Ohio University - Athena Yearbook (Athens, OH)

Page 32 text:

OLD MAN ' S CAVE You amble across an arched foot-bridge of sfone and watch a stream licking hungrily at fragile slices of ice bordering its rocky channel. Skidding on mud and patches of snow, you follow its frantic flight until you stand beneath the precariously tilted walls of the cave and gaze at the plunge oool, a mirror of ice broken by the doric column of flowing silver. And now up and up, until you stand on a ledge overlooking the falls. You think of the old man who lived here and of how he might have watched the icy plunge pool flood with spring waters, disappear in the summer heat and turn to ice again.

Page 31 text:

For the couple that seeks to be alone, the lalce has intimate corners and isolated glens where the ever-present other people prevalent in community living can be avoided. Athletically - inclined students can romp on the grassy expanses of the picnic grounds or in the rippling water ol the defined beach area. raised and the sheet is lifted. A velvety green growth drapes the bursting hills. The water maintains a rhythmic pace, as if marking time with the swaying foliage around it. Boats sprinkle the lake. Spring — wonderful, vibrant, ambitious spring is upon you. The soft earth futilely braces itself for another bout with the tremulous imprints of the care- free bathers flocking toward the shore. A dozen restless students sit on the red brick wall in front of Cutler Hall, their books thrown care- lessly across the new grass. The latest case study in human relations or the examination coming up has been talked out, and the men and women loll silently, watching the smoke from their cig- arettes hang listlessly in the lazy warm air. Then the guy down the wall or the girl in the bermuda shorts, says the magic words — Lake Hope. Books, classes, and committee work are ignored and forgotten in the dash for bathing suits, cold beer, and worn, brown army blankets. At the lake, the water is cold, carrying winter in icy flows around your ankles. On the sand you wrap up in the old blanket and feel the sun smooth the goose bumps from your skin. The beer is still cool and tastes good, and you watch your date flop lazily down beside you. Sud- denly everything is right, and you breathe deeply and relax. 27

Page 33 text:

ASH CAVE You walk with your girl down a winding path to stand surrounded on three sides by a gigantic horseshoe of sandstone. She throws back her head to search for the sky, murmuring in awe. Her voice, soft and sweet, becomes a whisper echoing across the wide expanse. She dashes ahead of you up a circular log stairway to the source of the waterfall. In a grand gesture you toss a twig into the current and watch it hurtle downward on its one-way journey to the valley floor and suddenly you loose your feeling of power in awareness of the grandeur about you.