Page 4
The Pendulum
Thursday, September 24, 1981
J
College and community
Tobacco-chewing Wild^ Bill
5 Reavis: an incurable girl-watcher
FRIENDLY FELLOW—“WUd Bill” Reacts likes working
with Elon students in the gymnasium.
Photo by Nader Hamidpoor
by Joy Hamilton
“Wild” Bill Reavis, col
lege employee in the athletic
department, has been work
ing at Elon for only one
year, but according to him,
“It seems like 10 years.”
Bill is well-known in the
gym and on campus for his
jovial attitude with students.
His work activities include
looking after the gym, ath
letic department, pool,
weight room, racquetball,
basketball, and football fa
cilities. “We have a hand in
all sports,” said Bill.
Other specific activities in
clude setting up the gym for
basketball, working football
games, parking cars, and
checking I.D.’s for the press
box. But as “WUd” BiU put
it, “I’m not an athlete. I
needed a job, and Dr. White
hired me.
“I like the people and like
the work. Although I don’t
think it’s a good idea to
close the gym on weekends.
many people go home and
we do need a little time
off.”
Besides working. Bill loves
to fish. “I fish here and
yonder on farms and in
creeks. I like to hunt a little
bit and I love to travel. But
mainly I love people — the
students are just like my son
or daughters. They’re friend
ly and they speak to me.”
He added, “I love people
and I try to be good to them
and treat them right. The
people ’round here treat me
nice. We are all just one big
family, I reckon.”
According to some of
Bill’s colleagues in the ath
letic department, “Bill is
wild and the biggest girl
watcher in town,” or “Bill
works hard and is friendly
with all the girls.” However,
as Bill puts it, “There ain’t
no harm in looking at them
and hugging them. My wife
don’t mind.”
Bill has three children of
his own: a son, aged S, and
two daughters, 12 and 14.
Before working at Elon, he
worked with the Protection
Service, which is based in
Greensboro.
Chewing tobacco is also a
favorite habit of Bill’s. “In
the gym you can’t smoke. I
just like to be chewing on
something, I reckon. I’ve
chewed for 10 or 15 years.
When I started, it probably
made me sick, but I actually
don’t remember.”
Bill is also a sports spec
tator. He loves to watch the
Elon athletes in action. “1
love to watch the games. We
get all psyched up for the
games,” he said.
As for his general happy
state. Bill said, “I don’t
know how I stay happy, but
being around people helps. I
like to pick at people, and I
come in this world picking
and I guess I’ll leave it
picking.”
The South: a short course for Yankees
“Fa’tt come back now, heah?”
“rU fix the fried chicken while you tote
the sweet taters to the fire.”
^Gimme that gunny aack!”
^Could you carry me to town?”
**Put the book own the desk.”
‘^Hey, there! You sho look purty.”
By Mary Ellen Priestley
If you have come to the
South for the first time as a
student or faculty member,
you may feel that you are in
a new world, be it “the New
South” or the old one.
Chances are you’ll find it a
mixture of both. North
Carolina is certainly not
New Jersey or Ohio or
Vermont. But just what it is
will depend much on the
people you talk with.
Tlje “New South” may be
little more than the success
ful efforts of some to get the
South into mainstream
America — raising per cap
ita income, eradicating
pockets of poverty, coaxing
in industry, and smoothing
out the most obvious region
alism.
But deep down, there is
still pride in a heritage from
the Old South, its pride in
background, its British
roots, its way of life. No
matter how much of this has
been exploded by various
writers and historians, it is
there — pride.
Coming into the area to
day, one still finds much
good mannered behavior,
people who say “Sir” or
“Ma’am,” a warm welcome
by neighbors, a slower pace
of life and speech. Some of
its culture goes back to
Jefferson, Washington, Lee
— those Virginians who
lived and promoted cultured
homes, the arts, and pride in
family and country. Or the
same goes for people of
Charleston, Wilmington,
New Bern.
On the other hand, the
South has been explosive,
loving a good fight, a
strange mix of Episcop^an
and fundamentalist (Bible
Belt) faith, the rich horse
farms of the Lexington, Ky.,
bluegrass area and the bleak
cabins of eastern Kentucky
mountains, the flowering
gardens of Mobile and the
red clay of northern Ala
bama; Nashville, the Athens
of the South and Music
City, recording capital of the
world. What is “the South”
besides a geographical area?
You have doubtless al
ready found that its fiction
rates among the best in the
United States. William
Faulkner, Erskine Caldwell,
Carson McCullers, Thomas
Wolfe, Flannery O’Conner
— most have exploited the
conflicts of the South, its
racial mixture, its plenty and
poverty, its defeat in the
Civil War (War Between the
States), its violence,
simmering simmier heat, and
code of protection for
women. Senator Ervin still
doesn’t believe a woman can
know what is best for her.
Don’t lift that child! Sena
tors Helms and^Eut decide
she must do as they say.
You’ve noticed, in
general, softer voices, a
rising intonation for each
segment of non-questions,
not heard in any other
region. The Southeast has
two major dialects: Coastal
Southern and Southern
Mountain. Coastal speech
has little “R” coloration so
that “bird” and “bud” or
“first” and “fust” sound
almost identical. Speech is
slower, softer.
Southern Mountain dia
lect, on the other hand,
impresses the hearer as being
spoken with more speed.
The “R” in words as
“first” is distinctly pro
nounced. Vowels tend to
become diphthongs, so that
“ice” or “nice” or “past”
or “dance” are said with the
mouth only about half open
and the split vowel to the
front of the mouth. The
final “g” in “-ing” words is
rarely pronounced.
Since the Piedmont lies
between the Appalachian
Motmtains and the coast,
dialects of this area tend to
have a mixture of the two.
Idiom, too, is different from
that of the North and
Northeast. Linguists ask a
few key questions to deter
mine one’s native speech.
For example, they talk about
breakfast. If you “fix” the
meal, you are southern or
have southern “kin” around
you. If you are a Southerner
you naturally use a tow-sack
or a gunny sack, but not a
burlap bag. You may put
something in a “poke,” a
paper bag. You may like
something “right much,”
you “guess.”
The Southerner grew up
eating summer okra, fried or
boiled, watermelon, hominy,
grits, barbeque, com bread
or com pone, hot biscuits
and hush puppies. Per
haps the least tempting to a
“foreigner” is okra. My
English family will not touch
the stuff, but I still cook it
for myself! _
Shaded front porches,
rocking chairs, magnolia and
chinaberry trees, honey
suckle and jasmine, camelias
and gardenias, swamp
cypms and trailing Spanish
moss and rows of cotton —
nature gave the South
beauty and perfume.
Elon College is in the
South, as y’all probly
know.