Page two
THE TWIG
December 11, 1953
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Exchanging or Giving?
“What shall I get my roommate for Christmas? She refuses to tell
me what she wants, and I can’t think of anything she really needs. This
Christmas shopping is worse than a week’s history parallel.” Such
lamentations are frequent on our campus in the weeks preceding Christ
mas vacation. Is one’s distress justifiable? Indeed. Christmas shopping
is a problem. Perhaps we all need to examine our Christmas gift lists
and see to whom we are giving. Should we not examine our ideas
about giving in the light of the real meaning of giving? Isn’t most of
our giving really just exchanging gifts?
One of our faculty members. Dr. Mary Lynch Johnson, has happily
solved the problem of Christmas gifts. She continues to give gifts to the
children, very old people, and poor people on her list. To her adult
friends and family she writes letters asking their permission to send
the money she normally would spend in buying gifts for them to the
Negro Deaf and Blind School. She suggests that instead of giving her
a gift they use the money for some similar cause.
Mr. M. H. Crockett, principal of this school, in a letter thanking
Dr. Johnson for her gifts told of how some of the money was spent:
“May I express my deepest appreciation for the check sent. I’m sure
you recall the wet and fairly cold days in February and most of
this month. Shoes for six children have been purchased; fourteen pairs
have been repaired; seven pairs of blue jeans purchased and four sweaters.
I hope you realize just how good one feels when he can go downtown
and get what a child needs at once. May I say that it has been through
you and friends you have sent us that many of our problems have
been solved.”
Would not Christmas mean more to each of us if we could receive
thank-you notes such as this? Is not this kind of giving the essence of
the spirit of that One who brought Christmas to the world?
Capable of Deciding?
The students of Meredith College -are mature young women, en
tirely capable of' making intelligent decisions as to how they spend
evenings of entertainment. Yet over seventy-five per cent of them de
cided not to attend the Carolina Playmakers’ production of “On Bor
rowed Time” last Saturday night. It is our firm conviction that every
student who saw the play enjoyed it and that every absent student
could have had the same enjoyment had she been there. Having such
a conviction, we question the verity of the opening statement.
Most students when approached about their absence say, “I wanted
to go but—.” Why are huts a greater hindrance on this occasion than
on certain others?
In view of the poor attendance not only at the Playmakers’ pro
duction but also at the earlier Barter Theatre performance, we wonder
if it might not be possible, by raising the student budget fund, to
include several such plays in the required concert series.
Home for Christmas
Christmas at home will probably be a constant whirl. There will be
Christmas cards to write, clothes to get in shape for important oc
casions, last minute gifts to buy, friends to visit, parties to attend,
church programs to participate in. Wouldn’t it be easy in such a whirl
to use our homes largely as hotels and the members of our families
as maids and cooks? This Christmas let’s all resolve to spend more
time with our families. As one faculty member says, show your family
that you’d like to come home even if there were no Chevrolet or
chocolate cake there.
Rssocicted GoHe6icte FV«ss
EDITORIAL STAFF
Editor Loretta Oglesby
Assistant Editor Vivian Byrd
Feature Editor Kirksey Sink
Managing Editors Nancy Brown, Barbe White
Art Editor Sally Drake
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Photo Editors Bobbye Rice, Janice Witherington
Columnists Margaret Ann English, Shirley West
Reporters—Nancy Reece, Nancy Drake, Mary Frances Colston, Mary Jo
Pinner, Lynette Haislip, Trudy Fitzgerald, Ann Parr, Nancy Carpenter,
Dorothy Smith, Jean Grealish, Joyce Herndon, Anna Mae Peckham,
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Typists—Betty Hunter, Chief; Theresa Raynor, Mary Lib Delbridge, Jane
Condrey, Annette Caudle, Louise Edge
Faculty Sponsor ; Dr. Norma Rose
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MacDonald, Mary Louise Cornwell, Ann Jane Barbrey
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N. C., under Act of March 8, 1879. Published semi-monthly during the
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tion—the other two being The Acorn, the Uterary magazine, and The Ook
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Meredith College is an accredited senior liberal arts college for women
located In the capital city of North CaroUna. It confers the Bachelor of Arts
and the Bachelor of Music degrees. The college offers majors in twenty-one
fields Including music, art, business and home economics.
Since 1921 the Institution has been a member of the Southern Association
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Graduates of Meredith College are eUglble for membership in the American
Association of University Women. The Institution is a liberal arts member
of the National Association of Schools of Music.
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Let’s see now—how many more
days is it?—’til we go home, that
is—not long—
I always like the rather tense
and tingling feeling in the atmos
phere before Christmas. Several of
my teachers have voiced the opin
ion that they wish we would do
more studying and less wishing we
were at home during these few
weeks between Thanksgiving and
Christmas. They’re right, of course,
but now that the Yuletide season
is so near, I stop every once in a
while and just daydream. Do you
do that too? Good—we must have
“holiday itis”!
Doesn’t the Bee Hive and all sur
rounding territory look better? I’ve
never seen such a change in any
place! That old auditorium was a
sore spot on this campus, and I’m
not sorry to see it go. Hurrah for
this improvement!
Congratulations to all those peo
ple in the Silver Shield and “Who’s
Who”! We have some really out
standing girls on this campus.
All this year I’ve been telling my
self I look quite mature, but the
other day my ego suffered a serious
setback. My sister (high-school
child) and I came over to see “The
Robe” during the holidays, and the
man there selling magazines about
the movie told me that I could buy
the magazine, give a book report
on it, and get extra credit. I said,
“Why, I’m not in high school,” and
do you know ... he laughed and
never did believe me! Nuts! Maybe
it’s a good thing. . . . Maybe I’ll
look 20 when I’m 30 . . . that’s the
only consolation.
Something was said last year
about the stuffiness of the auditor
ium nearly every time anything
went on over there, and I hate to
mention it again, but please, can’t
something be done about the heat?
It was almost unbearable during
the Trapp Family Singers’ Concert.
Unless it gets awfully cold, the
chorus will just roast during their
Christmas concert. There’s simply
no sense in such discomfort.
Girls, I think we’ve been falling
down in our support of the Play
house. The people in the Playhouse
bring us good plays and then we
don’t even bother to go see them.
Thus they lose money and feel like
not trying to do anything more. If
we stop having such productions as
the Barter Theater, for example,
brought us, then in the final anal
ysis, we are the ones that are going
to lose. . . . Think about this. . . .
This next came from the Varsity
News, University of Detroit:
“I serve a purpose in this school
which no man can frown—
I quietly sit in every class
and keep the average down.”
Have a Merry Christmas! One of
the best ways I know is to practice
what Gary Moore says every day
—be kind to each other. You know,
if we were to try that every day,
like he says, being kind during the
Yuletide season wouldn’t be as ar
tificial as it sometimes is now. You
know, that thought was not original
with Gary Moore, either. Someone
else said the same thing long ago.
Let’s do try it. I’ll wager we won’t
be sorry.
See ya after the holidays.
LIMIT
No student may take less than
fifteen hours or more than seven
teen without special permission.
WOMEN AFRAID: A SUGGESTION
FOR THOSE WHO WANT PEACE
By CHARLEEN SWANZEY
How often have you heard, “We
live in an age of fear?” And how
often have you been afraid? If you
are like I am, the constant talk of
communism. World War III, and
superbombs colors everything you
do, every reaction you have — your
education plans, your marriage
plans, your philosophy of life. And
lEHER TO EDITOR
Good habits, bad habits, essen
tial habits, nonessential habits, hab
its, habits, habits—have everything
to do with society, for they act as
a unit of measure for character. Are
they a measure of character? A
unit of measure must be standard.
Are habits standard? Each individ
ual discriminates in his own mind
as to whether a habit is acceptable
or nonacceptable to him, but like
habits, individuals differ in proper
ties as well as effect; subsequently,
how can one individual say of an
other that a particular habit is
good, bad, or essential to him any
more than he can say that everyone
should have red eyes?
To take a hypothetical illustra
tion, suppose an individual has
nothing tangible upon which to
stand—no religious convictions, no
philosophy of life, no faith in per
sons and things. Where can he turn?
He must turn to things objective.
In such a frame of mind suppose
he considers smoking. You can see
a cigarette. Unlike people, you al
ways know exactly what to expect
from it—the pleasure (?) to be
derived from it. You would not
necessarily say that the person who
smokes is proud of it and that it is
good and has no evil effects, but
at least it is something tangible
upon which that person can depend.
Such a habit cannot be justified by
its being tangible; however, the “es
sential” nature of the habit to the
individual in such a frame of mind
may be understood.
Using habits as a unit of meas
ure can be dangerous because of
the narrowing effect that it has upon
one. If we learn to understand peo
ple’s habits, not accept the habits
for ourselves, then we can resnect
other people and at the same time
not let their habits influence ours.
Since habits, like personal charac
teristics, are unique, they should
be considered only in that respect.
Miriam Allen
perhaps your response is “It’s not
fair! It’s not fair that the man I
marry must leave me — that I
must live under the constant strain
of fear for my parents, for my
friends, myself, and my children yet
unborn.” Perhaps you feel as I have
felt that we are merely toys in the
hands of a capricious destiny.
Where does this get us, you and I,
college women? Nowhere!! We are
hysterical and concerned for a while.
Then out of lack of interest we
forget which is submitting and war
goes on until it comes so close
to us again that we are shocked into
acknowledging it again and offering
it a brother, or a husband, or a
child.
What can we do? It is impossible
to influence the United Nations.
Even if it were not impossible, try
ing would be unethical since the
U. N. is a world organization and
the only opinion we express is that
of an American citizen — but
through our own government we do
have a voice in world affairs, in
destiny. So why not use this power
we have? Realize that nothing ever
has or ever will be achieved by a
passive attitude.
Do you not remember the wom
en in the Greek play Lysistrata?
They knew their power and used it.
Women today do not realize how
powerful they are. Why, what would
happen if women in the United
States would say with one voice, “I
will have no more children to be
massacred in war,” and would en
force it for a while. Why, the world
would be at our feet, begging not to
be annihilated. Of course, this is
extreme — but even softening the
point, what would happen if wom
en, or just college women, should
demand peace in the world?
You can reach your government
by writing your senator. They will
hear you if you should a well in
formed attitude and I know you are
well informed since it’s your life at
stake! Make your exclamation point
in determining your fate.
Senator Clyde R. Hoey
U. S. Senate
Washington, D. C.
Dear Senator Hoey,
A senior this year at Meredith,
I hope to graduate this June, marry,
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