University of Nebraska Omaha - Tomahawk / Gateway Yearbook (Omaha, NE)

Page 10 text:

CAFETERIA FILLS THE VOID FOR THE OUT ■BUT- 'IN' GROUP THROUGH the process of elimin- ation many students find them- selves out of place, out of step, with their contemporaries and seek shelter with the other odd- men-out on campus who are too sophisti- cated, or too level-headed, or too much out of line with the rigid formal types to socialize in the regular meeting places in the Milo Bail Student Center. The Cafeteria is full of individuals who find others who are also individuals and the familiar camping game goes on in that room just like the rest. The eating place is a meeting place. Among the regulars are graduate students, drama majors, a large contingent of stu- dent government people and foreign stu- dents who find people who will honestly take the time to talk with them. Near the partition between the Na- palm Hall and the Cafeteria are some Boots who sit quietly and amaze pretty young things with the stories of their world travels. Often an earnest studier will find his $17 text book under a pile of the kitchen's famous bean soup. Mixed with the mess of hungry eds and coeds are people with food far from their minds. But, due to the crowding around lunch time, they may find food in their laps. Near the window there are several graduate teaching assistants who try their best to look beaten by their overloaded work schedules. If you look close enough you can see the pleasure in their eyes as awkward undergraduates pass by. A wily gleam strikes them as they remember the time they too tripped and dumped edibles on readables. Perhaps there are more of the astute species of the campus types in the Cafe- teria. When the kitchen line closes down and the famished are fed, the crowd begins to clear and those remaining are cracking books and bending backs. The pity of all this is found on the unkind walls. Missing are the honors one reaps from hard studying. On the wall a student will find only this missive: Please Bus Your Own Trays. •

Page 9 text:

E VERYONE NEEDS to seek sanctu- ary from the outrageous misfor- tunes of life. For the most sensi- tive loneliness heals wounds faster. Those who need reassurance seek, and cry with others of their own find kind. For the most talked about and con- troversial people on the UNO campus, the bootstrappers, the MBSC ballroom af- fords solace. Because of continued occupancy by bootstrappers, the ballroom has been referred to by the name, Napalm Hall. Appropriately Napalm Hall was dedicated to Lt. Jerry L. Larson, an Omaha U graduate who was killed in a military accident. If the boots read the dedication plaque before entering the hall or the rather terse treatment by non-boot students sobers them, the boots turn the Hall into a quie t reading room. The silence is comparable to any area in the library. The somewhat uniform dress of Na- palm Hallers brands them as boots. There is a slight diversification in clothing which helps the observer to at least size-up these special people. The neatly dressed, closer to middle- aged boot is the l-am-an-American type. He is typically attired from neck, hands, to nose in traditional red, white, and blue, respectively. The neatly dressed fellow with beard and briefcase is the It's-the-only-place-l- can-get-away-with-a-beard type. Casual conversation with him will reveal his efforts to communicate with the younger students. His usual opening statement is: I'm getting out of the service as soon as my hitch is out. A casual nod by the listener tries to conceal the Oh! Bro- ther! that is on his mind. Conversation among Hallers is de- cisively more academic in nature. College time is full time to the boots. Other talk produces technical words such as Moose and Hooch! Veterans day makes the Hall look like a briefing room. Green, blue, gold and silver 300 strong gives the impression that something is happening on campus and the Guard was called up to stop it. A BEVY OF BOOTS IN NAPALM HALL 'Ai If

Page 11 text:

Here, There, and Everywhere, It's Smilin' Faces . . . PERHAPS it's true that smilin' faces, sometimes they don't tell the truth, just as the song says. Undisputed though it may be, the Truth remains that these faces have been around midwesterners since early summer. The fad is dying, some say. The campus and its students have been smiled to death in the form of purses, playing cards, tee-shirts, puppets, pillows, necklaces, rings, and almost anything merchandised in our local stores. KOIL displays the likeness on their Good Guy Hitline survey sheets and on their Have a Happy Day bumper stickers. King's Food Host and Hinky Dinky both use the symbol locally to develop their own institutional advertising. Smiling face stickers and buttons have been a big seller. Even campus ministers the Rev. Leonard Barry and the Rev. Dave Kehret can be seen walking around campus with the glowing faces pinned to their lapels. On rare occasions the bootstrappers have been known to replace the America, Love It or Leave It sticker on their briefcases with a smiling face or two. I'm sick of the faces, said junior Rosemary Hilgert. They're plastic and they demand a plastic response. Many other students predict that the seeming smiles will smother in their hypocracy. Despite the supposed artificial picture painted by these smiles, the fact is that these happy little faces have proven to be actually useful for a number of UNO students. I use them in student teaching, replied senior Paulette Connor. Paulette instructs eleven mentally retarded children in the Westgate Cottages for her student teaching assignment. I have a smiling face puppet I use there for teaching language arts, she continued, and I use the stickers to put on the good papers my students turn in. The buttons and stickers are also used in hospitals where many UNO students work to help boost patient morale. Whether or not the happy faces contribute to the cause of happiness around them or simply provide a commercial vehicle for new and successful products — it's not known. But the response that they've received certainly indicates a desire for some type of happiness. Perhaps it's just that warm feeling people like to experience upon seeing a real smiling face. •