Appalachian State University - Rhododendron Yearbook (Boone, NC)

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JDBIJWJ 26 Campus

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■■r j Reflections In Time by R.T. Smith This is magic. You must not shut your eyes, but allow them to shut themselves. Walk this slim rail: follow its glow. Time is merely a huge clock with many pictures shuffling positions at irregular intervals. This tenuous balancing is the inner vision, is time travel, is the past unwinding like a fire hose. The build ings are red brick, and the town is small. You are hurrying along the sidewalk with your Latin book in your hand and a curse on your frost-shaped breath, because you have received the knuckle-rap of two demerits for being late for breakfast. You do not know what a motel is. nor have you ever skied, yet you believe that this is the place to be in winter. Your knickers are stiff with the cold. You run. It is 1 899, and this is Watauga Academy. You run. Dr. Dougherty remembered your name and greeted you as you came out of piano class. Your cheeks are flared with the rhododendron color all around Boone. Exams will fall next week, but they do not concern you. Not nearly so much as the hovering question: Will I be a good teacher? You picture yourself in graduation gown, in line next to that red-headed ex-doughboy and smiling through the address. It is too late in the day to go to the library, so you turn down the walk in front of Watauga and head for home. This is Appalachian Training School. 1922, May, the seam of your life. You are still hypnotized by the height, still treading the stiff river of time, moving in the only direction you know. You are distressed that your dress is dirty. If Ptolemy has stumped you, Galileo has you completely befuddled. It is warm by the heater here in Mary ' s house in town, and you are far from grasping the stars, but you must be back in the dorm before eight. Frustrated, you rise to leave. . . ah well, at least you have the satisfaction of being a member of the famed astrology class Professor Downum forgot to meet today. September 18, 1936. Will there be war? 75th Anniversary 25

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75 Years «-»««rwW n of Progress The cover of this book supports a small desert, a hoard of dust. You rub the spine across the sleeve of your jacket and notice the hazy discoloration of the fabric. The ennui of research, the muffled monotony of Wednesday night at the Belk Library. The Cuban Missile Crisis climaxed in the Atlantic today without you, because you have been tracing the sources of a sonnet by Milton. A musical cord between your ears resonates as a pretty co-ed in a blue jumper shifts by. You are certain that no one has ever handled this book before you, that it is unread, useless, and of no importance to your life. You are wrong, but you drop it on the table anyway and go over to the girl in the jumper, hoping she ' s the one in your German class. You will live to regret this ambiguity in time. The snow cracks beneath your boots like crusted starch, and the wind whirls gyres of snowdust around the stark brick corners of the new auditorium. You can see the monolithic Towers, the bowl-shaped stadium, the jungle of lamp-posts leading to the dorms, the academic arena, the Center for Continuing Education on the hill, and a smudge of sun holding its position in the sky behind a bruise of clouds. You have just successfully produced your first hydrogen in chem lab, and you are pleased. You wonder how recession will affect you, and you remember that you ' re almost out of meal tickets with half a quarter left to go. Lost in your musing, you stumble over a stubborn root and fall. You have fallen out of the magic right where you slipped in, but that is the way it always is, and that is why it is magic, like words, like photographs, like light flashes balancing on the precarious thread of the mind. You teeter. This is time, but it is also the balance beam in the gymnasium of Appalachian State Teachers College, and this balance requires two kinds of steps. You will fall if your thoughts stray to Frank Sinatra again. Tomorrow you will be seated safely in the stands to watch the Mountaineers destroy a good team from Western. You will wear a corsage and a smile and may even let Harry kiss you after the dance. But right now you are about to fall. Campus 27