Appalachian State University - Rhododendron Yearbook (Boone, NC)

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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

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