Page 4
HIGH LIFE
Friday, April 28, 1978
Main Hall
by Hank Howard
It’s here!
Spring has sprung!
Finally what we have long
awaited has come as we shove
aside our heavy books and begin
dreaming of all the magic of
senior year good-byes, ceremo
nies, and summer freedom. We
sit and daydream of these magni
ficent times, but suddenly cough
with the realization that the
pollen must be getting to us.
Graduation for seniors, that first
dose of senioritis for juniors, and
that “Thank God I’m now a
junior’’ - itis for the sophs are all
still two long months away.
So we gather up our books
again with a sigh and attempt to
understand why it is important to
know the Pythagorean Theorem,
who could possibly live off co
sines, sines, and tangents, and
why the philosophies of Camus
and Ionesco really give us such
headaches in writing papers.
These thoughts and a thousand
others enter our heads questio
ning our reasons for studying so
diligently when a sudden Frisbee
whisks by and our minds are
emptied of all the cumbersome
contemplation.
The heavy thoughts drift unno-
ticeably upward to mingle with
the carefree clouds. Every silver-
lined jet appears to be destined
for some fantasy-filled island of
summertime. And most of us
realize how very unfair it is of the
rest of us to wear shorts, T-shirts,
beach hats, and sing the Beach
Boys’ oldies up and down the still
musty halls. Here we are trying
desperately to concentrate on
photosynthesis, balancing equa
tions, and memorizing the dates
of the most important battles of
the most important wars of the
most important nations, when
'#4 ■■
some blond bronzed beauty pau
ses in the Main Hall only long
enough to ask if it would be too
much trouble to “rub a little
Hawaiian Tropic on my back,
Hon.” It is unfair!
Senioritis has taken over the
amjority of us. But a few of the
more sensible and intelligent
individuals among us have not let
it hit quite so hard. They have
managed to achieve the high
honor that gives scholarship,
studying, and education all real
meaning. Their talents and hard
work have been recognized by the
National Honor Society, at Grim-
sley. . . Torchlight.
Others of us were able to
“show our stuff” at the Chario
teers’ Fashion Show. Some of us
were smashed. Still others of us
were able to enjoy the sights of
the beneficial event and laugh at
those that were bombed.
Books or no books the time of
year has come to be carefree, to
kick off shoes and run through the
rapidly growing summer grass.
This brings up two more topics;
foot problems and lawnmowing.
Bare feet will most likely, as
always walk us into the painful
realization ihat “glass can cut,”
and that our streets are not as
clean as we had assumed in the
winter. And neither does the
grass stay as well confined. The
brown stuff suddenly comes alive
evolving swiftly into a creeping,
green carnivorous creature de
vouring every square inch of area
and munching on sidewalks,
curbs, and driveways. The fast-
powered lawnmowers with all the
summer sweat and gasoline that
can be mustered simply cannot
control the creeping giant. Green
is king.
But as is the case every
summer, we will survive. We will
gladly welcome the heat waves,
the sunburns, the Putt-Putt cour
ses, and the summer flowers.
Beach will be Mecca for at least
the next half of the year. Our
symbol will be the Whirlie bird in
Coolrays, Hang Ten swim trunks,
and flip flops. School will be
out. . .
School! Oh well, back to books.
Enough of the daydreaming. Back
to Algebra, Chemistry, English,
and History. Back to Literature,
back to Typing, and back to
French. German, Spanish, and
Latin. Back. For a while.
Jeep Racing
A 4-W What?! ?
by Ann Strange
4-W-D is soon to become a
household word. For those of you
not familiar with it, it means
foot-stomping, mud-slinging,
hell- raising fun!
1 spent the past weekend at a
4-W-D race about forty miles west
of Richmond. Mary Pat Kirwin
and 1 left around 5:30 Saturday
afternoon. After taking various
detours (also known as getting
lost) we arrived around ten
o’clock.
We quickly parked the car and
ran to where a bluegrass band
was playing. They were at the
bottom of a hill, the hill was
packed with drunk, stoned, good
timing people. Mary Pat and 1
never stopped dancing and laugh
ing. There were so many people!
The whole thing was like a
minatureWoodstock. A bunch of
people, (many of whom neither of
us knew), combined efforts and
got a fire started. We stood
around it singing “Let the circle
be unbroken, by and by Lord by
and by. . . ”
It was a clear night but cold!
We found a place to camp around
12:30 and built a fire. We
munched out on apples, sang and
played the guitar. People from
neighboring camps would drift in
and drift out. The night was filled
with friendly words and friendly
faces. Mary Pat and 1 crawled into
our sleeping bags, exhausted but
happy. 1 drifted to sleep counting
stars.
Our fire had gone out sometime
during the night. We woke with
numb toes and frost bitten ears. 1
sat up shivering, and after waking
up a little and looking around, 1
realized 1 should not complain
about the cold. It was too beauti
ful a morning for that. The sky
was a deep blue, the trees had
that bright green color that only
Grimsiey Drama
Department Presents,
by Carole Dolin
This upcoming Spring, Grims-
ley’s Theatre Workshop will be
presenting a repetoire consisting
of two full-length shows.
“House of Bernarda Alba” will
be presented in the Grimsiey
auditorium on May 4th and 6th.
In addition to this, “Of Mice and
Men” will be presented on May
3rd and 5th. In directing these
plays, Mr. Parrish, teacher of the
Theatre Workshop has recog
nized both shows as containing
script material to implant a strong
and powerful impact on the mind.
In “House of Bernarda Alba,”
the cast contains for the first time
ever in Grimsiey’s history, an all
female cast. The setting takes
place in the early years of Spain.
Ann Exum, a guest actress for
Grimsiey’s Theatre Workshop
will be playing the lead role of
Bernarda. Bernarda is a dominee
ring character. She possesses a
hint of tyrany within her charac
ter, and thinks she controls
everyone’s lifestyles within the
play.
“Each acting experience is a
learning experience,” says Ms.
Exum. This is Ms. Exum’s first
experience working with senior
high school dramatics, and she
feels that it is quite a privilege.
Ms. Exum has performed many
times before, her last show being
“A Raisoni in the Sun” performed
in Newport, Rhode Island.
In addition to the “House of
Bernarda Alba” production,
Grimsiey Theatre Workshop shall
be presenting “Of Mice and
Men.” The cast consists of all
female characters also, with the
exception of one male. This script
was adopted from the book Of
Mice and Men by John Steinbeck.
The setting takes place in the
1930s. The story is about a boy
named Lennie who is physically a
“giant,” yet mentally disturbed.
His mind accepts happenings
within life rather slowly, while
possessing the temperament of a
child.
For those more intrigues with
the lighter side of performances,
Playmasters will be performing
Short Subjects V from April
27th-28th, The plots range from
“absolutely absurd to very seri
ous” says Connye Florence, a
member of the Theatre Work
shop. Of the five, one-act plays,
three are student-directed, and
two are student-teacher directed.
They will be performed in Grim
siey’s studio theatre, each act
lasting approximately 30 minutes.
The student-directed plays con
sist of “1 Bring You Flowers”
directed by Jone Marshall, “The
Interview” directed by Rona Mar
co, and “The Actor and the
Invade,” directed by Julie Watts.
As for the student-teacher-direc
ted plays, Laura Hunter directs
“Contributions” containing an all
black cast, and Richard Zaruba
directs “The Right Kind of
House.” Grimsiey’s Drama De
partment carries on rehearsals
long hours after school, late hours
through the night, and even on
weekends. One member of the
department left the room saying,
“We’re crazy with rehearsals, we
know we’re crazy, but how else
did we become #1 in the state!”
Teenage Threat
by Martin Miller
A teen-age girl drives alone at
night. The moon is full and the
roads are dry.
She has just broken up with her
guy, has school trouble and
hates her parents. The girl acce
lerates and goes tumbling down a
mountain.
Highway Patrol members are
just now learning of suicides like
the one above. The patrol be
lieves seventy per cent are done
by teen-age drivers.
Suicide is the second leading
cause of death among teenagers
as opposed to fifth five years ago.
Thirty percent of ail suicides are
previous high school drop-outs.
April has the highest suicide rate
for young people out of the year.
Mondays and Fridays claim more
lives than any of the other days
combined.
The causes of teen suicide
range from overprotective par
ents to the excessive use of drugs
and alcohol. The absence of
significant relationships was
pointed out as the major cause of
teen suicides. Doctors also point
out the fact that adolescence is
the toughest time for an individu
al to live. “Adolescents experi
ence humiliation, confusion, peer
pressure, and educational
stress,” says Dr. Doff.
Prevention of teen suicide de
pends on the peer group and
parents. If someone threatens
suicide, he is usually not taken
seriously. He is usually laughed
at and becomes more alienated
from the group.
Whatever the reason for sui
cide or whatever the causes are,
suicide is a real threat to teen
agers across the country.
the new leaves of spring can
have. The sun was bright and
slowly penetrated through the
chill.
Mary Pat and 1 ate a quick
breakfast, then rolled our sleep
ing bags and took a tour of the
grounds. The race was to be held
on what used to be an old horse
farm. There were eleven thous
and people camping on these
rolling hills! I introduced Mary
Pat to Charlie Profitt, Dale Vest,
Robb King and Sam Pistone so
that when they ran later in the
day she would be sure to watch.
Dad pulled in around ten
o'clock. There were sixteen peo
ple in our class and we were
number sixteen. There were six
pp. drivers. It takes three four
trophies and four for money, so
we had it made.
There are no practice runs, so
Dad and 1 walked the track. The
track was excellent! You had to
make a ninety degree turn into a
creek and then go up a fifty to a
seventy-five yard hill. The hill
was so steep you could not walk
up it. You came from the creek to
the bottom of the hill. . . so there
was no such thing as a running
start. At the top of the hill you
make a sharp left and come down
the other side. Coming down was
just as rough as going up! It was
loose rocks in some places and
silty red clay in others. Then you
crossed the creek again, through
the finish line, sounds easy huh?
The drivers meeting was at
twelve. There were the twenty-
eight women in all. They were
paying a $110 first place, $50
second, $25 for third plus tro
phies.
The race was started at one by
the National Anthem. In the first
three classes nothing much hap
pened. Then came Joel Byrd, an
[cont. p. 9]