University of Massachusetts Amherst - Index Yearbook (Amherst, MA)

Page 21 text:

. ,lf- I never go anywhere, said Chapel Clock Face. I'm always running forward but I always stay in the same place. Everyone always uses me for my figures. And every hour there's a couple hands passing all over me. And at my age yet. It's my own fault though. l've been sit- ting perched here all day and night for years watching all you rush, rush, rush all the time. If you look at me when you're early, I might get you to smile. But, heavens, when you're late, all you ever do is damn me. I only tell it like it is, unless, of course, there's a power failure or something like that. How'd you like to be stuck in my place. The sun beats down on you in the summer and the wind and snow almost freeze up your gears in the winter. And every hour I hear this ringing noise coming from under- neath me. l've tried the latest pain reliever but nothing ever works. And, of course, all my four sides are constantly exposed. It really isn't pro- per for someone my age to show off one's fig- ures this way. You know all those new fancy digital clocks strut about showing and empha- sizing their exact figures. Why, in my prime, we thought sweep second hands were indecent. l've seen a lot of all you from up here. And all your new buildings going up, your old ones coming down, girls skirts getting short, then long, then mixed, and all the men dressing more and more casual all the time. A lot of absurd things happen up here, too. A couple guys, ever since I can remember, operate on me twice each year. In the spring they make those hands in front of me go back an hour. I guess that with all that love in the air and every- thing that's going on in springtime they're afraid that I'll get over excited and run fast. But I never do. I can't even get down from here myself and hardly any other clock faces ever come and visit. So, every October, just before the cold weather sets in, they move those hands forward again. It seems like a waste. But I guess they enjoy doing it, otherwise they'd stop. Oooh. There goes those bells again. Can you hear them? Maybe it's some- thing I ate, or maybe it's hereditary. Oh. And that trembling downstairs. It feels like people walking in and out. Afterwards, I always hear music and then the trembling briefly returns. My retirement plans are to find a nice little tower in Florida to perch myself. Gold

Page 20 text:

james .,.Z.fJ sf-I , ,MF Wt' Fig?-1 : 'f-743' ' 9 ... .hw , -, It I F K gif J?5?'f g'i, .I :N M, -6 .337-Q' N' 'v H -my --ft Mw A, 6 .... .... :'.? ' ri? 'N . fir ..-. ff'-nfl .gh wr, :'sf5fTgs'E' - - .fag-5. I .X .. ...fl ii, A, F' f 'if' Many students walk over me and think that it's horrendous, Mud was complaining to us the other day. Actually, the only reason I seem to be everywhere is that l'm trying to get out from under everyone's feet. More and more the U Mass campus gets cov- ered with concrete or asphalt, so I have fewer and fewer places to hide. Many, many years ago I was quite content to lay quietly undis- turbed beneath the green meadows and forest areas that were all around here. Then I had nothing to worry about. Grass and Trees, old family friends, always used to help me stick around whenever part of me would start to wash away. But then this here town of Amherst sprung up and before you knew it, right where my winter hibernating grounds were, they stuck this University that you attend. It wasn't enough that a civil war was going on at the time which was destroying all my distant cousins, but they had to start experimenting with ani- mals and breeding and farming, on top of it. Hoo boy! Did I ever get a dig out of that. Ever since then, your University has been growing and growing until now, with all the buildings and sidewalks I have hardly enough room to breathe. I sure was glad when all those people from the Physical Plantation didn't connect up the ends 35,1 ykcw of all those sidewalks. I heard all you com- plaining about it too. Especially about the walks near that blasted new library. Hell, that's a heavy load to carry without letting it tip, sort of like when you try to balance a broomstick in the palm of your hand. And what about near Sylvan where they put in the pipes. Ripped open the side of my ribs so deep l'll probably be scarred for life, then I think they left some of their tools down there. Did you ever try to bend over with a heating pipe running through you and a couple of jack hammers still lying around your shoulder blades? As if that weren't bad enough, when I hibernate all winter under the nice clean snow, you all leave footprints in me as I harden and then take the snow off me so you can run your cars over me, I get frostbite in places. And some of you even park on top of me. Anyway, where was I? Oh yeah. About those com- plaints, it's damn lucky for me that you all don't have the money to pave all those things you want to. Why, I could suffocate down here if you did. But that's okay. Some of us are organ- izing. The more radical ones like out west sometimes just suddenly split apart. That really scares the hell out of people. But we're still repressed. They call it earthquakes instead of mudquakes. All they ever give us credit for is sliding and dirtying shoes.

Page 22 text:

il Wffgfi'E1H1 . if 13753 F' 52 lifikii. FAH 1 il ' :KE Q ' One moretime to live We have made it ours One more tree will fall how strong the growing vine.