University of Texas Austin - Cactus Yearbook (Austin, TX)

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' ; : we wild and i: rtsrtain, but Texas was boil ' - !ing to take a chance. ' M arch 2, that Magnificent ttd birthday, Texas c ' s independence from Mex- evon April 21, 1836, Wear, r; tea and his well-trained if 4300 was defeated at San i :c think. A year ago, I would id Big deal, it ' s just another | , r Prince Charles ' visit sweet treat by Amy Sailer Princess Di and Chuck were together in England for Valen- tine ' s Day, but a week later, the Prince of Wales was strolling out- side the Engineering Science Building, shaking hands with eager UT students. The organizers of the Texas Sesquicentennial celebration made sure Prince Charles was greeted grandly in Austin with Texas flags placed along the Drag and Sixth Street. An audience of 2,000, in- cluding 1,500 Austin area schoolchildren, watched as the prince used an 8-pound saber to cut the world ' s largest cake, baked in honor of the Ses- quicentennial celebration. The prince presented the first piece to a three-year-old child. Originally, the cake batter was chocolate, but once the chef got wind that Chuck was allergic to America ' s passion, the recipe was quickly altered to vanilla Cvfcx Morano Congres Aotnite takes a trip back In time as a lint of wagon trains farad through the city Feb. 2. The wagon train, sponsored by the Texa Wagon Train Association, made its way to Austin on a 300- mile trip through Texas for the ScsqulcentennlMl celebration. Sesquic nll 25

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Naive Texan Gifts ranging from cards to gold-nugget buckles filled the Sesqulcentennlal Store at 206 E. Sixth Street set up by the Austin Sesqulcentenntal Commission. by Amy Sailer The winter of my senior year in high school was probably the worst Nebraska had ever seen. I can remember being able to jump out of my second-story bedroom window onto a blanket of snow that lay only two feet below. I was applying for colleges then. I figured the University of Texas was far enough south. So I went where the weather was warm and the opportunities were hot. I certainly wasn ' t disappointed. In fact, I had a suntan late into Oc- tober, a foreign concept in the Midwest. But it wasn ' t my bathing suit lines I was so impressed with it was the whole atmosphere. In my freshman year alone, I was lucky enough to visit Dallas, Houston and Corpus Christi. I even got to Lub- bock. I never dreamed a single state could look like a whole country by itself. Texas was exciting and I was satisfied. My sophomore year added a new twist. Texas as an entity separate from Mexico was 150 years old, and people were starting to make a big fuss over the birthday celebration. I didn ' t really think much of it. Big deal, I thought, Nebraska never has birthday parties. I didn ' t give it another thought until Christmas. While I was home for break, Dad bought me Texas, a novel by James A. Michener. So I sat down to read it, and I just couldn ' t believe what I was reading. There was so much history, so many different cultures involved in this state. I mean, Nebraska was a nice place to raise a family, but Texas! Texas rang with vibrancy in every sense of the word. I couldn ' t put the book down. I was absorbed into the richness, the excitement, the risk of Texas. As an outsider, I actually felt cheated. Here was a state that grew from the vision of men such as Sam Houston, whom many in cultured society called a Magnificent Bar- barian. This state was roughness, a callous to the more refined observers. But Houston, who said, Texas is the finest portion of the globe that has ever blessed my vision, knew that Texas had a rare quality, a promise of great things. These visions allowed Texas to mature and become the nation ' s 28th state. Take it from an outsider. I don ' t even know the state flower of Nebraska. To go into detail about the history of this immense state would take, for example, the Barker Texas History Center in itself. History classes traced the development of America from the Pilgrims of 1620, but Texas had settlers from Spain, France and other European countries from as far back as 1519. A state that takes almost three days to drive through promised a wealth of diverse settings. Oil fields, sunny coastal beaches, flat deserts, rich woodlands and booming cities made Texas a Southwest Utopia. Its beginnings were wild and its future uncertain, but Texas was built by people willing to take a chance. And on March 2, that Magnificent Barbarian ' s 43rd birthday, Texas declared its independence from Mex- ico. Then, on April 21, 1836, Mexican Gen. Santa Anna and his well-trained army of 4,500 was defeated at San Jacinto. And to think. A year ago, I would have said, Big deal, it ' s just another |i birthday. Peter Rene 24 Sesquicentennial

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UT gardens A worthwhile effort to maintain Top: Calendulas and white pansies make a colorful combination around campus. Bottom: A butterfly lights on a cluster of Indian Hawthorne buds. by Kirstin Gordon Did you wander around campus in a daze most of the time? Perhaps you were so caught up in your thoughts that when you passed those delicate yellow pansies on the West Mall, you thought to yourself, How pretty, and then continued on your way. You might not have paid much at- tention to the world around you, especially the campus community. And you probably didn ' t know that those pansies you saw in bloom in the spring were planted the fall before. When Susan McCain, horticulturist for the University, planned the flower beds, she considered several things: the appropriate flowers for the Austin climate, the easiest flowers to main- tain, and of course, cost. One bed in particular received special thought the planter on the East Mall. One side was planted with orange calendulas and the other side was planted with blue pansies. The sides came together in a double curve. The shape of the bed as well as the combination of flowers were puz- zling. But it was no accident. The flower bed was designed in the shape of the Chinese yin-yang symbol. The yin-yang encompassed many things. The yin represented the passive, female element that was op- posite but always complementary to the active, male element. Mow who would have imagined that a flowerbed could mean all that and still be pretty and colorful? If you were like most students, on a sunny day you enjoyed stretching out on the cool grass of the South Mall. And like most students, you probably didn ' t realize you were a menace to the grass. Lying or treading on the grass compressed the ground into a solid mass that grass couldn ' t grow in. But the gardeners worked to keep the grass growing while still letting the students bask on the lawn. The gardeners used an aerator to prevent the ground from becoming too compacted, John Burns, land- scape supervisor, said. The aerator pulled plugs of dirt to allow moisture and other nutrients to be absorbed in- to the soil. McCain and Burns also worked to see that the campus would be picture-perfect for commencement. And all their efforts could also have been rained upon. The pink and red dianthuses in the planters on the east side of the Main Building needed to be in perfect bloom for commencement. But McCain did more than just hope the flowers bloomed at the precise time. After the flowers bloomed once, they were cut back and not fed. Then, a few weeks before commencement, they were fed, forcing them to bloom. So you see, graduation involved more than just books and studying. All photos by John Moor 26 UT Gardens