will. Ma Ketchum is played by Neva Patterson, who should seriously be considered for an Em.~ny. Ma is the backbone of the town, a rough tough old frontier woman who has more gumption than all of the rest of the town put together. Ma has a son, who is known simply as Ketchum. Ketchum is a -'snoiled brat, an overgrown' Fuest column tutionalizl mouths but are afraid to get a haircut. All those people who fake eye trouble to wear wire-rim glasses. Off the pigs! Up against the wall! Right on, all you far-out, outtasite, groovin', freakin', trippin' hippies! Let's all go to Charlotte and say that we went to Charlotte and tripped. Jump on your bikes and run down a red neck. Get rid of those Southern accents! Hang around a lot of kids from Jersey and reconstruct your tongue', man! The greening of America is here! It really takes a lot of money to be a freak. Don't forget your old man's credit card. To be a well freaked freak, you've got to have your own apartment-crash pad, your fast car or minibus, your motorcycle, your bicycle, your collection of all the heaviest records and tapes, your guitar, your complete Abbie Hoffman, your collection of dayglo posters (black light too), and a vocabulary of 103 words, consisting of "wow," "maaaaaan," "heavy," "lights, man dig the lights," "rip-off," "bummer," etc., etc., ad nauseum. And if you are a well-dressed freak, you must truck on down to the boutique-head shop and pick up on some bells, leather, body shirts, The watermark )ffers sulb adolescent who has read too many dime novels. He is constantly doing something extremely stupid that Nichols and Ma have to correct. He has an extremely antagonistic nature toward everyone, Nichols especially. Ketchum is aided and abetted in his stupidity by Mitch, Nichols' deputy. Mitch is a dirty, unkempt idiot who is only slightly more stupid than Ketchum. He is Ket chum's sidekick through thick and thin. Mostly thin. Nichols' girlfriend is Ruth, a barmaid who is played by Margot Kidder. Ruth is a woman who wants to do things, but is hemmed in by the male-dominated society. She is constantly the butt of Ket chum's remarks. "Who would want to have anything to do with a girl who's poured more than one beer in her life?" Against this tableau, a broad satire of American life is played. The -Army officer who says "Sometimes to save a town you have to destroy it" and the Mdexican revolutionary who takes the whole town hostage while he waits for a gold tooth to be sent to him from Yuma. Nichols is constantly in the middle, trying to smooth everything without gunplay or violence. The townspeople, led by Ketchum, are constantly putting on guns to stamp out everything they see as "unAmerican." Nichols, who doesn't use a gun, Is forced to use his cunning and charm to resolve the situation. Situations that sometimes he would just ignore if It weren't for Mda's constant badgering. The characters created by the cast and the unusually high quality of scripts n)ake Nichols one of the best bets ori television. 3d freak glowing t-shirts, patches, rings, ponchos, leather bags, army bags, stash bags, pipes, screens, more posters, and everything else. As tor getting wrecked, you can choose from marijuana, am phetamines, acid, mescaline-but no booze. Heroin's out, too. And remember to brag about your tripping experiences. It's not hard -just lie like you used to in relating your drinking experiences. While you're at it, accuse that straight guy over there of being a narc. Don't hang around with any straight-looking people, either, or you may be accused of being a narc too. So run out and get your copy of the "Great Speckled Bird," go home and listen to some Grand Funk, roll a J and take comfort in the fact that freaks are no longer individualists who have to fight for their lifestyles. Those fighters are gone, most of them, and it's un fortunate that they are no longer around to reap the benefits of that year 1969-70. You are in stitutionalized now, freaks of Carolina. Requiescat in pace. Kyrie Eleison. God save us from the Carolina freak. tle satire However, there is a tendency in the series to reach for too many contemporary parallels and some episodes suffer because of it. Still all in all, you can't go wrong if you watch Nichols which has probably the most engaging cast of continuing characters since the early days of Gunsmoke. Nichols can be seen Tuesday nights at 9:30 on WIS-TV. Also, WIS-TV is broadcasting the new series, "Sanford and Son" starring Redd Foxx Wednesday nights at 7:30. It is produced by the same people who brought All In The Family to the tube. It is, like Family, taken from a British series; Steptoe and Son. Letters policy We print all letters we receive. The only thing we ask Is that the writer include his name, signature and address (this is in case of verification purposes). Please try to type the letter on a 65-space line. The letter should be double-spaced. We will withhold a name only If a valid reason is enclosed with the letter. To write to the Gamecock: 'lTe Gamecock Letters to the editor Drawer "A" USC For those of you who are on campus, you can put the letter In he "campus mail" slot at the post offie. You don't eve.n h..,e to..,.