Friday, March 17, 1978
HIGH LIFE
Page 3
Mr. Smith
European Trip Makes for
a Super Summer
by Cheryl Lnteman
Imagine. . . You are boarding
the jet for a leisure summer trip to
Europe with your current, favo
rite book in one hand and, just in
case, your seasick pills in the
other. As you settle back in your
seat for a ride on the wind, you
dream of your cultural escapades
and the different lands you have
yet to conquer.
Sounds exciting? It definitely
will be. As of now students from
Grimsley, Dudley and Kerners-
ville schools will leave for a viyid
tour of Europe with Mr. Smith, an
English teacher of Grimsley. The
cost of this trip will be roughly
$1500 per student. Included in
this sum is a $65 deposit which
must be paid prior to the trip and
is non-refundable under any
terms. The tour will last 28 days
and the countries toured in that
time will be France, Italy, Spain,
Switzerland and England. “The
trip will give the students a
chance to comparify different
cultures,” Smith says, “and will
provide them with a valid, non
tourist view of the cultures.”
The main purpose of the trip is
to culturally enrich the students
in the literary arts of the Europe
an world. Those who go will have
a chance to talk with a member of
parliament, visit the birthplace of
Shakespeare, attend a number of
plays plus many more attractions.
Perhaps you want to know what
kind of teacher Mr. Smith is
before you start contemplating
how much clothing to take. Well,
you have nothing to worry about
because he is one of the best. A
very intelligent man, Mr. Smith
started teaching nine years ago.
When asked why he decided upon
teaching he replied “My first
iesire to teach came in high
school and I thought of it as a very
nfiuentual position. I really think
;he decision to teach was made
or me becuase it was something I
;ould do well. (Today) teachers
ire sort of seen as slaves of
society where as in Europe,
eachers still command a lot of
■espect. I think people just don’t
■ealize the great efect teachers
lave on a student’s destination.”
Smith is studying to be a
naster of fine art and poetry and
hould be finished in one year. He
Photo by ' Ken Bicknell
has studied at both UNC-G and
Chapel Hill. His favorite writers
are John Fowles, Robert Pen
Warren and John Gardner and
he, himself, also writes poetry.
Mr. Smith was asked for his
opinion of television as opposed
to classic literature. “T.V. is
much abused by the programmer
and viewer alike. It doesn’t fulfill
its potential as the most impor
tant median we have today and I
truly think you can become addic
ted to it. I agree with Frank Lloyd
Wright when he said ‘television is
chewing gum for the eyes’.”
Smith’s classes are by no
means easy. If you like English,
like to read and are willing to put
forth an effort in learning, you
can possibly make an “A” or at
least a “B”. If you are fascinated
with literature, just listening to
him talk allows you to paint a
picture in your mind in that he
explains very vividly and leaves
you feeling like a sponge ready to
soak up knowledge wherever
obtainable. High Life wishes to
speak for the students in saying
that we greatly appreciate Mr.
Smith’s services and dedication to
educating the young. He really
cares. Now you can decide what
to pack and I’ll see you on the
Champs-Elysees.
HIGH LIFE
Published Monthly
Grimsley Senior High School
801 Westover Terrace
Greensboro, N.C. 27408
HIGH LIFE is a member of QuUl and Scroll and The
National Schoiastic Press Association. The cost is $1.50 per
semester, $2.00 per year.
EDITOR Hank Howard
NEWS EDITOR Sara Gramley
NEWS STAFF Manuel Campano, Ellen Mitchell,
Anna Ponlos, Kirk Rice, Jill Utter
FEATURE EDITOR Cindy Ward
FEATURE STAFF Carole Dolin, Cheryl Lnteman,
Martin MUler, Jackie Seism, Joe Morris,
Gerri Ratliff, Ann Strange
SPORTS EDITOR Lisa McDowell
SPORTS STAFF Anthony Beard, Cindy Caveness,
A n A»A Wayne Earley, Jackie Seism, Bryan Smith
AD MANAGER Ja^teSeton
ASST. AD MANAGER Kirk Rice
BUSINESS MANAGER JIU utter
PHOTOGRAPHERS Ken Bicknell, Kathy McEachem
advisor : Kathl Scroog
Children Pick Up
Rules of the World
A baby is born so innocent that
people should stop to catch their
breath. They don’t though,
because birth and innocence are
no longer a novelty, only routine.
Little girls pick the wildflowers
of the season, and study the
intricate petals of Queen Anne’s
Lace, daisies, and dandelions.
They are spellbound by the
delicate beauty that adults are
quick to call weeds.
A child has an uninhabited
imagination that allows jungle
gyms to be castles, and small hills
to be mountains.
Kids cannot lie when they are
young either. Their facial expres
sions have been honest so long
that they can’t conceal the truth.
A child has idealistic goals for
the future. Their vision spreads
over the horizon, where as adults
find it hard to see beyond
tomorrow.
Jethro Tull
As the years pass, their inno
cence is washed over by experi
ence. One can see the next
generation of rednecks at skating
rinks, bowling alleys, and foots-
ball parlors.
The girls have one hand on
their hip while the other hands
runs through their Farrah-Faw-
cett hairstyle. They wear so much
mascara, eye shadow, and lid
liner that one wonders how they
manage to keep their eyes open.
They chew enough gum to choke
a horse; and its not at all
uncommon for them to stop in the
middle of a sentence to blow a
bubble in your face.
The boys have long shaggy
hair. They walk like gorillas with
slumped shoulders and swinging
arms. They are chain smokers;
they hold their cigarette between
their thumb and forefinger so
they can flip it through the air
by Ann Strange
when they’re through. That’s
“cool.”
Do you think that they’re being
stereo-typed? You’re wrong, they
have stereo-typed themselves. If
.one of them were to continuously
step out of the mold set by their
peers, they would become out
casts. The whole scene would be
funny if it were not so sad.
What’s ironic is their ages range
from ten to fourteen.
So when do dandelions become
weeds and castles become jungle
gyms? When does a kid lie and
realize that he can get away with
it? When does a child lose sight of
his dreams; when do black people
become “niggers” and white
people become “honkies.”
The problem is not the kids, but
the society that they are a
reflection of. So they’ve grown up
with peer pressure and prejudice;
does that make it right?
From Commodes to Concerts
by Joe Morris
Before a wildly screaming au
dience, the leader appears, flute
in hand, clad in British riding
apparel. The bassist, dressed in a
tiger suit, and the four other band
members take their places on
stage. The leader blows a few
notes on his flute, and the arena
filled with anxiety, explodes with
sounds of guitar and drums. This
is a Jethro Tull concert.
The leader is wild-eyed, beard
ed Ian Anderson says he once
wanted to be the guy all the girls
screamed over, until he saw his
picture in a magazine. “I knew I
would be loved neither by the
teenyboppers nor their Mums. So
I deliberately found a new direc
tion. I turned my band into a
concert group.”
Jethro Tull is definitely a
concert group. The magnetism of
Anderson’s flute playing and the
powerful guitar of Martin Barre,
the awesome drum solos of
Barriemore Barlow, as well as the
group’s bizarre dress and on
stage antics, all make a Tull
concert one to remember. Jud
ging from the mere six dollar fee
for their electric performance
here last November, you also get
your money’s worth. In fact,
when members of the band
became sick before the recent
appearance in Madison Square
Garden, they gave an abbreviated
show plus a four-dollar refund.
Not bad.
Tull’s albums are not bad
either. Named for a seventeenth
century British agricultural pio
neer, the band itself is a pioneer
in music. With its first album.
This Was is 1968, Jethro Tull first
brought British “underground”
music to the United States. But it
was not until the release of
Benefit in 1970 and Aqnalnng a
year later, that the group first
drew a hard-core following in
America. Typical of the music of
that period, Aqaalang, which
focused on an old man facing life
on the streets, reflected Ander
son’s personal pessimism toward
the world. At the time, it was
what the world wanted to hear,
and it brought Tull to the fore
front of rock music.
However, the group’s next
work. Passion Play, was not as
readily accepted as Aqualung It
was equally brilliant, but repre
sented a radical change from
Tull’s previous albums. Ander
son’s views change as a necessi
ty. “We must all change if we are
to continue to grow.”
After the early seventies, the
popularity of Jethro Tull was on
the decline. The fans of Ian
Anderson began to wonder if his
band would ever return to its
, former prominence in music.
Then, last year, came the release
of Songs from the Wood. This too
was a change from the band’s old
sound, but this change was
accepted hungrily by Tull follo
wers, and the group was re-esta
blished as among the best in rock.
. Jethro Tull consists of Ander
son, Barre, Barlow, bass player
John Glasrock, keyboard man
John Evan, and multi-instrumen
talist David Palmer. The 30-year
old Anderson is the guiding force
and focal point of the band. Born
in Edinburgh and raised in Black
pool, England, he began his
music career playing the guitar.
He recalls his switch to the flute:
“When we were still an unknown
band, I stopped playing the guitar
because someone else in the band
played it better. I went to a music
shop to trade in my own guitar for
any other instrument I could find.
There were only two which I
; fancied, a double bass would
have been a ridiculous thing to
.cart around, so I settled for the
flute.” This account reveals An
derson’s great versatility. In fact,
he also plays the acoustic guitar
and sax, and on occasion, the.
Ian Anderson
violin and trumpet.
Regardless of his immense
talents, Ian Anderson, who has
been given such labels as “De
ranged Flamingo” (because of his
one-legged flute playing stance),
has his critics. Some say his stage
shenanigans and his band’s out
landish costumery are gimmicks
used to attract a following. Gim
micks or not, they are part of
Jethro Tull. And all the band
needs to attract a following is its
unbelievable sound..
And its leader, a very ambi
tious musician, is constantly look
ing for ways to improve that
sound. This hard work has paid
off for Ian; he now owns two large
estates in Britain, has been
married two years, and recently
became the father of James
Duncan Anderson. But things
have not always been so good.
“While waiting for us to get
started, I literally cleaned toilets
for a living. I remind myself it
could happen again.” That seems
unlikely for the man who has
supplied us with his genius for
ten years.