University of Oklahoma - Sooner Yearbook (Norman, OK)

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(iiaci Kiniint; hack to iciriMtc liis outli and linilin; all llu- I liaM;;t tinu- has w roiiiilu. He is consiinu-d with M i tal;jia, Ml-, lie IccU real brought down. (lu know? I koou. L ' l.l ' s l(jok at It loda the ,i I si ' c it. the t()da ot now when I disi ii CI I iu t ami now hci v in the (|in kcniiiL: ti-ni| o ol nioilcin [ iii riMt lili-. ' Take the otlu-r attcinoon, w lirii 1 arose ■akin troiii iin f tii rissi- after onl clcxcii hours ol iiiHMsx sliiinhcr, and c.mcd ni slo i anil tarclul wax to till ' campus corner tor an iini cji atinji dish of medicinal tea. Ir was an axeraye alreinocjii in the health lesort 1 tieqnent and the crowd was heterojieneons. .A bearded prof spraxv led in a booth starin ; (luizzicallx aromul the room, his beaxer niuhilarin} with ill- concealcd amuseiiieiit. I ' xen scorn, perhaps. He was prob- ablx thinkiiif; about the scene in tour difterenr lani;u.i es, and his presence there toned the |ilace np. xoii know. W ' h.it he XX ;is doin , he xx as contributing: an almost luminous aura ol intellectnalism. Around a I mxeisitx ou t to haxc an .iiii.i of intellectualism sometimes. ( )n ,1 neaibx table sIikjiI, m a ni.innei ot speaking, three ( i reeks xx ho xx ere chantiilf; esoteric tribal threnodies. .Some counselors I roni the ( uadraiisle xx ere upio.iriouslx exchan;;- in ; occupational anecdotes around a table littered xx ith emptx containers. ' l he facultx member laughed diabcdicallx throiiLih a hole in his shrubbeix, and suddenix 1 re.ili ed 1 xxasn ' t noxxheie. It xx as then 1 j rexx axx are ot hoxx ' brought doxx II I reallx xxas. .Nrar the hot-air rej isfer a trio ol midille-aneil joimnsters, inciiKhiiK old Dave, criHichcd os ' cr mullcil coffee laced with lladacol, munihlin«. 1 assumed they were dcnoiiiicinj{ the nian.ig -ment tor piittinj; in the new booths that obscured the vi(-w ot yestertimes. The booths w(-re ajiainst the plate j;lass windows, and the jilass it.seh had been painted neck-high on a medium-tall woman, and this par- ticular covey of declininK lechers were not interested in studying faces. I felt much the same wax, and decided to join them. It was a pretty long walk for a man of m years — about fifteen feet, but I made it and lowered myself into a ch.iir, onl to discover that, since their salacious pastime had been curtailed, the old-timers were fall- in;; back on that monotonous rcc- re,-ition of the aged, reminiscing. According to one Clyde Brion Daxis XX ho recentlx authored a book dealing with the sub- ject, nostalgia is, ipiote the rose-scented goose grease on the toboggan slide to scnilitx , unquote. These gu)s were bob- sledding. Things ain ' t like thex used to be, an oldster of lierhaps txx ent -nine said glumly. .Shucks, croaked old Dave, an incorrigible epigrammat- ist, thex nexer xxas. So all right. 1 xxas a l ' ' i-eshman xx hen .Mule Train Heath was elexen xears old. Okax, I ' m an O.l ' . .Alumnus, an Old (ii.id txpe. I ' xe seen O.V. develop from a first-ratc unixer- sitx XX ith a third-rate football team to a first-rate school with a grid-iron machine rated number one in the nation. Pass the rose-scented goose grea.se, and sing a sleighing song. ys cokes lur tneiuls al Ion time. Kiidell I.aiulers ami Stuart Mmu; exert their crcitivc t.ilriil tin ar(l sculptiirinj;.

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The football stadium is the scene for impressive gradual Radio students work hard to learn the arts anil techniques of producing programs. V At the activity kstival each organization encourages students to join their cluh.

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BVIOUSI.Y there have been man} physical changes in the University in ten years, as there have been in the town of Norman. Both have mushroomed, and both seem dcteiinined to keep spreading out. Any student who has been here two or three years has seen how much expanding O.U. and sur- rounding countryside ha c done. The remodelled stadium, the enlarged Union building, the Quadrangle, the new power plant, the geology building, with other projects not yet begun. AH this in three years. Assume that this growing has been going on since 1940, and try to picture what O.U. must have been like then. In 1940 Lindsay Road was the southern cit limit. O.L ' . had no parking lot then because none was needed. Instead of a parking lot, O.U. had a no car rule. Students weren ' t allowed to possess love buggies, and a man was not as he now is considered handsome if he had warts and a ellow Cadillac convertible. Everybody walked, except the more daring renegades who kept cars in rented garages around town and sneaked out for a joyride now and then. In 1940 there was no Kaufman Hall ; where it now stands existed at that time a kind of landscaped rendezvous with trees and shrubs. The golf course was then practically out in the coun- try as there were no buildings south or east of it except the .shanties of Hooverville in the shadow of the water tower. From Hooverville to Parkview Apartments in ten short ( ' ars. There was no Sooner Citv then, only a handful of houses on Jenkins, and where tlu-ri ' are now men ' s doinii- tories facing the practice football fields across Lindsay Road, in 1940 there were stables and corrals for O.U. ' s horse- drawn artillery, and for the polo team, and for the women ' s physical e iucation curriculum. Yep, things sure have changed since 1940. For one tiuiig I ' m five years older. And in that penultimate yeai ' of Amer- ica ' s peacetime era, I thought the coeds were all women, whereas now all the coeds seem to be very young girls, just a bunch of pretty kids. They must be rushing them through high school nowadays. Ah, time, like the lady poet said, turn backward in your Hight. To a year when the campus looked very much like a campus and less like a brain factory, to mellow autumn after- noons when walks in the country were the best possible ex- cuse for cutting a class, when we used to play hookey to watch girls play hockey back of Hester Hall, when there was more to do on the campus, for free, and you could walk across any campus street without being run down by a guy in a maroon convertible hurrying to keep a date in Chickasha or Tulsa or Ardmore. There was something leisurel and collegiate and poign- ant about everything back in 1940. A war was consuming Europe like wildfire, and we feared we would get singed but A ccmvertilik- tnp cl.nvii, a il