Newspapers / University of North Carolina … / Feb. 21, 1968, edition 1 / Page 7
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mm The Carolina Journal Wednesday, February 21, 1968 Page 7 5-Year Man on Campus With Ellison Clary Identify With Seism; He Tried & Failed To Quit Tobacco is a dirty weed. I like it. It satisfied no normal need. I like it. It makes you thin, it makes you lean. tt takes the hair right off your bean. It’s the worst dam stuff I’ve ever seen I like it. Graham Lee Hemminger published the above lines in the Penn State FROTH, in November, 1915. They might just as well have been exhaled along with a cloud of smoke from Darryel Seism’s lungs last Friday morning. That’s when Seism, a Junior Business Administration major, joined the slowly, yet steadily growing Charlotte campus ranks of those trying to stop smoking. Maybe you can identify with him. A lot of students who’ve made the effort to extinguish their fires have been influenced by various scare tactics. Things like those medical commercials on television, signs extolling doctors’ will power in the matter, and Reader’s Digest articles about chain smoking lung cancer patients being made surgical carving blocks in order to survive had tended to prove rather upsetting to a con tingent of student smokers. So some kick the habit, but, in most cases, not for long. A few are reported to have quit smoking seven times in one day. Like Hemminger, they like it. Too much. Seism stopped for 13 hours. “It was my idea,’’ he insisted, even though his girl, Nancy Washam, has been nagging him for a year and a half to do it. Seism can’t put his finger on a definite reason why he made up his mind to stop but he admitted the mail truck signs about the doctors (maybe they know something you don’t) influenced him a bit. “I guess cigarettes do cause cancer,” he allowed. “1 try not to think they do, but I know deep down they do.” He said he’s more sure of this when he suffers “. . .pains in the chest every now and then and hot flashes. But every smoker gets them,” he rationalized. Experienced Withdrawal Regardless of reasons, however. Seism experienced a peculiar kind of withdrawal sickness all day Friday. A pack-a-day man who’s been smoking for six years just has to expect this. “I sat in the library about lour hours and all I could think about was not having a cigarette,” he explained. “1 was dying. My palms kept sweating and I kept thinking about it.” That’s not all. “Shortly after 1 quit, my mouth tasted like nothing but nicotine. I can’t understand that, but it didn’t feel very good,” he said. “Nancy said 1 was very irritable but smokers tolerated me because they knew what I was going through.” In the union around noon, his nerves were shot. He had to have something in his mouth. First it was crackers, then peanuts, then an ice cream sandwich. And his hands were always moving, tapping his leg, drumming on a table, or knocking a tune on a chair. “I tried everything,” he said. “This lady in the library stopped and started chewing Clove gum so I even bought a pack of Juicy Fruit but I got tired of chewing. It hurt my jaw.” On top of all this. Seism had to endure the worst kind of tem ptation. “Ordinarily, people won’t give you a cigarette but when they know you’re trying to quit they all otter you one,” he com plained, “I think they’re envious of you because they wish they could quit.” Rid Of Temptation Oscar Wilde said, “The only way to get rid of a temptation is to yield to it,” and Seism did just that Friday night at a friend’s home. He simply couldn’t resist a cigarette offer. StUl, he said he smoked only about ten the whole weekend. Why couldn’t he hold out? For one thing, it’s a big jump from a pack a day to none, he said: one that’s hard to make. Besides, he didn’t run out of cigarettes, either. He felt he was being wasteful with unsmoked packs lying around. (Starving Asians would be happy to get them, perhaps.-“And what do you do with three good lighters?” he asked. “And pipes?” Sunday afternoon he said he felt cowardly for junking his absten tion plans. He decided it would be easier to begin another withdrawal at the beginning of a week in order to avoid the added pressures brought on by weekends. I told him I didn’t think he could ever completely give up the weed. That was all he needed. “I’ll quit at two o’clock today,” he shot back, somewhat hurt. The time was 1:30. “I gotta go smoke some more before two,” he said and excused himself. He’ll never make it. It’s hopeless. Ten to one he’ll be puffing away when he reads this. Letters To The Editor Mizell May Have Detected Reason For Poor Turnout To The Editor: Has Sonia Mizell at last de tected the prime cause of student apathy in file form of low atten dance at Union sponsored func tions? Can it really be true that the majority of UNC-C students Cellar Closing Riles Students To the Editor The college students in the Charlotte area are facing a crisis due to a bit of city legislation. John Ingersoll, Charlotte Police Chief, is trying to enforce an outdated law on the books of this fair city. He is trying to limit the number of persons allowed in certain entertainment spots in town. This is a state statute adop ted by this city and others such as Greensboro where it has been for several years but is not strictly enforced. Clubs seem to be the only places that the law applies, and theaters, restaurants, and other places do not suffer. One of these places of entertainment facing extreme limitation is the Cellar on Morehead Street which many of you are familiar with, and I will cite it for my example. The Cellar is one of the bet ter places in Charlotte for col lege kids to go. It furnished in expensive entertainment and some of the best bands in the South to entertain, it sells beer and has ample parking. It attracts a large group of predominantly col lege kids aged from eighteen to twenty-two and some older. It has been in operation for almost twenty-two months and has had very little trouble until now. The (CONTINUED ON PAGE 8) equate a “good time” with the necessity for being able to belt a few drinks in the open? Are we then to assume that school spirits, like fermented or distilled spirits, are only to be found bottled and graded by proof numbers? I find it difficult to believe tha mature persons (such as this article depicts the average UNC-C student as being) find it impossible to enjoy themselves unless they must break off in the middle of a dance and dash for their roll ing bar to refuel their ebbing spirits. This would seem to in dicate that people can no longer enjoy each other’s company in full possession of their normal faculties, but must first dull their activity to the point where, with their inhibitions dulled, that are better capable of engaging in ac tivities they might otherwise have though better of before. Lest it be said that I am accus ing students who attend our dances of being drunks, I shall say that the ones to whom I refer are those who find it necessary to take enough drinks to be gay, happy, and carefree, not the stumbling inebriate who could not possibly dance even were he so inclined. Surely if one finds his enjoy ment in drinking, it should be unnecessary for the Union stu dents who work so hard to make these dances a success to even bother having them. It would be far simpler for everyone so in clined to remainhomeorgo where ver else he may choose and drink to his heart’s content. A more realistic attitude, how ever, would be to accept the fact that drinking on this campus is prohibited and is quite likely to remain so. It would then behoove the student to make the attempt to enjoy himself at alcoholically arid festivities, a feat he should not find too difficult once having gotten up sufficient nerve to try it. Not only might he find that he could enjoy himself, but he would also be.making an active contribution to campus life at a time when a quick transfusion of fresh participative blood in quan tity could prove to be of im measurable help in making this school the fine institution it should be. Mitch Borden The likelihood of lechery is less if lads are liquor-less! Parking Fee Puts Burden On Students To The EkJitor: it Rieke Will Speak To SCL Dr. Rieke, head of the History and Political Science Depart ment will speak to the Senior Classical League on Fascism at 11:30 a.m. in C-1222 Everyone is invited to attend. In reference to Dr. Perzel’s article, published in the Caro lina Journal of Jan. 31, 1968, allow me to extend thanks for a well written article on the newly acquired and completely absurd parking fee. Not only is it ridiculous for the administration and staff to have to pay to come to work; but, imposes another burden on the already hard-hit students. We, as students, not only have to main tain a properly running vehicle, not to mention the gas required to bring ourselves out to this “school in the wilderness”; but, now it becomes necessary to pay again, once we arrive. This arouses a few unanswered questions that should be looming large in everyone’s mind. First of all, we are students, pay $62.50 every semester in general fees, which multiplied times two thou sand students would be $125,000! It doesn’t seem that we receive near the benefits that most schools furnish from their general fees. You might think that a school located ten miles from town could furnish parking as a benefit of $62.50 a semester! ! ! !! Secondly, space might be con sidered a problem way out here, yet Central Piedmont Community College located within a few blocks of the heart of town doesn’t deem it necessary to impose such a ridiculous fee for parking. As a matter of fact Central Piedmont doesn’t even have a parking fee. Are we trying to set up a muni cipal parking lot or give people a chance for an education? It appears that some of the objec tives of this school need to be revamped and a closer look taken at the prices already adminis tered for tuition and GEN FEES from which the benefits are ques tionable. Thurman C. Saunders Student UNC-C ‘X pecurrTy is in r ddx A'
University of North Carolina at Charlotte Student Newspaper
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Feb. 21, 1968, edition 1
7
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