University of California Berkeley - Blue and Gold Yearbook (Berkeley, CA)

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Top Act Naturally: Now that the university has tighten- ed rules on campus bicycle traffic, students such as David Cook have more time to slow down and observe intriguing sights. Above Rock and Roll Music: One Bay Area band whose music has withstood the test of time is the Grateful Dead. In town for the latest concert series at the Greek, this individual has taken the time to observe the Sproul scene. Opposite Penny Lane: Life around Sproul Plaza is liveliest when the card table communities arrive at their concrete posts. Manned by student groups, this daily forum for the exchange of ideas and events usually starts around 11 a.m., reaches a peak around noon, and gradually slows with the waning afternoon sun. After 2 p.m., only the most ardent activists remain, a testimony to the never-say-die Berkeley spirit. This piece of graffiti first appeared on the wall outside Kinko ' s Copies between Bancroft and Durant as early as September, 1985. How many people have looked at this and immediately found meaning in the words? How many others have scorned it as the last epitaph of a bygone era? Considering the diversity of reaction, it is obviously a statement that evokes strong emo- tions in the hearts of many. It is for this reason that the Blue Gold year- book staff invites you to explore the university and the community of Berkeley in 1986 through the imagery of the last twenty-five years. You ' ll examine with us the attitudes, the ideals, the vogue — symbols of the turbulence, surrealism, the Mother Jonesian outlook of the ' 60 ' s, and the self-indulgence, neo-psychedelia, and pro- gressive intellectualism of the ' 80 ' s. Our history at U.C. Berkeley is a complex mixture of political, social, and cultural conflict and con- sensus. It is also a history of tradition — the tradition of change, of difference, of progress. The University of California at Berkeley is a pro- duct of technological acculturation. It is time to look at the past through the eyes of today. — Traci Gatewood and Crystal Lee On a certain day, a certain philospher with a certain disposition for dabbling, decided to dedicate some time to triviality; namely an after- noon amidst the babble-burble-banter-bicker of Sproul Plaza. But a funny thing happened on the way to the concrete. Mouth agape with disbelief (a condition often referred to as Locke-jaw) the philosopher approaches the plaza cautiously, carefully, as he always has with life itself. The old grey steps they ain ' t what they used to be, sighs the grizzled geezer. I remember Savio. I fought off the National Guard. It made me a philosopher. He sits and watches the procession of paisleyed youths on parade. Eying a young damsel in a dress who seems to resemble a flower girless, the philosopher is whisked whenceword back to the glory days of demonstrations; back to a time when Question was more than a bumper sticker.