4 The Daily Tar Heel Wednesday, September
Romantic extreme
Civil War novel
Not since Gone With the Wind has there
been such an unahashedly romantic novel
about the Civil War South as Blood Red
Rases by Elizabeth Boatwright Coker.
author of seven previous historical novels.
(E. P. Dutton Co. 278 pp. $9.95)
And what a heroine is Angelica Burwell
Berrien, proud, ' beautiful, impetuous, a
splendid horsewoman and nearly six feet
tall. And how she loved Beau Berrien. Hilton
Head Island cotton planter, "the finest deer
and waterfowl shot in the Low Country."
whom she met in the stable of her uncle's
Virginia plantation, fell in love with
immediately and married in the parish
church a few weeks later.
If all of this sounds like High Romance, it
is. But no more so than Elizabeth Coker's
own romance. After graduating from
books
By WALTER SPEARMAN
Blood Red Roses
By Elizabeth Boatwright Coker
Converse College in 1929, she went to New
York "to write" and found a job modeling
hats and shoes for Saks Fifth Avenue. On a
"blind date" at the Cotton Club in Harlem,
she met James Lide Coker III, who was from
Hartsville, S.C., only 15 miles from her own
home town of Darlington. She went to a tea
dance with him at the Plaza the next day.
took a carriage ride in Central Park on
Sunday and a week later she accepted his
proposal on a roller coaster ride in Coney
Island.
Ten years and two children later she
started writing seriously and in 1950. on her
twentieth wedding anniversary, her first
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28, 1977
novel about her South was published,
"daughter of Strangers." Others followed:
The Day of the Peacock. India Allan, The
Rig Drum, and la Belle. Her latest novel.
The Bees, came out in 1968. alter her
husband's death. Both South Carolina and
North Carolina claim Coker as a native
writer, since she spends her winters in
Harlsx ille and her summers in Blowing
Rock.
Coker sets a fast pace as she unfolds her
plot, but she also handles her characters
deftly and sets her scene with the lyric beauty
of the live oak trees and the old Southern
plantation houses. Angel Berrien learns how
to run the plantation, how to cope with the
slaves, how to ward off the unwelcome
attentions of the suave Yankee colonel who
befriends her in her husband's absence and
how to take care of her three young brothers-in-law.
including the 8-year-old Button, who
was too sensitive to shoot a bird but knew
how to handle a gun w hen a crisis demanded
it. The excitement and the dangers of the
Civil War and an enemy-occupied
plantation provide authentic historical
background but never obscure the real-life
people w ho live and love and fight and suffer
on Hilton Head Island. The black slaves are
portrayed sympathetically: and Mrs. Coker
is adept at rendering the Gullah dialect
without allowing it to become unintelligible.
Blood Red Roses makes exceptionally
good reading because you get utterly
involved in what is happening to these
engaging people. You can enjoy hissing the
villain, applauding the hero and actually
loving the heroine. When Angel is convicted
of killing a Yankee general and is about to be
hanged, you know perfectly well that Beau
Berrien will sweep up on his silver horse and
rescue her and you wouldn't have it
happen otherwise. You know why this is
called "a romantic novel." You are glad it is.
And you suspect that Angel Berrien has
some unexpected resemblance to Elizabeth
Coker herself.
Lab Theatre performs
'A Doll's House'
The UNC Lab Theatre opens its 1977-78
season tonight with Henrik Ibsen's A Doll's
House, which will run through Saturday
with performances at 8 p.m. each night in the
Lab Theatre, 06 Graham Memorial. Tickets
are available at Graham Memorial.
Under the supervision of MFA acting
student Bud de Winter, the Lab Theatre will
present three major works each semester,
and supplemental productions as they
develop. These shows will have auditions
open to all undergraduates and to the
community.
Auditions for The Hostage, by Brendan
Behan, w ill be held on Oct. 14. Contact the
Lab Office for further information at 933
1133 ....
There's a new night bus in
Chapel Hill. It's smaller than a
regular bus and it's called
Shared Ride Taxi. And, though
it's a Carolina Cab, it's spon
sored by Chapel Hill Com
munity Transit and it'll still
;aM ,09H
y
get you where you want to go
Once you have a bus pass, a
mere 25?! will pay your way
between any two bus stops in
Chapel Hill. That's for the
hours of 7:00 to midnight,
weekdays. Door to bus stop,
or vice versa, is only 50tf. And
door to door is only 75?!. For
folks over C5 or kids 6-12, the
fares are even less, and kids
under 6 ride free with an adult.
SRT goes anywhere you want
within a quarter mile of any
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The well drillers outside Saunders Hall toil
of the drillers said, "Lot of work tied up in
drill." Staff photo by Fred Barbour.
bus route in Chapel Hill. This
service is not available in Carr
boro or within the UNC
campus core. But SRT will
connect with the U Campus
Route, which operates until
1:30 am.
iolhapoint
Here's how to use the SRT
service. Get a bus pass. Then
call 942-3668 or 929-2197
about an hour before you
want to be picked up. Give
your name, pick-up location,
desired pick-up time, destina
tion and phone number. 'The
dispatcher wit' try to arrange
your trip :.0 close as possible
to the time you want, and lie
will ( ail you back if a delay
requites rescheduling. All you
J i is wait tor the bus to arrive.
long and hard in the noonday heat. As one
it. But sometimes we just sit and watch it
Just remember that it looks
like a taxi, but it is a bus. A
Chapel Hill bus.
CHAPEL
HILL
COMMUNITY
TRANSIT
It's the way to go.
929 2197
942-3668
Drillers search for water,
working long, grimy hours
By ZAP BRL'ECKNER
Staff Writer
The double-stacked diesel has been
roaring for almost 1 1 hours now as it bores a
six-inch carbide steel bit into solid granite
more than 300 feet below the surface of the
UNC campus.
The huge drilling-rig truck stands behind
Old East on its shiny hydraulic jacks. In the
spotlights of the 38-foot derrick the long, tall
shaft spins slowly as it grinds the bit through
the subterranean world in search of water.
One man stands on a platform on the
drilling rig, where he controls the engine
speed and the drill speed. His younger
assistant cleans out the mud ditch where
sludge runs from the hole to a nearby storm
drain.
These are the well diggers who have been
digging for water on campus over the past
two months. John Wilhelm is the driller. He
wears a blue workshirt, blue pants, heavy
leather boots and he has an oily rag hanging
out of his back pocket. The middle-aged
driller has been d igging wells for 24 years and
finds the job worthwhile.
"Anyone who has been doing it for as long
as I have must like it," he says.
The pay is good, but the hours are long
and grimy. The men work on long shifts
sometimes II or 12 hours per day. Since
Wilhelm and his apprentice driller are from
Charlotte, they live in a motel during the
week and go home on the weekends.
"We've been getting off around nine
o'clock," Wilhelm says. "When I first got up
here we worked six days a week."
Wilhelm squats down to watch the shaft
spinning and listens carefully to the
deafening sound of the diesel.
Most of the 14 wells they had bored had
plenty of water, but Wilhelm acquired the
nickname of "Dry Hole" the other day when
he dug his 1 3th hole and came up dry. ("Dry"
means only two gallons per minute. The
drillers aim for 25 gallons per minute when
drilling for commercial purposes.)
"Dry Hole" shrugged it off. After all, it
was the 13th hole.
Wilhelm's apprentice driller. Junior
Broome, finished cleaning out the mud ditch
and came over to talk or rather yell
over the roar of the diesel and metallic
ringing of the drilling rig.
Broome. 21, has only been drilling for a
year and one half. He is not sure how long he
wants to drill, but right now he likes working
outdoors.
"It's all right money," Broome says. "Lot
of work tied up in it, but sometimes we just
sit and watch the drill."
From the looks of the operation, however,
he doesn't suffer from too much watching.
After cleaning out the mud ditch again, he
adjusts the hoses injecting water and suds
into the shaft. This is done to keep the
broken rock and dust in a muddy sludge;
otherwise, dust would cover the entire area
hairy buffaloes
"pretty hairy" according to those who
have had it.
Delta Kappa Epsilon fraternity has a
martini chug, in which a contest is held
to see which brother can chug the most
martinis. A professor is asked to judge
the contest and last year's winner drank
10 three-ounce martinis.
Alderman Dorm is going to have a
"Talent and Gong Show" mixer where
dorm members will present talent before
such campus-celebrity judges as Student
Body President Bill Moss and
basketball player Rich Yonaker.
Phi Mu sorority has a "Susie
Sorority" mixer where the girls and guys
try to exaggerate the fraternity-sorority
image.
Some theme mixers are traditional
128 E. Franklin Street
Next to Yogurt Barn Downtown
Bar Phone: 929-8276 Deli Phone: 929 -
Coming Friday and Saturday
THE BLAZERS
Dance to English, Beach
and Rock & Roll
OATO
MAD 'HATTER
VST
X M J
around the drilling rig.
Broome also sharpens drill bits and works
at other oddjobs around the site.
One of his tasks is to take samples of the
sludge at 10-foot intervals and lay the
shovelfuls in separate piles. Later he bags a
sample of each and puts the bags in a box
that will go to Raleigh for study.
Bill Council is a drilling superintendent
for the company. He started out as an
apprentice driller in 1953 working for 80
cents an hour.
"I started after I got out of high school,"
Council says. "1 was going to stay until I
could find something better." He pauses.
"Never found anything better."
He chuckles softly and puffs slowly on his
pipe. "First year or so I didn't like it at all,"
he says and then smiles. "But it's an
occupation that'll really grow on you.
"This, to me, is the most exciting thing a
person can do. No two jobs are exactly the
same."
He enjos the job so much that his CB
handle is "Hole-Peddler," Council has made
a lot of friends with the persons for whom he
drills wells. These friends tell other people
about Council's work, and he is able to get
more drilling jobs. The Hole-Peddler stays
busy with about 75 per cent of his work
coming through contractors.
"The good part about this job is when you
get there (to the site), there's nobody over
you," he says. "You're doing something that
will always be there. Something permanent.
It's important to do it right to begin with."
While the crew is at work, Council says his
company has previously drilled 16 wells
which are now pumping a total of 750,000
gallons of water per day. And the cost of the
wells is not exceptionally great.
"Eight to 10 cents a thousand gallons to
pump this water," Council says. "They
(wells) pay for themselves in two to three
years. We've done the same thing for Duke
and State."
He notes that many large institutions and
businesses also are having wells dug because
they provide a steady, inexpensive supply of
water. The water shortages this summer have
made the well-drilling business extremely
good, he adds.
The campus-drilling effort has been fairly
successful so far. The well at Navy field is
getting 200 gallons per minute, and the one
at the laundry is pumping about 100 gallons
per minute.
To drill the wells on campus, University
engineers tell Council where the University
needs water. Then Council and the driller
look at the lay of the land in that particular
area and start digging.
The drillers stopped at 10:30 Monday
night. The rock was getting harder and it was
taking longer and longer to bore the hole.
The water flow had reached a sufficient rate
of 70 gallons, per minute. The well was
finished.
Continued from page 1
like the Delta Delta Delta-Chi Phi "Old
South" mixer where everybody comes
dressed as Confederate soldiers,
Southern belles and slaves.
Alpha Tau Omega (ATO) fraternity
also has a traditional "Viking" mixer.
The ATO house, with its Gothic
architecture, lends itself well to this
theme. The brothers decorate the house
in Viking style with shields and spears,
and wear Viking attire.
"For a coupie of times a year a theme
mixer provides an opportunity to
display a part of yourself that wouldn't
normally be manifested," said Mark
Kogan of Chi Psi fraternity. "It can
enhance a social season, but it can go
too far and be detrimental if they are all
like that."
Open Every
1pm
3824
Tonight & Thursday:
RAZZMATAZZ
Funk-a-delic
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SHOWS AbngrTogD
2:30 1 ra90wyjs
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