MEREDITH HERALD | SEPTEMBER 24. 2008
o
to editor
I
OH, TO BE YOUNG AGAIN
By Sarah Servie
Contributing Writer
Lately a creeping and unnerving
sense of doom has been following
me everywhere I go and, until re
cently, I couldn’t quite put my finger
on what it was that was making me
feel so strange: I am getting old.
While watching the MTV Video
Music Awards a few weeks ago,
as I do every year, I found myself
wanting to fast forward through
all of the performances. Musical
guests such as Paramore, Rhianna,
and Lil Wayne were included in this
year’s lineup. They were all terrible.
I heard myself mutter phrases like
“They call this music?” and “Kids
today...” Meanwhile, the camera
cut to pre-teen fans wildly jump
ing up and down, grinning excit
edly as the strobe lights glinted off
their braces. What happened to the
old VMAs? I secretly kept waiting
for Britney to burst onstage singing
“I’m A Slave 4 U” with the green bi
kini, albino snake, and all. No such
luck.
At the mall, a few days later, 1
nearly tripped over myself and two
small children in an effort to stop and
stare at the new bedding collections
at Pottery Bam. The display beds
were set up beautifully with high
thread count sheets and coordinat
ing throw pillows. The lamps were
arranged on either side of the beds
casting a warm glow that seemed to
pull me in out of the traffic of the
mall. I imagined myself curled up
on the covers with comfy PJ’s and
a good book. Suddenly I snapped
out of my daze and realized that I
had just had a serious moment with
pillows and dust-ruflfles. I aged fif
teen years In the few moments that
Pottery Bam became an appealing
shopping destination.
Then, that night as 1 was getting
ready for bed, I saw it. A gray hair.
It was short and thin and perhaps it
was just the way the light was shin
ing.on it, but it was there. In horror
I grabbed it and ripped it out. After
a good ten minutes of examining
the rest of my head for other rogue
grays, I gave up and began to con
template the weight of my findings.
I am getting older and there are just
certain things that I now have to ac
cept about myself. With that, I sat
down to make a list of the things
that I am no longer young enough
for. This list included, but was not
limited to: house parties, keg beer,
MTV in general, any friendships
with sorority girls, jean shorts,
midriff-baring tops, body jewelry,
glitter in any form, 3 a.m. Cookout
runs, lower back tattoos, and Fa-
cebook. With the removal of all of
these things from my life, I must be
just moments away from a conva
lescence center.
OK so maybe I’m not that old yet,
but I do feel like my carefree college
days are over. And I guess that is all
right with me, since everyone has to
grow up some time. But so help me
if I find another gray hair 1 will slap
on a pair of cutoff jean shorts and
some roll-on glitter, and pretend to
be 18 until I’m 35.
Dear Editor,
The front page article by Melissa
Santos. “The Media’s Skew on
Today’s Politics," is impressive
and thoughtful. It made me think
more deeply about politics and the
media. I have been attentive (to
a fault) to media coverage of the
2008 election and I agree that the
coverage Is "skewed.” I am one of
those who believes the future of
America hangs in the balance and
the media seems all about the latest
sensation, be it Barack, Paris, Palin
or metaphors. To me, the media
distracts more than it informs. “Look
at the shiny object,” they seem to
advise. Meanwhile, one side is
attempting to put "lipstick on a pig,"
while the other side is struggling to
avoid being viewed as a ‘'celebrity,"
an "empty suit" or ‘‘just a speech."
The media has made one thing
clear, they often prefer distortions
over truth as the “pig" is confused
with the “Change we need."
Sincerely,
John Wilson
Raleigh, NC
LOOKING, Continued from Page 7
the times as they were defined in a
small southern town, students in the
I950’s were informed that they “had
come a long way, baby” from when
the rules that governed the former
Female Baptist Academy were of
fered up for their review. Privileges
at the time were based upon class
ranking and a six-days-a-week class
schedule, with the Sabbath as the
only “free” day after church.
Entertainment was never to be
taken For granted. Freshmen in 1924
were allowed to go to the movies
only one afternoon a week, an ac
tivity that had been totally denied to
all students just a few years earlier,
provided that it was on their one
weekly shopping day. In groups of
two, juniors could shop three af
ternoons a week, sophomores two,
and seniors could shop alone if they
were in by 6:00 p.m. on the desig
nated day. Seniors could eat out
in town once a month if they were
willing io trade that choice for one
of their date nights. Even athletic
activities were governed. Seniors
could attend ball games at night in
groups of three, unchaperoned, if
they were in by 10:00 p.m., again
at the price of forfeiting one of their
weekly date nights.
Gentleman callers, who were said
to be treated like “rare and exotic hot
house flowers” that were on exhibit
in the glass encased parlors of the
new campus on Hillsborough Street,
had been granted an increase in visi
tation from two to three afternoons
or evenings a week for seniors ver
sus one visit a week for freshmen.
Juniors could attend entertainments
at night with a young man twice a
semester if a chaperone was present
and they agreed to the conservative
curfew. The popular “fifteen -min-
ute date” was also introduced dur
ing the academic year of 1924-25.
This granted students permission to
see out-of-town guests for a quarter
of an hour any day except Sunday.
This plan excluded fellow students
from neighboring colleges in other
cities, however.
As antiquated as many of these
regulations seem to the contem
porary eyes of another generation,
Meredith was one of the first col
leges in the South to allow student
participation in the disciplinary
process. As early as 1905, student
government was introduced that
within a few years allowed formerly
exclusive senior privileges, such as
walking to church in groups with a
designated student rather than fac
ulty or an adult chaperone, to be
extended to all students of good
standing. With the establishment of
a student Executive Committee the
next year that govefned the general
oversight of student behavior, the
seeds of the cuirent Honor Code
were sown. Only “incorrigible cas
es” were turned over to faculty. The
1906 Oak Leaves staled:
“The government is almost
entirely in the hands of the students
themselves, under a set of regula
tions submitted by the faculty and
adopted by the student body... This
system tends to promote honor,
self-reliance, self-restraint, personal
responsibility, and reciprocal help-
ftilness....”
By the 1960’s, a decade that mir
rored so much of the social unrest of
the 1920’s throughout America, ju
niors and seniors could have “social
engagements at their discretion,”
freshmen could go to six dances a
year, and on weekends, most stu
dents who lived on campus could
stay out until 1:00a.m. with prior
permission and a completed destina
tion card. Mentions of smoking and
the use of alcohol replaced concem
over the accompaniment of hats and
chaperones as the campus became
more mobile and the line blurred
between the world within and with
out. College campuses, once an in
tentional oasis from reality, were
becoming, however slowly, the in
cubators of free thought and inde
pendent spirits. ■ *