Kansas State University - Royal Purple Yearbook (Manhattan, KS)

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Hollywood At VCRs provide convenient, simple, fun for all. A video cassette recorder sounds more like a term to know how to define for a test rather than a nifty little machine that has became a favorite entertainment tool for colleg e students. What attracted college students to such a mode of entertainment? Although not intriguing because they were sneaky and sly or challenging because they were daring and dangerous, VCRs provided convenient, simple and inexpensive fun. I enjoy watching a movie at home with my friends, said Eric Lietz, freshman in business administration. A bunch of us can get together, see a couple of movies and eat pizza without ever leaving the house. Students like Lietz enjoyed VCRs because they were convenient. Other students found them inexpensive, an important aspect for most college students. Bart Meinert, freshman in business administration, owned his own video cassette recorder. He said, (I rent tapes) two or three times a month; when I have some money. They are still a lot cheaper than seeing a movie (at a theater). Most Manhattan video stores rented movies for $3 to $4 apiece. With a membership card to a video store and payment of a membership fee, costs for insurance and deposits could be avoided. The cost of a yearly renewable membership card was approximately $5 and a lifetime card cost approximately $10. Without the card, a student had to pay a deposit of as much as $400. Often times, bargain hunting could make VCR entertainment even more accommodating to student budgets. I have a bunch of coupons and can get movies for next to nothing, said Carey Sharpe, sophomore in graphic design and advertising. Video stores weren ' t the only places to rent VCRs. Dillons in Westloop opened its VCR counter in October. Convenience stores, open all night, also had VCRs to rent. Beth Dalton, graduate in speech and assistant director of Moore Hall, purchased a membership card for the hall. The whole hall or just one floor can have a movie night and use the card, she said. VCRs provided a good alternative or complement to a night in Aggieville. Instead of Aggieville, my friends and I decided to rent movies, said Pat McDonald, senior in chemical engineering. Sharpe said he and his friends had no specific time they rented movies. We usually go out (to a bar) and then come back (home) and watch movies, he said. The students also found more uses for the VCR machine than renting and watching movies. Lynda Henson, senior in pre-professional elementary education, had a VCR her dad gave her when she went to college. I tape my soap operas and watch them at night, she said. —Lori Bredow Looking forward to the $1.50 on brew that they should have spent on tape insurance, senior in economic investment feasibility, Aaron Abass and close friend, Polyanna sophomore in human sexual response, prepare for a cozy evening on the couch watching their favorite flick, The Entire Football Team Meets the insatiable College Coeds, Part XLVII. His favorite brew Kewers wasn ' t on sale at Mal-Wort so Aaron settled for a case of Milwaukee ' s finest. Trusting totally in Aaron ' s ability to properly hook up her new VCR to his ancient TV, Polyanna wonders if their last $1.50 would have been better spent on making sure they needn ' t come up with fifty or sixty bucks for a replacement tape after a slightly inebriated Aaron screws up the rented one. 24 VCRs

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Outrageous Yet From lifestyles to clothing styles, Trendy K-State students are fashion conscious. Willie the Wildcat didn ' t let the times pass him by. Ever the trendsetter, Willie showed up at the first football game wearing an Outrageous pair of purple-and-white polka dot Jams and oversized Wayfarers. Jams — walking shorts made out of brightly patterned material with a drawstring waist — were only one of many new trends to hit K-State. Cheap imitations cropped up with the shorts being made out of gnarly leftover Rush Week materials from years gone by and Uncle John ' s tie-dyed pants. Wayfarer sunglasses were worn while walking on campus and also in the classroom, so no one would suspect sleeping during lectures. They also found their way into church on Sunday mornings (you know why) in Aggieville (for scoping purposes, aaah). Other fashion trends to invade the campus included paisleys, plaids and large floral designs. Waggoner, manager of Seifert ' s store, said, You name everything but coats are paisley. Waggoner also said the mixing of patterns was popular. Jeans woven floral, plaid or paisley designs were mixed and matched with oversized shirts and sweaters. (Photo Illustration by Andy Nelson) Trends were not limited to clothing. The Swatch watch, watches with a pattern on the face but no numbers, were worn by many students. Some even sported the Swatch Guard, a piece of plastic tied over the face of the Swatch to protect it from being scratched and to make the Swatch even more trendy. But, while being trendy, Swatches posed a problem when it came to reading them. Numbers were replaced with new-wave graphics and designs, making the Swatch face a road map that allowed itself to do anything but tell time. After six months with the watch, some students had mastered the art of determining when it was 3, 6, 9 and 12 o ' clock. But not many progressed beyond that stage. The hottest product to hit the market was hair-styling mousse (pronounced like the animal with the big horns, not the little named Mickey). Mousse allowed students to achieve the perpetual wet look as well as the ability to create a multitude of bizarre hairstyles. Some K-Staters adopted the David style of life — late. They stayed out late, went to bed late, got up late, went to classes late, handed in assignments late, dropped and added classes late and finally graduated late. Trends also affected students ' eating habits as frozen yogurt became popular. Frozen yogurt shops catered to the fitness and health consciousness of students by giving them an alternative to ice cream that had half the calories and less fat, but the same great taste. An alternative to drinking beer was the addition of wine coolers to the liquor stores ' arsenal. There were many brands of the wine and fruit juice mixtures, but the most popular was Bartles Jaymes with their award-winning style of advertising. Wine coolers go with almost every kind of food, except candy corn. But, some people ' s lifestyles were not affected by trends. For every student found in paisley-patterned Jams, sporting luminous Wayfarers and a glow-in-the-dark Swatch while eating frozen yogurt, there was another student in jeans and a sweatshirt with a beer in one hand and a yum-yum from Swannie ' s in the other. While some students were immune to trends, so were some K-State traditions. The Collegian continued to be a source of information, controversy, entertainment and ink- stained hands. Students still overdrew their checking accounts, sat in Union Lab 101 and put off doing the inevitable — studying. 23

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