University of South Carolina Libraries
Sees campi Sen I By JACK KNEECE Gamecock Staff Writer On the first day of the fall w, i prepared to open my not semester at the university-a almost 20 years ago. A lovely young creature-a wearing white shorts and i halter, sans bra, la peche Humbert-Humbert fantasii breathlessly and thrust a di hands. It was a disappointrr going to throw her arms arc blurt out: "You may be old bi > "I'm sorry sir," she said, had a conflict on my schedul course." Now, I could have explaine too, was a mere student com having first registered at C some weary and unaccour bother. "That's alright, young lad couldn't be in my class." illegibly as I could, knowi administration had changed i that it would be just as effe . THAT'S HOW I began the ' Back after being away and reporter in Washington co\ most of my career) has bee The sensations are far more They can perhaps be desci Fitzgerald returning to life a Princeton, or Thomas Wolfe of Asheville (in a humbly ol Some days I feel as if I h dead and others I feel like ? J for the cock to crow--the gam .a recent rainv afternoon as [' near the Horseshoe, I felt, foi I was living in a movie flas It was a ghostly and nostalj the concrete bench on the so the one I had been afraid abruptly and summoned up | There it was. It hadn't ch ft Suddenlv it was a rprtain 1 1950s. I was walking from g class. I saw a luscious creatu and a dress that came belov pale blue cashmere sweater, rays in the spring sun. I sat i 1 TALKED, and talked, anc my class. I told her that I pli Prize on a more or less annu to become a reporter in Wash of the graft and corruption frc Capitol Hill. I may have even buildings in a single bound | mercifully. Wfi \imnt fA fliA Kron/1 nAin t vv V IW 111V ui miiu new 1 coffee and I dazzlt d her with 1 We were married a few mom a and burdened because she fc velous things I told her aboi So the bench was still t 1 marriage was over . . . the c | sat there, immutable, defian 1 Alma Mfttpr 1 should be r< I To the Editor: ? After having observed | something for the past two I years which has been [$ bothering me, I feel that it is I is changes dor r< wet v I m semester, at the age of SLJ ebook and start my last J semester I left hanging p ipparently a freshman- ?qj a peach-colored jersey melba delight for my j m ss, ran up to nte;myse op card into my senile y^rs lent. I thought she was , >und my aged neck and 0f us j it I dig your action." ' pul catching her breath, "I i,ne(j e and I can't take your j n cigar d patiently to her that I, movii ing back to school after groWj arolina in 1955, but for the si itable reason I didn't was ( ly," I said, "Sorry you that^ I signed the card as ng that the university iittle in that respect and that ictive. youw fall semester--my last. Crow out of town (T was aj strain Bering Capitol Hill for 35 mj n a real nostalgia trip., 1 to f than Rip Van Winkle.1 long < *ibed as akin to Scott those nd stalking the halls of AS returning to the streets tanne Dlique way, mind you), lady 1 ave returned from the she'd lamlet's father waiting and Y ecock. For example, on But I walked by McKissick then ; a fleeting instant, that know hback. bead gic feeling. I walked by Rig uth side of McKissick- horse I to face-and stopped No p; my courage. I s^ anged a bit. some April day back in the husth eology to a journalism vm re wearing bobby socks alwaj / her knee. She wore a some She was catching a few As t down. ( some I talked . .. and skipped chanj anned to win a Pulitzer i i* al basis; that I planned area ington and ferret out all ever 1 >m every dark recess of Nursi told her I could leap tall I none I . . . memory fades, house meali Russell House and had buildi i my self-assured plans. RE fVic 1 ofnr T atnonrA/l "* 1 1.11.J IU1V1 . x nao ama?CVl rrcbl elieved all of the mar- irretr ut myself. race? here even though the Our 1 :areer shunted aside. It fulfill t, implacable, taunting, then tradition emembered ume to speak up about it. It distresses and e barrasses me to no end the f that the students at t university don't even kn ^heir own Alma Mater. 1 emej nth rain. oved on down the horsesho vhere Dr. DeGravelines, w iche nur Deutsch" when w iccosted me one Fall day. denly emerging from b< tits he said, "Wie gehts, H \... pretty fair professor. I like it. fANDERED around the h If with memories that flo . Here was where we reg nere index cards. There w< n that unhurried time and v ar professors were by the up before their desks, ^member Dr. Havilah Bal ette always dangled froi ng up and down as he spoke, ing precariously. His enthuj leer beauty and power of t\ contagious. *rs later someone would saj word?" and I worid sm ock-you wouldn't understa ... and here was where we intrepid little band of journ; 'ill laugh when you learn ths n and Speed Graphics-huge *ht out of "The Front Page llimeter cameras back the ok pictures of those girls dn iresses with those bobby sc pageboy haircuts. I'MUSED a group of bralei louc cVlArfc Arli/Joo oK/vr v? av/j-juj unvi vof nuiuao 01 iva^ had come to class dressed have been burned at the sta ter ashes scattered over C I had to admit that I like you could date a girl all ye what she looked like until I 1. Then it was too late, [lit there. That's it! That shoe where I used to park r irking now. Just a walkws wing back over to Green things never change I th 3 my aging body out of the w Volkswagen. Those few a /s drew a crowd. It was thing that would never cat t l/wvlf/vr] /% 1 ?~ - 1 IUURCU UVC1 ill IIIC 1IU1UI where out there beneath all *e was our old ROTC drill ;gan to contemplate the chj was then a mere void and believed the campus would ng Building, Gambrell Ha of those were here then. T1 s there where 1 used to ps s-someplace in the vicin ing. MEMBER THOSE profesj ident Eisenhower was ievably behind the Soviet Remember our basketbal football team: always fu ed by December. Class ri (ac nnnncoH aKnnf tlftft "rc"uv" v?w only that, but at the e song, the majority of t up their arms in a fistsignify honor, when supposed to be syr holding a champagr The last verse of tl Mater is "Here's a m- Carolina, forever to tl act I suppose that if th his were known, then per iow manner of the arr vjot would be correct, too muer If a girl e. Ah .. . yes. Here as marrh ho insisted that we pin?) e met him on cam- Beer w football ? ehind a group of No more err Kneece?" Then th low about you?" He school on and som< orseshoe, torturing looked olc _ X 1 * aiea DacK over tne in their t istered out-of-doors some dre ere only about 7,000 would ne^ ye could tell who the Where's . number of students Taylor~o "Cheri Dcock. Ah . . . his inkspots, n his bottom lip, Augusta < the long ash always other girl >iasm for words and feet bene; le English language show was caught sp ::How d you know GOing ugly answer, "Dr. Break an, nd . . . ? took photography .. " alism students. Yes, . , _ it our cameras were ?> ; boxes with cut film enliuep (Yes, there were sn-mere toys.) uating 3ssed in those quaint sf1 cks and loafers and s^8htest 5 pre-Sarar ss girls bounced by, everythin js . . . If any young ? a like that back then Pnnt|!|g 1 ike on the horseshoe . w lemson. whll<; tr>' d the change. Back ?onst^"tl: ar and never really inJPr'ntec Spring Break at the *!!:, says, "Y 's the spot on the sc^?p^ s0 ny 1951 Studebaker. a try tc {y remembe Street. Thank God h link to myself as I ,11? ay of a Volkswagen. * J*1 U iround in the 1950s and the E > a mere novelty- - "NOW ;ch on. know hou y I remember that But I sli of that concrete and an old bt field. Climbing inges. The coliseum academic no one would have old friei extend that far. The tried to sa ill, Humanities . . . there. info moo <1 Kn??/)inrt T \junnHo VI V ?UO U luTWCKi Ulllg ? ly for home-cooked participat ity of the nursing in the wr Now to >ors telling us that secret littl letting us slip niche whe Union in the Space sight. Th< I team -a real joke. There's II of promises un- them mor ings were $36 back Maybe 1 today). a single b nd of the I have a lot of p h rk w> linlrl C/>ViAa1 an/1 f am I1CIU I1UH1 avnwi auu lUl tllC clench to are embodied in th< they are of this institution, a nbolizing so, I am also very p ie glass, beautiful words of he Alma Mater. Sometimes i health, obsolete and somet lee," but out-classed, but I d ie words the knowledge by tl haps the ?f their own Alma IV nraising tradition that is botl .? ?and^hoiild l>e mair s45( was Dinned in those dav id. (Nowadays, where \ as king and bourbon e {ames-particularly Big Big Thursdays? ere were those "older m the GI bill-most of ther 5 of them World War I i to me back then. Some hirties. Their sad eyes ad secret forged in com yer-could never-fathom Joe DiMaggio? Eddie L ur football heroes? y Pie," "Searching, Drifters, Elvis . . . Yes 3ne night to hear Elvis. P s oegan screaming as so ath the curtain and they < ; over . .. not sure what 1 feeding on the way home TO Pawley's Island < d shagging all night and love every half hour, larijuana? That was i New York City or froi "Reefer Madness." Pr he entire state back in th was far different. You w nester before presumini sexual license. The Pill d 1 Wrap, Pre-Color TV, g era. Birth contraol ws job at the Highway Dep press for 90 cents an ealthy, pulling as many ing to study with my ii y falling into the press an I with highway bid spec in my math class in 197*3 ou probably remembe I won't go into it too de > recall my last math cla r the word "algebra,' inguage spoken by a 1< ire you're familiar with uclidian Algorithm .. FACTORING is simple i 10 ao this: (AH hand; ip into my English class* it exceedingly comforta back into the warmth a womb. Ah . . . Wordswo nds, nice to see you again y it all. Thomas Wolfe--n r into the wrong class on :e in a lively discussion b< ong class. Too bad?I lit the old administration lecourtvarri Ah still re she and I used to go in ; serene backwater of c someone there. A youn nentarily. They could h le's telling her he can le; ound. \ ride in my Maybe i ideals that Gamecock i principles allow the nd in doing Mater to b< roud of the in this nev the Alma those wh< tradition is become at times it is the Alma IV In fiutl ttia# ,v *VVI V1IUI le students later is one Candy Tel 1 honorable lained. Senlor- Br >8 s, she was as good 1/nillH lhf*v mit fho ?v/ !" > ??V. merged mostly at Thursday. What? en"--guys going to n Korean veterans I vets. Man, they of them were even seemed to betray bat- something we i. Where are they? eBaron and Bones " The Coasters,! . . . I drove over to , rty date and all the I ton as they saw his . Jidn't stop until the le sounded like ... I luring the Easter drinking beer and something in the m a grade B flick obably wasn't an e 1950s. ould date a girl an g to take even the lid not exist in that Pre-Xerox, Preis nerve-wracking, artment running a hour and counted hours as possible nk-smudged books d sometimes being ifications. ! and the professor r this from high eply," and I panic ss in 1953. I faintly ' (or was that a )st tribe of Ecvn - r Pascal's Triangle (What was that?). -how many of you > but mine go up.) ?s like slipping into ble pair of shoes, nd security of the rth and Coleridge. i. Whitman, yes, he ny old friend, hello the first day -even jfore I realize I am :ed it. building and my there. That hidden the evening, out of a m rvi if ah? aiupuo-uui pidtc. g couple. I watch ave been us. ap tall buildings in f the editor of the sees fit, she will words of our Alma ; printed somewhere /spaper, so that for \ ittinU tK/v? a>. > w loiiy urcjf nitty least familiar with later of their school. iy oadcast Journalism *