ean Travel; Focus on Vienna
page iiiiie/the Carolina journal/april 6, J976
AUCTIONS
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ice field, aqua-emerald-aqua color
running through the infamous salt
mines under one of the mountains,
and courses ’ down , through the
town of, Salzburg dividing it into
the new city and the old city.
A few miles from
Berchdesgaten is a dusky jeweled
lake, dotted with hemlocked islets
and surrounded by mountains. It is
Koenigs Lake (Kings Lake), ■ and
except for the fact that it is one of
the main tourist attractions, it is
one of the most gorgeous places I
have ever been. The guide told us
that on a summer day they could
expect 4000 tourists. There was a
good hiking path beside the lake,
and with 4000 people marching
breast to breast in the heat it must
have been oppressive.
Since the Sound of Music was
made in this area, (all the guides
point out proudly where every
scene was shot) I have been looking
for eidleweiss, but now it is only
available in plastic reproduction. I
think if they showed the Sound of
Music every night in this town,
there would still be enough people
come to see it. This is a storybook
country. It is impos.sible not to like
it, even though you feel you might
make a moral statement about it
just because it appealed to an evil
man like Hitler.
■ 4: « :jc « 4c « 9fc % 4:
Vienna dances, Vienna glows.
Baroque palaces are pretty girls
reflected in the Donau. Acres of
manicured gardens form moats
around castles. Vienna sings to the
music of Brukner, Vienna waltzes
to Strauss. The opera soars while
Gilso putto ptoint to a dome
bedecked with an ascension mural.
Ancient city walls have become
foundations. Gilded mirrors reveal
a beautiful face.
Scarring the face are giant
bulldozers and diggers excavating a
subway. Beneath the city, 30 or 40
feet are ruins of another Wien,
Roman bricked, columned, arched
and frescoed. Bulldozers rip
relentlessly. You stand on a
wooden platform ne.xt to the
Graben and speculate on the city
being uncovered. Everything is
built on the shoulders of something
else.
Klimpt surpassed Beardsly.
Hunderwasser built Klimpt. All
knew the power of an icon. All felt
at some point their painting was
being produced by a supernatural
being.
Vienna is vision. Vision is
fleeting. Time is fleeting. Vienna is
time. Time wears a veil. Veils
conceal visions. Visions become
dances. Dances glow. Palaces are
pretty. Girls are reflected.
Reflections, are fleeting. Vienne,
Wien, fabulous Vienna.
GOOD 01 DAYS
Davis disproves doubters
By Les Bowen
UNCe senior Greg Davis has
spent most of his life doing things
people told him he could not do.
Davis was born in Harlem, New
York 24 years ago. This, in itself, is
not unusual. Greg, however, was
born with “terminal vision” - a
detached retina in his left eye and a
cataract in his right.
Most of his life has been spent
overcoming barriers - his blindness,
the death of his parents, the school
official who told him he “wasn’t
college material.” Davis says,
however, he has “a driving force
within me...to prove that just
because I’m blind I’m not a burden
to society.”
Davis said his parents told him
he was going blind when he was ten
or 11 years old. “I decided I wasn’t
going to let that get me down,” he
said. “1 was going to do what I
wanted to do anyway.”
Greg came to North Carolina
14 years ago. He was able to
prepare for his blindness by
attending the North Carolina State
School for the Blind. Officials at
the school thought his career
ambitions were too high though
and tried to discourage him from
thinking about a career in politics'
or even a college education.
Davis left the school in disgust
and came to live with his
grandmother and uncle in
Charlotte. He finished his high
school education at Central
Piedmont Community College
(CPCC) and began college there.
A friend at CPCC approached
him one day about taking a seat in
the Student Legislature. Greg was
considering the idea when his
friend asked him to run for the vice
presidency instead. He ran and
won. The next vear he ran for
student body president. It was a
rough campaign, but Dax'is won.
“My opponent said not to vote for
me because I was blind,” he said.
“1 think' he turned a lot of people
off by saying that, though, and it
may have helped me get elected.”
Davis said politics at CPCC
were virtually ignored by the
student body when he took office.
“I made Student Government
visible,” he said, “everyone knew
Greg Davis. I never hesitated to get
involved in controversy.” Davis
served two terms as student body
president.
Davis transferred to UNCC last
spring. He received CPCC’s
Hagemeyer award for service to the
school last fall.
Davis, a senior religion major
who wants to become a minister
and then possibly enter politics,
will , attend Duke Divinity School
next year on a Rockefeller Grant.
“I see religion and politics as being
intermixed,” he explained,
‘‘especially in the black
community. Tm not really exactly
sure what I want to do, other than
that religion and politics will enter
into it. I like Reverend Jesse
Jackson’s style...1 would like to
teach a little.
Davis says he enjoys singing
and listening to music. He is a
member of the UNCC Black
Student Union Choir and is vice
president of the Salem Baptist
Church choir. He says his tastes run
to jazz and progressive rock.
“Stevie Wonder is my main man,”
he said, “for obvious reasons.”
.Greg lists his major
accomplishments with little
self-conciousncss or false humility.
They include a Phi Beta Kappa
award in junior college; listing
among Who’s Who in American
junior Colleges, chairmanship of
the UNCC Student Legislature’s
Executive Committee, membership
in the Baptist Student Union and
the Black Student Union,
participation in the North Carolina
Student Legislature, the National
Bicentennial Commission...the list
is cridless. It is recited with a quiet
pride - not a pride born of conceit
but rather the pride of one who all
his life has been told “you can’t”-
and is busy proving to the world
that he can.
Samuel E. Spear
Female athletes have certainly done well for themselves in
recent years, particularly in non-team sports. Once considered side
shows at best, competitions among women athletes now draw large
(if not spectacular) crowds and feature six figure purses most male
athletes would have thought to be fantastic only a dozen years ago.
Considering the mushrooming growth of distaff sporting events,
your humble servant finds it curious (and not a little unfair) that the
lady who first proved the potential of female athletic prowess has
become little more than a hazy memory to all but the true
afficionados of sport. The lady, of course, is none other than the
great Mildred (Babe) Didrikson Zaharias.
Born Mildred Mildred Ella Didrikson in Port Arthur, Texas on
June 26, 1914, the wonder woman of 50’s sport first came to
prominence by winning the baseball and javelin throwing events of
the Women's National A.A.U. championships in 1930 and 1931. She
performed equally well in qualifying to represent the U.S. in the
Olypic Games of 1932, where she won the javelin throwing gold
medal with a toss of over 143 feet, in addition to setting a new
world’s record of 11.7 seconds in the 80 meter hurdles. Sportswriter
Grantland Rice took notice of the 18 year old and invited her to
play golf with himself and several of his colleagues. She eagerly
accepted, despite not caring much for thee game (she considered it
too slow). After a quick lesson from Olin Dutra (‘32 PGA champion
and pro at the Brentwood course where they played), she went out
and hit several 260 yard drives, this at a time when a 240 yard tee
shot was considered a hell of a knock. Mr. Rice (a very adept judge
of athletic talent) wrote that she had greater natural ability for golf
than for any other sport and by 1935 she was playing the game
regularly and well. Just five years later, in 1940, she won the
Women’s Western Open and the Texas Open.
Though golf was to become her primary claim to fame, it was
not her only area of expertise. She became a good enough tennis
player to hold her own against Alice Marble in friendly matches and
carried a 178 average in a bowling league, once rolling a 700 series.
In a pre-game exhibition at Yankee Stadium, she managed to strike
out Joe DiMaggio and get light hits off the pitching of Spec Shea,
'^is versatility combing with her fleetness of foot prompted golf
writer Charles Price to pen a statement along the lines of, “...if
asked, I don't doubt she would have entered the Kentucky Derby!.’’
(During the Depression, she almost did agree to a carnival stunt
consisting of running a foot race against a horse). She played
numerous exhibitions of many sports throughout her career and
could be genuinely outrageous (albeit always good copy) with such
quips as “Hildegarde, it’s not just enough to swing at the ball.
You've got to loosen your girdle and really and let the ball have it!’’
She married wrestler George Zaharias in 1938 and he proved the
perfect comedy foil for her antics, as well as a sharp business
manager for the purses she was beginning to realize.
Her fame became worldwide in 1947 when she became the first
American to win the British Women’s Ameteur. Subsequently, the
United States Golf Association (one of the strictest ruling bodies in
sports) hinted that the kind of money she was receiving for
exhibitions did not go along with her ameteur status (which had
already been relinqueshed once) and despite the limited
opportunities available to her, she turned professional for the
second time. But the Babe, Mr. Zaharias, and sports promoter Fred
Corcoran met with a dew interested parties in ’46 to found what
would one day become the Ladies’ Professional Golfers’
Association. There were several 1948 tournaments which offered
cash prozes to female pro golfers, but the Babe’s primary headlines
that year came from another run-inn with the U.S.G.A. Having
conquered all the worlds available in women’s competition, she
decided to go on to other trials and sent in an entry for the U.S.
Open of ‘48. The Association’s officials were dumbfounded and
weren’t sure what to do, as the premier championship's rules simple
stated that it was open to all professionals (no sex clause) and
low-handicap amateurs. The U.SiG.A. recovered quickly, though, •
and within 24 hours changed the tournament’s name to the U. S.
Men’s Open, simultaneously releasing a statement saying that “As
the championship has always intended to be for men, the eiligibility
rules have been changes to confirm that condition. Thus, the
U.S.G.A. has declined an informal entry submitted on behalf of Mrs.
George Zaharias.” She did win the U.S. Women's Open that year, in
addition to the distaff division of the “World” Championship'at
Tam O’Shanter, finishing the year as the leading women’s money
winner with $3,400. She continued her run of success into 1949 to
De voted Greatest Female Athlete of the half-century by the
Associated Press and in 1952 appeared with Spencer Tracy and
Katherine Hepburn (an excellent golfer herself) in the movie “Pat
and Mike”.
Constant fatigue in late ‘52 and early '53 led to the frightening
diagnosis that the Babe was suffering from cancer. A colostomy was
performed and doctors said she would probably be able to play golf
again, albeit not tournament golf. So correct was their diagnosis that
in the Women’s Open of 1954, she only managed to shoot 291 and
win the game’s most p^-estigious female title by twelve strokes. She
was 1954’s second leading money-winner with over $14,000 despite
only being able to play in half of the events. But back trouble
developed in 1955, followed by a return of the cancer everyone
though she was rid of for good. She never quit trying or making her
outrageous jokes up until the date of her death on September 29,
1956.^ The world’s greatest sportswriters did not go in for lavish
eulogies, referring to her simply as “The greatest woman athlete this
century will see.”