Historical Newspapers of South Carolina

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entertainn mi tt i liie rio! n trwr j nn 1 uisel 1 ow regarded< J f Dear Collins, Here I am at college. College is lots of fun. We learn neat stuff in class. Then after supper we all take lots of heinous drugs and freak out. You should go to college too. Well, gotta go. See you. Cecil You probably snatched this copy of The Gamecock off of a crooked stack of nice newsprint in the lobby of the Russell House running through on a blind run. If vou have started reading this fish wrapper on your way to class, STOP. Stop still, fold this tabloid under your arm and look around you. Take a break and walk up to the Golden Spur and finish this article without further argument. We have a lot to tell you. This could be rough. OUT OF COLLEGE I just got out of college last summer. I went to college on and off for five and a half years. I am just three credit hours short of a USC diploma in broadcast journalism. This letter is from Hollywood, 3 uaiitornia. Yes, irom the sublime to the ridiculous or vice versa if you prefer. Anyway I am definitely through with school and thought that it would be interesting to give you a look ahead so that you might know what to expect when you finally quit, get booted out, or run out of college. : Walker (left) and Crow lent llywood vo former USC stu n,' college educat and good jobs are< by Chuck Cromer Former Entertainment Editor and Collins W alker ormer Gamecock Photograph* People seem to disappear after college. They do not write. Like Houdini beyond the grave, they don't make contact. However, Chuck and I are being paid so much money by The Gamecock that it has become worth our while to take time from our fun-jammed schedules to give you this rare glimpse at being out of college. God, we are mlriricr in tVio Knnbp * AAA VIIV UUVIVOi PRESSURE SENSITIVE No matter what you did in college it will not make any difference to anyone, unless of Nobody ever wants to see your diploma* If they ask if you went to college, lie. course it makes a difference to you. People do the same things outside of college that they do in college. Everything. Don't fight that statement. You will learn something new and different every day without having to sit in a classroom to do it! You don't have less time or money to do what you like. Work takes the time of classes and studying. Your income provides what parents, government, scholarships or loans provided. PRESSURE DROP But the pressure is off folks. That anxiety factor of doomed Ssrfkiiii5''I ler in Hollywood... a prei mmmmmammammammmmmmmmmmmmmamammmammmmmmmanmmmmmmmmmmmmdi story... dents find that in ions arent highly hard to come by. ir paranoia is just not there. Even the best college student is stalked by some invisible angot of not being current with papers, studies and other academic demands. Out! of college, when the day is done you can just turn it all off. FACTS Fact one ? Nobody wants to see your grades. I always labored under the misconception that after college every potential employer opened a file on you that they had acquired by mysterious means and said, "Mr. Walker, it is an emharassment that anyone would apply for a job with us here at Acme Cogs and Widgits with a record containing these appalling marks in Spanish!" Fact Two ? Nobody ever wants to see your diploma. If they ask if you went to college, lie. Just smile and with enough authority to fool a polygraph, say "Yes sir, I graduated head of my '77 class at Vassar." They won't check, hell, thev dnn't ? ? V """ even know what or where Vassar is. For that matter, who ever heard of the University of South Carolina? Fact three ? Nobody wants to see your resume. The place I work accepts detailed resumes from bright erect young people who, with an overabundance of eye contact and handshakes, come and go. Resumes go in the trash. Fact four ? Nobody really K '-m^BKUk ?> 4>- i tty picture? 'J^T.1 'y11 11 n '' ^:-:':->:-::'-::>.:::x::y:<:^^^fc^^^^^^^rgCSfeiSffySjlSTa?H v M . ^HBmHS BHHxs |^::i9|^BBBH^^HBBr^ 1| :..** . "' f:'4B|iHpRn?^^^^m The dips of Hollywood . . . wants to see you. HOLLYWOOD Rocking little lady in the city of lights what have 1 done? I told my mom when I left that when the people from the school job placement department called to tell them that I was dealing drugs in Los Angeles, they could put me down as a fully employed educate. I'm really doing something much worse. I'm helping make television commercials for all the U.S. A lot more junkies there certainly. Hollvwnod rnav nnJ ko J J "v l,,v best example of the real world. It is decidedly anti-academic. Here it is a detriment to have attended college. The trade was founded by men who never got near sheepskins. They like good horse sense people like themselves. They talk about millions instead of Keynesian Theory. , They shoot from the hip with a "you'll never work in this town again kid" [)tyle. SO! You're right. If you know exactly what you are after you know better than I do what is good for you. Stay in school, if for a graduate program. I just thought that somebody ought to point out that it's a kick to grow up. You can't grow up in college. Get out and get in. I think you'll find the haze of artificial strain gone. Things seem more real. I think you'll like what you see. Dear Mr. Cromer: Tliank you for your recent inquiry regarding employment opportunities at HCA Records. We have reviewed your resume with interest. Unfortunately there are no suitable openings to consider ^nPilMiK^'' Hottl mlr^m finding the 'real world' you for at the present time. If Ollf rnnni^^^n-*- "1 ~ ? vua > V<JUII CIIIC1U9 tllilllgC, Ul" anything develops in the near future, we will contact you. Your interest in RCA is appreciated. Sincerely, C. E. Hall Manager, Industrial Relations The other night, while consuming a couple of six packs of Coors (at $1.65 a six pack) at my Hollywood apartment, Collins and 1 less than soberly began debating the merits of our college careers at USC. Between gulps he would fire such "philosophical" inquiries as "What does being out of college mpan tn x/rni?" juu. , wi wuai vuiuc j is a degree anymore," and "Can a person grow up in college?" Being a hopeless sentimentalist, my memories of college are tainted with nostalgia and fondness. All the good times (as well as a few of the bad) consciously reappear, reminding me that my years at USC were a period of personal growth, academically, socially and emotionally. The accessibility of knowledge can be infinite and | often overwhelming at college, | wnemer lis arguing the merits of a professor's latest j monograph, booking and promoting university concerts, writing for the student newspaper, exploring the ecstasies of a one night stand or lamenting the loss of the one that got away. College, though, is nothing I more than a testing and training center. It provides us with the tools to build our own futures, yet guarantees nothing, allowing us to seek out our own destinies in society in the same See HOLLYWOOD, page 13 j