March 15, 1965
High Life
Page Three
A Pile of Rubble
The Pattern of Simplicity
BY HALLIE AUSTIN
I loathe hooks reviews; I do. In September, our English class read in Atlantic and Harpers’.
It was a hint that our own had better turn out the same way. I took the hint, but not the hab
it. Thus, when I was asked to write a review for Highlife, I refused . . . till I remembered a
very intriguing book.
A Pile of Rubble by Clayton Lee West (there, I mentioned title and author right at the
first) appealed to me because it was so gloriously simple. Not because I have a simple mind,
understand, but because I was glad to find such a simple book.
A Pile of Rubble is the story
try by criticizing the Smith par
ents for calling a psychiatrist.
Mary, a B student, harmed no
one in her simple rites. It was
something from which she de
rived satisfaction, not an indica
tion of a mental disorder. Illus
trating by the shock of the Smiths
when they learned Mary could not
be anals^ed. West warns us not
The Bxthange Desk
By Judy Lavine
Our exchange files have accumulated quite a bit of inter
esting information over the past few months. Take, for exam
ple, the following facts from The Evanstonian, Evanston Town
ship High chool, Evanston, Illinois.
A survey shows that the composite bedroom of a teenager
has 7.57% pictures of the Beatles (thus disapproving conclus-
vely the BeatleBacklash), 3.34% stop signs swiped from street
corners, .001% textbooks, 1.23% telephones, a collection of
23.12% cafeterial utensils, and 4.39% old examinations. While
the final results are in, only one fact s definitely known—100%
of the bedrooms have beds.
of a little girl who grows up to
be a woman, naturally. All her
life, she throws different objects
in a rubble pile. As a child, Mary
Smith (the common name indi
cates a normal child) makes a
ritual o-f her habit. In impressive
ceremonies, she throws diferent
possessions upon the growing heap.
No pattern to what she gives up
or when, several months often
pass before she consecrates an
other article, and the articles
themselves range from dolls to
tooth brushes to socks. Her par
ents woke up on various nights
to find Mary not in bed, and
rushing outside, saw her putting
personal property on the mass of
goods, and chanting the words,
“Stay here, stay here, I shall
return.”.
The victory of West and his
book appears when Mr. and Mrs.
Smith asks a psychiarist to ana-
l5fze Mary. Neither Mary nor her
actions can be analyzed. One feels
like shouting “Ha, ha.” to all
the modern worlds amateur psy-
chiarists. There seems to be a fad
of asserting that even^one can be
analyzed by some of their more
brilliant fellow human beings and
placed into some nicely indexed
files, only to be called forth when
the same intellectuals are pro
pounding one of their own as
tounding truths.
Mr. West provokes thought as
he expounds on amateur psychia-
to set aside as aberrant those
people who digress from conform
ity.
A Pile of Rubble is refreshing,
unrestrained, and unaffected. It
demands particular attention in
a world where those works which
deal with some mental stigma;
constantly received notice.
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Valentine’s Day may be over,
but the following formula is still
something to try! It came from
The Pointer, High Point Central
High School, High Point, N. C.
Mathematics has the reputation
of a coldly logical, heartless
branch of learning. But with the
aid of a compass, straight edge
and paper, you can prove the as
sumption invalid. Proceed as fol
lows:
1. Draw a line segment AB one
and a half inches long in the
center of your paper.
2. Construct a perpendicular bi
sector of AB intersecting at O.
Call it XY.
3. Measure OY two and a half
inches long.
4. With A and B as centers and
a radius of seven eighth of an
inch, construct arcs intersecting
XO at C and AB extended at
points M and N, respectively.
5. Construct a perpendicular bi
sector of MY and let it inter
sect arc CN at D.
6. Using DY as radius and D as
center, construct an arc from
M to Y.
7. In like manner construct an
arc from N to Y using a point
on arc MC as center.
8. Write an appropriate saying in
the construction. (Example: I
love Math!)
Something I’ve got to see:
(oooh . . . such grammar) The
students at Baltimore City Col
lege, an all boys high school in
Baltimore, Maryland, have an
nounced plans for their junior
prom in The Collegian. The prom
will be held aboard a train. The
train will depart from a local
station, travel around trip of 100
miles with music being piped into
eight specially-wired cars which
the train company is decorating
especially for the occasion.
When gaffing ready for fhaf all
imporfanf Junior-Senior Prom
come by and see our selecfions
Prices from $25 fo $50
BRIDES AND FORMALS
DRESSES. INC.
335 Tale Sfreef
Tribute To Hemingway
SF Story By Bradbury
1965 May Courf
In the final balloting on March
8, Vickie Gunter was chosen to
serve as Grimsley’s Queen of May.
Vickie will reign over a court
of seventeen girls w'ho were elect
ed by their respective classes as
the loveliest representative.
Bry Richardson was elected to
be Senior Maid of Honor with
Dee Dee Zane and Pam Frazier
holding that position in their re
spective classes.
The remaining court members
are Kathy Courtney. Lynda Jones.
Claudia McGill, Sarah Pearce,
Miriam Smith, Barbara Straughn,
Lynn Wentworth, Carol Zane.
Becky Ball, Corrie Hutton, Huttie
Kent, Janice Sprinkle, Lynn Mar
shall, and Jfene Murray.
Although the theme cannot be
disclosed, Ellen Taylor, Co-chair
man of the May Day Committee
reports that the court will wear
formal dresses which hejp carry
out this year’s central theme.
BY JOHN TAYLOR
In the January 22 issue of LIFE
magazine, an article appears en
titled, “The Kilimanjaro Machine.”
The author is Ray Bradbury, a
well-known figure to science fic
tion buffs. The first thought to
cross one’s mind on seeing this
story is, “Oh, no, another one of
those way-out stories.” But this
is not so. A master of well crafted
science fiction, Bradbury states
the thought of the story very sim
ply. “‘The Kilimanjaro Machine’
is my effort—my long need put
down in words—to make do with a
terrible fact that came into the
lives of all of us who knew and
admired one man, a special writer.
In dying he left us with a mystery
and a sense of unease. I tried
but could find no way to throw
off the pall that settled upon me
after his death.
“Then, not long ago, I happened
on a newspaper article. A report
er had gone to Ketchum, Idaho,
to look around and interview the
locals. There he foxmd a hunter
who remembered well. He re
membered seeing the writer often
—head bent in thought, health
obviously failing—walking down
the road. ‘That poor old man on
the road,’ the hunter said.
“The phrase hit me hard. I
simply had to get that old man
off the roa,d. I could not leave
The Gypsy Travelers
To Drama Festival
Members of the one act play.
The Gypsy, will travel to Louis-
burg College to compete in the
District Drama Festival on March
27.
The Gyppy, which is a tragedy
in one act, will star Patti McCall
as Nora, a maid; Bobby Ferrell, a
stage hand; Vivian Ferguson as
Zita, a prima donna; and Bob
Bowden as Paolo Polini, an op
era singer.
All four are members of the
Dramatics class. Bob Bowden, who
is the president of the Play-
masters, is also playing a part in
the three-act play. One Foot in
Heaven, which is to be presented
on the high school stage April 1.
Patti, who is also a member of
the first debate team, and Bobby
are both playing leading parts in
the three-act play.
Vivian Ferguson is fairly new
comer to the stage but is already
showing much feeling in her voice
and action.. She is acting as
chairman of the ticket committee
for One Foot in Heaven.
McFALLS
SUNSET
DRUGS
1610 Madison Avenue
him there.” The quote is refer
ring to Ernest Hemingway and
this story is Bradbury’s tribute
to “the old man on the road.”
The plot of the story, though
old, is approached from a new ai>
gle. Perhaps this is part of the
reason for the quality of the
story. The main idea of the story
is the old “Time Machine” theme
that no good science fiction writer
can stay away from and hope to
remain good. However, this ap
proach is a fresh one and is well
presented so the old idea does not
wear badly.
The theme of the story con
sist sof “getting the old man off
the road.” This, through the use
of the time machine, is accom
plished smoothly. The underlying
theory of this work is that there
are graves along the road for
everyone and if it were possible'
we would pick the one which
suits us best. Or in other words,
there are times to die and times
not to die and Bradbury thinks
that Ernest Hemingway would
have liked to pick the time which
suited him best.
This story cannot actually be
classified as sincere fiction. The
fact that there is a time machine
is only placed in the story for the
author to use as a tool to get his
theory across. In this particular
story he succeeded. The story
serves as a way out for those
who pondered the “why” of the
death which came at the wrong
time to “the old man on the
road.”
G.H.S. Debate Teams
Prepare For Tournament
Members of the GHS debate
teams were recently announced by
Miss Causey and are now prepar
ing for an all day tournament to
be held at Southeast High School
tomorrow.
First team affirmative debaters
are Janice Younts and Jay Prin
gle, while negative members are
Patti McCall and David Rogers.
Ronnie Galimore and Art Bulla
are second team affirmative speak
ers, and Mike Cole and Neal
Rabin are debating negative.
This year’s national debate
topic is: Resolve, that Nuclear
"Weapons should be controlled by
an International Organiatzion.
On March 12 and 13, the teams
debated in a meet held at Wake
Forest College. Results of that
contest, however, were not avail
able by press time.
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