Penn State University - La Vie Yearbook (University Park, PA)

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The Laurel Trrr Srolo Secretary DoLores State's Secretary Tucker Fired Monitor Secretary of the Com- m°nwcallh C. Da Lores Tucker be- conic the new vice-president of Broadcast station WYIS in Phoe- nixville, PA, in December of 1977. It jvas the second time Tucker was in 0 neivs during the year. The first 'vas when Gov. Milton Shapp fired or in September for her use of •s ofe employees in writing her pub- lc speeches. The speeches earned 1 uckcr close to $60.000. flicker, thoroughly dissatisfied With'that as the reason behind her ormination as secretary, retaliated Y Saying Shapp dismissed her So e V f°r political reasons. I ennsylvania‘s Governor Mllion Shapp. Stale College’s Republican Mayor Addison. Addison Elected In November 1977. 53 percent of the registered Centre County voters turned to the polls for local elec- tions. There are seven Hcpublican and 11 Democratic precincts in State College. In the most publi- cized local election. Republican Municipal Councilman Arnold Ad- dison defeated Democrat Greg Stewart in the race for Mayor. Mayor Jo Hays did not seek re- election. Three Democratic Munici- pal Council members were also chosen — Ronald Abler. Dorothy Lennig and Ingrid Holtzmun. In an upset. Richard Sharp, a Philipsburg Democrat, was elected Centre County fudge over District Attorney Charles Drown. m Johnstown Flooded Nothing can be as awesomely de- structive as the forces of nature at raging work, as Johnstown resi- dents learned last summer in the hardest way possible as the Con- emaugh River overflowed its banks, sending a lethal supply of water into the city. fuly 20 article in a local newspaper read. Eight hours of rain swelled creeks over their banks today, isolating many com- munities and pouring a waist-high torrent into this southwestern Penn- sylvania city, which was almost wiped out in the infamous John- stown Flood of 1669. As a result of the '77 flood, over 2.000 people were left homeless in Cambria County alone. By the day after the flood's onset. 32 people were known dead with more bodies yet to be discovered. When cleanup got underway at least 36 more bodies were found and estimates of property damage had reached the $200 million mark. Gov. Shapp declared a state of extreme emergency for the John- stown area and 7 over western counties. Many groups, among them VISTA volunteers. Mcn- nonites and the electrical workers’ union, worked to clean up flood debris. One VISTA volunteer noted that the flood had ripped the walls off an apartment building, leaving apartments intact. The city has had flooding problems since 1889. m Jmf. “! r Dam which broke, unleashing raging waters through the Johnstown area. riint n III T)I mutiny G'nlfr Daily Time 27

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NEWS LOCAL Science Fiction and Digitals Set Trends Lines tvere frequently this long for the science fiction Ih x office hit Stor Wars. Catering to the digitally minded consumer. Cinema in 1977 saw the come- back of science fiction, featuring intcrgalactic entertainment. Early summer brought Star Wars, a fa- vorite of Penn State students. Au- diences adored hero R2-D2, de- tested villain Darth Vadcr and pon- dered the force.” Cold weather brought with it a Steven Spielberg film. Close Encounters of the Third Kind, which has excellent special effects. The film depicted the initial face-to-face meeting of earthlings with space aliens. Science fiction movies set trends in books, calen- dars. toys and even produced an X- rated. outspace flick. Another movie students saw time after lime was Rocky Horror Pic- ture Show. which encouraged the participation of a delighted au- dience. Persons attending made rain with plant misters, lit can- dles in the dark and threw rice during a wedding ceremony. Speaking of entertainment, long- running television programs made it big in 1977. After the precedent was set by the week-long serial “Roots,” countless other shows were produced which kept people glued to their T.V. sets for several consecutive evenings. “Washington Behind Closed Doors.” “The Godfa- ther and 79 Park Avenue” arc a few examples. When people turned off their tubes and started going places, they found a relatively new and inter- esting way to reach their destina- tions. Mopeds. bicycle-like two- wheeled vehicles with motors, had been introduced from Europe and were gaining popularity in the U.S. Used on highways like motorcycles. mopeds raised much concern over traffic safety. However, the in- dustry predicts excellent future sales, estimating that three to four million will be sold each year dur- ing the first half of the 1980's. Another line of items that made a heavy hit on the market in 1977 was digital articles. Calculators were slimmed and trimmed, digital watches adorned countless wrists, replacing the old sweep hand, digit- al clock radios kept people on schedule and even computer games flooded the market. ■ Audience lighting mutches during a scene in the movie Rocky Horror Picture Show.' 26

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NEWS THE NATION Carter Close-up At the close of 1977. Jimmy Car- ter held 'll months as President of the United States under his belt. During those 11 months. Carter had seen many of his hopes frustrated and much of his innocence had vanished. His intentions had been good, but often too unrealistic to be practical. At the start of 1978, he resolved to make a similar but less idealistic set of dreams come true. In January of 1977. Jimmy Carter had taken his oath of office, his famous smile rePecting his eternal optimism. He was soon to discover the dis- couragements common to national leaders. At the end of 1977, Carter’s top- priority energy program was at a standstill in Congress, no con- clusions had been reached (nor were they expected in the near fu- ture) for his tax and welfare re- forms and unemployment figures were still unsettlingly high. Particularly significant in 1977 was the Bert Lance affair, which helped to undermine the President's reputation for integrity and hon- esty. Lance. Carter's director of the Office of Management and Budget, had several charges leveled against him by five federal agencies which put Carter, who had publicly pro- claimed his faith in his OMB direc- tor, in a bad light. In a gallup poll for Newsweek in September 1977. half the people be- lieved Carter tried to protect Lance too much and 26 percent said they had lowered their opinions of Car- ter's ethicai standards as a result of the Bert Lance scandal. But there were successes, even if the disappointments tended to take precedence in the news headlines. President Jimmy Carter. Among them were a $20 billion economic-recovery package, an employment act for the nation’s youth, a government-reorganization bill, a new energy department and some promising diplomatic in- itiatives. One of the problems with 1977, press secretary Jody Powell said in a Newsweek interview, was that everybody was too busy nudging this, kicking that, trying to get everything off the ground. We should have stood up early and said, ‘look, folks, this is going to be a hell of a year. We’ve got a lot to get cracking. Bear with us’. But nothing was said. and the results were obvious. Newsweek continued to say that the basic workaholic Jimmy was the one thing that hadn't changed during his year in office. But he had learned one im- portant lesson, that is, the perils of trying to do everything at once — and the difficulty of getting any- thing done at all. ■ Fighting Gays Anita Bryant, singer and former beauty queen, learned public hatred in 1977. Her anti-homosexual cru- sade has made her notorious, par- ticularly after her successful at- tempt in June to repeal a Miami ordinance banning discrimination against homosexuals in the housing and job markets. Heady with her victory, Ms. Bryant sought to start a national campaign against ho- mosexuality. At one place, her stance on the issue earned her a pie in the face. Ms. Bryant has written a book. The Anita Bryant Story, subtitled: The Survival of Our Nation’s Families and the Threat of Militant Homosexuality. ■ Flood Disaster In November of 1977. after five inches of rain fell on Toccoa, Georgia, a dam hurst, sending a 30 foot-high wall of water roaring into the Georgia Valley. Thirty-eight people at the Toccoa Falls Bible College perished, trailers were to from the ground and cars floated away. The dam was not strong enough to withstand the pressure of a large amount of water — water it should have been able to constrain. The Toccoa tragedy should never have happened. It was another in a series of indicators that the Dam Inspection Act passed by Congress in 1972 was not being properly en- forced. The Army Corps of Engineers conducted an inventory of the na- tion's dams listing 9,000 as high hazard , meaning there could be substantial loss of life and property if any failed. ■ Al‘ pho«ot courf» y Onto- Dully Time» 28