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a Page 2 The Daily Tor Heel Scturdcy. fc 13, 1972 Roland Giduz REUNION EDITION THE DAILY TAR HEEL Robert H. Morrison Editor Published, quarterly (per century) by the Class of 1947 to commemorate a joyful, nostalgic return to the campus of the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill. OLD FRIENDS A sadness that we cannot escape at Reunion time is learning that an old professor has passed away. This year came the death of Dr. Frank, whom Chancellor House has remembered in a moving statement on the front page of this issue. Death also came to Dean Mackie, whose kindness and deep devotion to student welfare are remembered by every member of the Class of 1947. Death came also to "Mr. Danziger," who was not a member of the official university family, but was certainly as close as any unofficial member could get. Ah, the plans we made and plots we schemed in his coffeehouse on Franklin Street. They buried Dr. Frank in the old campus cemetery among a group of his distinguished friends. We were surprised at how many names on tombstones we tearfully remembered. Near Dr. Frank lies Joseph Merritt Lear (August 30, 1950), "King Lear" as we fondly called him as he kept a tight rein on student publication finances at the Publications Board, restraining our impulses to spend student money in a way that did not make us always happy at the time but which we knew most of the time was right. Nearby are the graves of sportswriter Julius Jennings Wade (May 9, 1962) and Judge Henry Adams Whitfield (October 26, 1962) and historian Robert D. W. Connor (February 25, 1950). Journalism Professor Oscar Jack Coffin (October 29, 1956) is still designated "Skipper," and the tombstone of James Moore Tatum (July 23, 1959) reads "Chosen National Football Coach of the Year 1953 by his Colleagues." All around there are more memories of the old men we loved: Public Servant John Wesley Umstead, Jr. (August 21, 1968), Botany Professor Robert Ervin Coker (October 2, 1967), Lav Professor Robert Hasley Wettach (1964), English Professor John Manning Booker (March 12, 1948), English Professor Englis Bagby (January 15, 1955), and Sociology Professor Howard W. Odum (November 8, 1954). And, alas, there are more and more. A Good YACK DTH editorialists have reviewed other campus publications now for more than three-quarters of a century, and it falls our pleasant duty to call attention to the excellent Yackety Yack now off the press and available at Reunion. This publication, billed the "Revised Yackety Yack of the Class of 1947," took lots of work and it is a gem that we will treasure through the years. It shows the journalistic talent of Sibyl Goerch Powe, now of Durham, who was a well known DTH staffer back then. Her distinguished father, Carl Goerch, was the founder of the State (Down Home in North Carolina) maeazine. Assisting Sibyl and labeled "Survey Editor" is Katherine Coleman Williams; Kit has worked hard and has faithfully attended the committee meetings that led up to the present big Reunion weekend. Other members of the staff are Frances Drake Bryant, Louise Kaufmann, and Mary Grace Queen Megginson. Tookie Hodgson Humorizes Again Seymour Sinkhole IV, Class of '47, tossed sleeplessly in his bed. It had been a disturbing day for the aging fraternity man; even the crashing sound of broken glass that was wafted by the gentle May breeze into his room at the Inn from the Inka Dinka Doo House a hundred yards away did little to assuage his troubled spirit. "Smashing glasses is only a part of the fun," he reflected, thinking of the grand times that he and his fellow Inka Dinka Doos had had a quarter-century ago. Those were the days, he sighed inwardly. . . . That morning, Seymour Sinkhole IV was filled with the joy of anticipation. This was to be the first day that the former campus socialite and bon vivant had spent in Chapel Hill since his graduation, twenty-five years ago. He dressed himself with care: seersucker jacket, tan poplin slacks, pink button-down shirt, black knit tie, and only slightly-scuffed white buckskin shoes. To his shirt, just above the breast, he affixed the half-pound confection of gems and precious metal that denoted his membership in the Ancient and Majestic Fraternal Order of Inka Dinka Doo. Life had been good to him, he reflected, as he surveyed the fashionable image in the full-length mirror. Aside from some slight aging, he was the same Seymour Sinkhole IV of old even the sneer was the same, since his career as a high-ranking bureaucrat had heightened, rather than lessened, those qualities of arrogance and fatuity that had so distinguished him as an undergraduate. The glorious Chapel Hill May morning delighted him, as he strode breakfastwards to Jeffs nothing like a cold brew to start the day off. After seven Schlitzes and three packages of peanuts, he felt rejuvenated as he sloshed down Franklin Street. Dexterously, he picked his way through the nondescript mass of dungarees, beards, sandals, flowing tresses, and granny glasses of the university proletariat. Except for the majestic buiks of Kenan Professors dignified gentlemen, whose appearance suggested both lassitude and imperiousness there was a faded blueness about the swarms of humanity that thronged the familiar thoroughfare. "O Tempora O Mores," quoted Seymour, sadly. In my day, he reflected, all the men would have been dressed in sun tans, loafers, and button-down shirts; whilst the coeds would have worn neat, attractive frocks j11, anyway, brassieres, certainly. . . . A familiar face flashed before the Fraternity Chieftain's eyes It was the countenance of Montmorency "Pig" McGonigle, a fellow Inka Dinka Doo, and on more than one occasion, twenty-five ..'t.'.'Sr'.'.'.'.--: and more years ago, a boon companion in Seymour Sinkhole IV's bacchanalian revels. "Pig, you !" shouted Seymour. 'Seymour, you responded McGonigle, with equal delight. The two Brothers, ' arm in arm, repaired back to Jeff's, McGonigle for breakfast, and Seymour for a light brunch. As the Schlitzes were served and emptied, the two OldGrads exchanged impressions of Alma Mater. "Too many changes," opined Pig, as he browsed over a bowl of peanuts. "Completely different crowd," noted Seymour. "Things were better in the 40's." "Much better." . "Girls looked like girls." "Men got haircuts." "Students bathed." "Fraternity men took pride in their associations." "Football players were better paid." "Everybody who was anybody took Professor Harlan's Biblical Archaeology." Thus, the two friends passed the morning, and a part of the afternoon, partaking deeply of the golden goodness, their voices mounting in volume. "All the way, Choo Choo!" they cheered, again and again, as blurry visions of "22" dodging through the Duke football team flitted through their befogged consciousnesses. "Let's sing," suggested Seymour to Pig. "Let's do," replied his comrade. Louder and louder, from the hallowed portals of Jeff's, the voices of the two Old Grads sounded up and down Franklin Street. "Roll me over . . ." "I used to work in Chicago." Verse after verse of these traditional collegiate lieder filled the precincts of the township. An increasingly numerous audience gathered, soon joined by two of Chapel Hill's gendarmerie. By verse thirty-one of "Chicago," the constables knew full well the path of their duty. Swooping, lunging, diving, and still singing, Seymour Sinkhole IV and Montmorency "Pig" McGonigle were escorted to durance vile. A nearby pride of ancient Kenan Professors interrupted their discussion of the recent basketball season to survey the noisy spectacle. "Isn't that young Sinkhole IV?" grunted one. "11mm," responded another. "That's McGonigle with him?" "Mmm." "Thank God some things about Chapel Hill haven't changed in the last twenty -five years!" he declared fervently. "Mmmm." (Continued from page 1 ) Hill Weekly: "Great minds are few. and great souls are rare. In Frank Porter Graham we were privileged to have both" There was talk of television, but in the year 1947 radio was the really big thing in the national media. Despite this there was a fairly close vote, 53-45, when the faculty voted to create the Department of Radio' at UNC, with Prof. Earl Wynn. Director of the also-new Communication Center, as the first chairman. "Radio is a young, powerful, hungry giant medium," said Prof. Wynn. ''Our purpose is to supply it with intelligent, well-trained, educated university men and women." This fall, after having sent more than 400 graduates to the "hungry medium," what is now the Department of Radio. Television, and Motion Pictures will observe its 25th anniversary with a departmental reunion and three-day program of seminars and lectures. A milestone was also passed in 1947 by the University Press, whifch commemorated its 25 th year by publishing a catalogue of its more than 500 titles, "Books from Chapel Hill.' '"The First State University: A Pictorial History of the University of North Carolina" is being released this week as the hallmark of this the Press's 50th anniversary year. Students in the Class of '47 sensed that they were a "different" generation of students. Most of the men had been through the war. Everybody sensed that changes in the world, wrought by the world-wide hostilities and the birth of the atomic age, had rightfully altered the Carolina student's outlook on life. Though there were no Negroes in the student body of 7,000, this generation was constructively anticipating the changes to come. Comparatively minor things, that would in a few years be un-noticed, were cited as instances of Carolina's liberal thinking. The Council for Religion in Life sponsored a concert by soprano Dorothy Maynor. Afterwards the Daily Tar Heel noted that "for the first time to our knowledge, a Negro and white audience attended a public concert in Memorial Hall without any segregation in the seating arrangements." This exemplified, the editorial declared, "the progressive attitude and way of thinking so sadly lacking among so many of our nation's so-called leaders." An incident that became a landmark civil rights case on appeal to higher courts originated in Chapel Hill early that spring when four members of the Fellowship for Reconciliation, two Negroes and two whites, boarded a bus for Durham and refused to move to the rear as state law and custom dictated. A companion racial incident, followed by a flurry of tense scenes at the home of the Rev. Charles M. Jones, culminated in a mass meeting at Memorial Hall. Soon there were letters to the editor of the Daily Tar Heel warning of mongrelization of the races. At a meeting of the University trustees, UNC sociologist Guy Johnson, on leave as Director of the Southern Regional Council, was assailed for allegedly advocating "amalgamation of the races." Responding prophetically, Dr. Johnson said that "segregation was becoming not only a legal but a moral problem" and that the church would be "challenged more and more by this question." While these issues were still hot a press report came down from Washington that the University was to be investigated for Communistic activities again. (It had been a target of the Dies Committee on Un-American Activities in 1941 and 1942 also.) The headlines were the extent of this particular issue as President Graham announced that he would welcome any investigation. Today's Carolina campus is still, in Ba Mill rron (Continued from page 1) to Carolina-Duke football game from Woollen Gym. Nov. 23, 1947-Carolina 21, Duke Nothing. Dec. 1, 1947 Faculty says no post-season bowl games will be accepted for football team. Dec. 5, 1947-"Dan the Dog," missing for several weeks from his Y Court haunt, found in Charleston, S.C. Needs ride home. Dec. 9, 1947-50-yard dash will herald off-season track meet at H6gan's Lake on Sunday as football star Art Weiner races against a horse with Margaret McGirt astride: Odds, taken by Buckwheat Highsmith in Alderman Dorm, favor the horsV 2 to 1,000. Dec. 12, 1947-Students chant "Our Town Is Red Hot" as $50,000 fire guts two buildings on Franklin Street. Jan. 6, 1948 "I got lost hunting' timberwolves in the Arkansas Mountains," said Matthew M. (Tookie) Hodgson, editor of the "Tarnation" Magazine, in explaining his absence from classes for several days. Jan. 17, 1948 Death of loyal alumnus Josephus Daniels great loss to UNC. Jan. 21, 1948 Norman Cordon, first N.C. met star, recalls for students when gin was distilled on 3rd floor of South. Building. Jan. 28, 1948-Norman Thomas will speak here Feb. 10 against UMT (Universal Military Training). Feb. 5, 1948-Waliace Club will hear labor leader. (It refers to Henry, not George, Wallace). Feb. 17, 1948-Dr. Frank receives generous welcome home from UN mediation sessions. March 3, 1948-Celebrated Poet Robert Lee Frost to speak tonight. And then the mustv old book closed. y wn.tc. tne over-a.. 1 . . - i Zz--rn, V-,- .i. ....... one of s 40. Bui it is. bv the determination. - campus, determined and to increase vi Opor i.its iO; rr. .ion i p-rso.. &i a-s levels :n Chapel H:ll. Two key positions in z f, tr.e commun: occupied Negroes both popularly elected. Howard N. Lee. a 196-5 graduate degree recipient, is the Mayor of the Town, and Richard it v i.rrur.gton vas this elected president of the student body. Reading the ads in the Daily Tar Heel of. '47 gives a good measuring rod of the - r 1 iiV scale and stvle of those da vs. For instance: Sirloin steak at 69 cents a pound (A i Ph or the 55-cent breakfasts at Danziger's: and even the wooden ice box and oil stove which Perry Payr.e 4S advertised for sale at his Victor." Village apartment. Terrace View Supper Club, touted as "Carolina's Coziest Dancing Spot." was open even.- night for dandng (couples only), five miles west on the Graham highway. The "TV" is still there but as a campground for the Church of God. Top entertainment spot on campus was the Vets Ciub, a modestiy redecorated lounge taken over from the Navy Pre-Flight School for which it was built as a wrestling pavilion. Open each evening and with a live band and shows on weekends it featured candlelit tables and set-ups. In wilder days, some will recall, more than a few illicit drinks were sold across the bar there. If you look for the Vets Club, then located just past center field of Emerson Stadium, you'll likely miss even the vicinity. Emerson Stadium has been demolished and the new "Y Court" of the campus is on the site. "The Pit," a plaza surrounded by the Carolina Union, Student Store, and Undergraduate Library, is about where the Vets Club of those bygone days was. v. O 7 Mrs. Art Thomas of Concord smiles at her husband, who served as promotional chairman for the Reunion. Looking on is Class President Frank Alspaugh, who serves as Assistant to the Governor of the Commonwealth of Virginia, directing that state's Division of Industrial Development. Needless to say, it took a little money management sawy to make this Reunion a success, and so Jim White (shown here with Mrs. White) was pressed into service. Now executive vice president of the North Carolina National Bank at Charlotte, Jim often gets appointed to do things: like last month the mayor of Charlotte and the chairman of the board of commissioners of Mecklenburg County jointly appointed him head of the local environmental council. Art Shain, now a jeweler in Lumberton, sits with his lovely wife at the Carolina Inn recently, listening to Reunion Chairman Jim Camp outline plans for the big event Art was in charge of the reception yesterday. Dewey Dorsett (left), president of the student body back then, appears with Alumni Secretary Clarence Whitefield '44 at a Reunion planning session held last November at the Carolina Inn. Dewey is now practicing medicine in Charlotte and has been in charge of fund raising for the Reunion. prac;:cai t A ' I ''If I , -Jr ! ) 3 : ft- - i ., ""St m 1 t ' f -' ad' m ; t - I I Be blue, bold bluets. Beholding and beholden to t the new Spring, you can not know the old wonder belcv. Old oak with hoary branches, wrap your roots around one who was also strong through many sec and saw many acorns grow. Massive maple, open new shoots on strong old boughs, as he supported a new liberalism on old wisdom. Gray squirrel, you scamper wirh an energy from a pool common with his. Green grass, cover the scar. His battles some won, some lost, all fought with courage and honor are over. Purple periwinkle, entwine the stone as his love encompassed all humanity. White-winged mockingbird, re-sing the song in another and another Spring. Recently I grew a beard and became a philosopher. I used to think it was the other way around, and with Socrates and the rest it may have been. With me, however, the beard came first. For one thing, it came out mostly gray. And when you're twenty -odd years out of college, trying to ignore the bald spot on the back of your head and fighting to hold your weight at the same 202 pounds you weighed as an .undergraduate (ignoring also the obvious fact that there has been a major redistribution of that weight), there is something definitely thought-provoking about having a mostly-gray beard right under your nose each morning when you brush your teeth. Then there are the comments you get. The one I treasure most came from the guy who said I looked "like a skinny Ernest Hemingway." (Despite my own minor literary pretensions I'm afraid I would have been just as happy if he'd said I looked like a skinny Frankenstein's Monster. I didn't appreciate the comparison with Burl Ives one bit.) Mostly, however, it's been startled double-takes and wry witticisms from my peers and looks of approval from the younger generation. So now, despite my own. often-voiced opinions about the flaws, faults and failures of today's youth, I have found myself in somewhat the same position as a politician being voted against by his own party and supported by the opposition; to wit: I have been dizzily trying to reconcile my prejudices with my ego. My own well-known reactionary Republican views and tendency to fight for the last nickle lying loose in a business deal have prevented those who know me from labelling me as a middle-aged hippie. With strangers it is a different matter, and it comes as a genuine surprise to a former conformist just how little it does take to create a situation of "us" versus "them"! I'm inclined to doubt that the under-21 vote will materially affect things for a while, but I'm optimistic that this new generation will handle it okay. We philosophers are always optimistic! ?. -V--AL" " . 1 -- v ' .. ? ' . ' ... i I . ' , ' ' ' - : - t i ' - V .- -- L jr ' ' ? - " . .- v f . : - - University North Carolina :T6DEXT IDEKTlFlCmOM -SO SO-S! 11-12 f V Sear the top if not at the top list of favorite conversational top.i- z: -class reunion is the comparison of ' classmates look now nith hou looked then. To illustrcti :-. phenomenon, ue selected Eduzra Smith, whom we thought ucs a r.imi-. " of the Class of '41, but actually end-, a -officially in "48. '7 spent three .-: the sopho more class," he co nfe .-. a. -knew Ed in 1947 as a slender, faced lad scarcely looking old er.oug". :. be a high school senior, not unlike ;. likeness appearing here on his old card. Ed today has become a p-ynd-.r: room-filling Prophet Moses. He r.ou in Cleveland County, where he chairman of the Republican Party and -candidate for Congress in 1964, and -Presidential Elector in 1968. He eans living as a textile executive. Personify r. change, so visually he seemed the r:gr.: one to csk for a bit of philosopher: here. With little reluctance he cccepita feili ill r mi i" fi ! t i "NX
Daily Tar Heel (Chapel Hill, N.C.)
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May 13, 1972, edition 1
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