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by Jennifer Woods
Features Vriter
There's something sad about a dining car
uncoupled from its train and carried many
miles to be side-railed as a shopping center
steakhouse.
Two cars of the original Wabash
Cannonball were lifted off their tracks in
Decatur. Illinois. Workmen removed the
metal wheels and replaced them with rubber
ones for the tow to Durham. Now the cars sit
on a section of track in Lakewood Shopping
Center and host kiddies and businessmen
w ho w ill never know the sights and sounds of
the original run.
You enter through the miniature
"Lakewood Station waiting room, and
you're confronted w ith a barrage of Ted.
white and blue choo-choo wallpaper. The
hostess leads you through the foyer and up
the platform into the dining car. Inside, she
seats you at a table covered in green plastic
rather than white linen.
In the interim between ordering dinner
and receiving it. you excuse yourself to walk
in the car. Spying the gold lame private
dining room, you wonder whether it really
looked like that when it served first-class
passengers. You return to the table to
discover the food is not yet ready, and you
wonder how to further appease your hunger.
You notice the original light fixtures and
window blinds, and you toy with them. They
still work, although they're hardly needed
with the florescent lighting.
The dinners come and you find it typical of
steakhouses. As you eat you find yourself
gazing out the window, perhaps too often.
But that's what you're supposed to do on
trains, and it can only be frustrating to see
that beyond your table is. instead of thick
forests, sparkling lakes and gentle
mountains, a dry cleaners and auto parts
stores.
Fortunately some change of scenery takes
place it begins to rain. Your subconscious
desire for change is in part fullfilled.
During dinner you recall the days of
traincar dining, that it was. in its time, one of
the finest cuisine experiences. The specialty
was service: only highly trained and
dedicated men could provide the skill of
aptly maneuvering food and passengers
under moving conditions.
It seems that something of that past echoes
as you eat. However, now there are no
restrictions of movement or timetables.
Perhaps most of all you yearn for the spirit of
anticipation. To arrive in a new place. But
only Durham awaits you upon completion
of your meal.
Your waitress invites you to return as vou
leave. As you exit through the "Station" you
think you probably won't come back again.
People who have eaten on a moving train
probably sense that trains should travel
and if they can't do that they should, like
their old conductors, be left alone with their
memories.
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"9
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by Ellen Horowitz
Features Writer
American children weaned on love story comic books
wind up as mature Americans reading confessional
magazines and 77ie National Enquirer.
They can't help it; it's in the socialization, which is to say
that by now it's in the blood. Comic books now cost more
than Coca Cola, and the publishers put out 50 new
illustrated romances each month.
And the love stories are all the same. There's only one
story worth telling in every girl's life, so each issue features
girls with different-colored mini-skirts above their shiny
white boots. And different names: Lorraine or June or
Diana, but never Mary or Susan.
The comic books might be called My Love or Career Girl
Romance, and the stories might be titled "Holiday of
Heartbreak' or "Country Girl or Country Star." But the tale
is always Sin, Suffer and Repent.
The emotional tones run through tears (blue-green
closeups), angry defiance (orange and red, flashing eyes),
more tears (green this time, from bitterness) and the final
kiss, a pink flourish against a darkened sky.
Emotional scenes are always close-ups of the torture or
rapture in people's eyes. Men's eyes are sketched in black and
white; women's eyes are invariably deep blue.
There are millions of ways for a young girl to go wrong
she can leave home for the big city, spurn the boy next door
for a sophisticated slicker, steal her sister's sweetheart, or
worst of all, reject marriage for a career.
4 g
efi poets dleseirv toeftfceir
by Allie Disbort
Features Writer
Street poets are not an uncommon
phenomenon, but, as with most things these
days, they are dealt with merely in fantasy.
They have become vague generalities, but
most people picture smelly, sloppy drinkers,
v ery w ild-eyed and footloose. To add to that,
street poets are usually hustling money to get
through another day, which does nothing to
enhance their image in the eyes of an
uncaring public.
Even the word "street poet" makes me
cringe a little. Anyone can use it for their
own advantage. But, a true street poet is one
who lives within a non-academic world,
maybe even a more real world. Street poets
are rarely comfortable. Academic poets eat
three square meals per day.
Academic poets are usually appreciated
more by each other and later, as years go by,
end up appreciated by more people because
their names manage to stay in the intellectual
limelight and maybe end up in a textbook or
two.
M ichael D. Rigsby, w hose book of poetry
Spirit Happy was recently published by
Loom Press, is a Chapel Hill street poet. His
life somehow demands that he write, and
since he can never seem to stay in one place
for long, he has taken on all the mystique of
that one last bastion of truth in poetry the
street poet.
Kip Ward, one of Loom Press' leaders and
head of Rainbow Soccer, said, " Rigsby came
in off the street unannounced with his
manuscript telling us that he had to get it
published."
Loom Press is a small local publishing
company run by soccer players and poets.
Being a break-even operation according to
Ward, the press is interested in the words of
local talent. They were impressed by
Rigsby's manuscript.
"He had enormous desire, so we almost
had to publish it," Ward said. "Now, he sells
his book door to door and to people on the
street."
I can never expect readers to come any
closer to Spirit Happy than they would for
any other book they happen across. We
are all cynics in our own ways. You can't
force anyone into anything unless you
promise them sex or food. And most people
regard poetry, especially the very personal
kind, with something less than open arms or
even open minds. WE-DONT-WANT-TO-READ-ABOUT-YOU-WE-WANT-TO-READ-ABOUT-US.
Well, try these lines from Rigsby on for
size:
"We are stars
not any of this bullshit called human
beings
when we fall
it's forever
not into a dirt hole
try covering the universe
with six feet of earth"
The poetry in Spirit floppy has a freshness
and a sense of freedom about it. The reader
feels that, at last, here is a unique voice.
The community of Chapel Hill is a sad
situation for talented local writers. Loom
Press is the only press which consistently
puts out the works by as yet unknown artists.
But even then, they are handicapped by the
necessity to print assorted orders to at least
stay out of the red. The Carolina Quarterly,
fine journal that it is, usually features the
work of non-local talent.
Somebody in this community better get up
off their artsy-craftsy asses and give more
people like Rigsby a chance.
July 29 through August 3rd
Fre-inventory
SALE
Bargains all over the
place come join the fun.
Old Sets
A window full of them all
offered at teeny weeny
little prices.
Bargain Books
Reduced Again!
I 5 c books cut to 3 for 32 $
48C books cut to 3 for $1.00
96$ books to 3 for $2.00.
The Famous
6$ Table.
A groaning board of all
sorts of books we
shouldn't have bought
all cut to 6C each!
Plus 25 Off
All Books
And Prints
Not Otherwise Reduced.
WOW!
The Old Book Corner
137 A East Rosemary Street
Open lOAM to 5:30 P--
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Enjoy Coca-Cola.
The oft drink for people
lookfrg for tKe fun thin&s in life.
Durham Coca-Cola Cousin? Co.
" ' 7 - 1 --n -i 1 1 ii tr i i iillTi itu
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e yours
in color, 25
One girl joined "The Women's Lib Club,"' and paid the
price. In the last frame, she rested her head on her desk in a
dark empty office, crying the tears of the woman damned.
The woman damned is the one without a man. She has
presumed above her station, and so she lives her days in
misery.
Her misery is colored black and steel blue. Her tears glow
white and splash when they fall.
Most stories involve a dream sequence, a male face
hovering in the air above the w oman's sleeping form. If the
man is right for her, he floats on pastel clouds, usually
purple. If he's a no-good creep, and she hasn't learned that
yet, his cloud is jagged and his face half-shadowed. Reader
has to be prepared.
June Wilson is a secretary. She calls herself the "no-talent
typist who hasn't a chance."
June isn't happy with her station, an elementary romantic
sin. She works for the well-known talent agent Bradley Grey,
who has eyes only for glamorous writers and actresses. June
wants Bradley.
She's going to get him. if she can just keep her cool and not
pretend to a life in the limelight. That's certain death in the
love story league.
But it looks grim there at the first. June is the "drab female
in the background." She cries herself to sleep at night
"Why. why wasn't I born talented? Why can't 1 paint or act
or write, or do any of those things that would mean
something to Brad.
"If only I could, everything might be... so different."
That night she dreams in purple and scarlet and pink. It's
going to work out all right.
The victory kiss comes three pages later, after June drags
through the days as Brad's infinitely loyal and patient
assistant. "Ycu are the most talented of all." he finally finds
the nerve to say.
"You have the talent of knowing people know ing how to
make them happy! I want your talent. I want you ... to make
me happy forever!"
The kiss is deep violet, over a pink heart that should
naturally read. "The End." Instead, it affirms in scroll-like
lettering: "The Glorious Beginning."
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TMElnULAES
By n
The only place in Chapel Hill where your rent
dollar buys so many features:
O Clubhouse
O 3 Swimming Pools
O Tennis Courts
O Platform Tennis
O Sauna Baths
O Billiard Room
O Ping Pong
O Foos Ball
O Sunday morning Continental
breakfast
O TV Lounge
O FREE hourly bus transportation to
UNC; Special service to sporting
events, and shopping centers
O Dry cleaning pick-up
O Guest suites available on a nightly
basis
We have selected Mohasco to furnish
O Convenience storage in basement
O 1-Bodroom studio
O 1 -Bedroom mezzanine
O 2-Bedroom flat
O 2-Bedroom townhouso
O Fully electric kitchens with
dishwashers
O Some apartments with fireplaces
O Some apartments with washerdryer
connections
O 24-hour security
O All utilities included in your rent
O Furnished apartments available
O Beautifully landscaped courtyards
O Interest returned on your security
deposit
our apartments.
Located Smith Level Road, Carrboro, N.C.
Rental Office (919) 929-1141 1
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