Western Kentucky University - Talisman Yearbook (Bowling Green, KY)

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nga was enjoying a hot show- n., last Oct. 24, when sudden- kered out in a West Hall jomeone say, ‘Where were you n the lights went out?’ so I thought it was a joke,” the Country Club Hills, IIl., said. “But when I got out I burned out, leaving 894 women in Bates- unner, North, South, East and West halls ut hot water and electricity for more cable was delivered from », Tenn., the next afternoon. In d and darkness, a crew installed it. the power returned to the and then failed again while adjust- vere made. Minutes later residents yed luxuries they had taken for cubes, lights, stereos and hey had coped. Some had adventure. nd games at first,” East Hall Johnson said. “But the stayed off the more the hassle.” Patty Ferguson said creamed when the hey wanted to know as and how long it hey just wandered ing to decide what is were given flashlights L the exit doors more fre- ‘n assistant director from a men’s d in the lobby during the peak til midnight).” Il night clerk Roger Hinderliter eee Sandy Plantinga said most West Hall residents shuffled through the dimly-lit halls and stairways to the lobby when the power vanished. Industrious residents stuffed napkins into a chicken wire-covered wagon frame by candlelight, she said. “It was an outside decoration for Homecoming and we paint- 26 Power outage 20-year-old underground cable had . ed it red.” South Hall resident Mila Sledge buried her goldfish (Rudolph and Oreo) which died during the power outage. “They were in a bowl with an electric pump when it went off,” the Smiths Grove sophomore said. “They died a few hours before the lights came back on. It could have been the water or something else, but it was the most upsetting part of the ordeal. “We had emergency lights in the hall, but after a while their batteries ran down,” Miss Sledge said. “I used a flashlight and a battery-operated lamp until it ran down, too.” Bates-Runner resident Marla Kingrey said some girls went to other dorms or to hotels to study and take showers. “I went to Central Hall to take a shower and there were girls from everywhere taking show- CKOUT ers there.” The Glasgow junior said she missed cooking meals and warm water the most, but she did have some fun. “We took candles in one room and told ghost stories for an hour,” she said. “It was so much fun.” Food was spoiled, eyes were strained by studying by dim lights and showers were taken in foreign dorms, but the women managed to survive the ordeal. “It was sort of neat,” Miss Kingrey add- ed. “It was really different and gave us something to talk about for a long time.” Connie Holman @ A BATTERY-OPERATED emergency light illumi- nates a Bates-Runner Hall corridor as residents study. Other residents spent the night in other dorms or at local hotels. West, East, North and South halls were also struck by the blackout. Mark Lyons

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ghosts and murder. Some comes from the classroom. One old story deals with the final exam given by a philosophy professor. The only question was “Why?” Two students got A’s: one who answered, “Why not?” and one who said, “Because.” The other stu- dents wrote long treatises. Students have long maintained that they are obligated to wait only 10 minutes for an instructor, 15 minutes for an assistant or associate professor and 20 minutes for a full professor before leaving class. “It’s become part of the unofficial belief code,’” Montell said. “A lot of students believe it, and so do teachers, frankly.” hl: all campus folklore deals with around the Hill prompted the notion that a biology professor had per- formed genetic experiments with squirrels and then released them, thoroughly upset- ting the local squirrel gene pool. Two biology professors said they never heard the story and doubted it was true. “They've been around as long as I have,” said Dr. H.L. Stephens, a former depart- ment head who came to Western in 1927. Dr. Herbert Shadowen, a mammalogist here since 1961, agreed with Stephens that the squirrels “have experienced a genetic change and survived in a protected envi- ronment.” White squirrels in the wild would not survive, they said. O°: abundance of white squirrels headed for Western listened eagerly with a beer in his hand as a friend told him: “T heard Western is a real party school. Playboy did an article about party schools and one year they rated Western second. The next year, Playboy wouldn’t rank it: They said Western was in a party class of its own!” It was big news, and the student believed it for months and told it as a fact. But Jane Cowen Schoen, manager of Playboy’s reader service, denies all. “It’s a legend,” she said in a telephone interview. “We never did anything like that. Every school in the nation seems to think their school was rated either at the very top or the very bottom.” She said the magazine “started getting questions about it in the late 50s or early 60s,” and eventually prepared a form letter denying the claim. [ orertosk over which of two bluffs Or graduating high school student overlooking Barren River is “the real Sally’s Rock” overshadows the legend of the girl whose name the rock bears. “Early in the century,” the old legend goes, “a beautiful girl named Sally Beck lived by the river. Well known among riverboat captains, she was called the ‘Bride of the Barren.’ “But late one rainy night, she went to the sandstone column that stood near the river, looked into the black waters below, spoke a man’s name and jumped into the darkness. She was found the next day on the river bank — dead.” According to a 1976 College Heights Herald article, however, Miss Beck lived to a ripe age and married a Canadian farmer who had advertised in a newspaper for a wife. The rock column slid into the river in 1910. edar Hill, upon which the campus C sprawls, is near collapse if all the sto- ries about caves under it are true. Some claim a hermit lives in a cave under Van Meter Hall (also suggesting that this is the source of mysterious happenings). Hundreds of truckloads of concrete were poured into a cavern before Pearce-Ford Tower could be built over it, others say. And Smith Stadium has only one grand- stand because the other side of the field is over a cave. Owen Lawson, physical plant adminis- trator, said a cave system could exist under the Hill, but years of core-drilling before construction produced only crevices and small voids. Lawson said that before Pearce-Ford was built a drilling of 100 feet was made, “but we didn’t find anything but solid rock.” Smith Stadium has only one side, he said, because the university wanted a 20,000-seat stadium, which wouldn’t fit on the other side, which is narrower because of the convergence of Russellville Road and University Boulevard. Besides, when construction began, Western hadn't yet bought that side of the field. Roger Stinnett @ 25 Folklore on the Hill

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Eric Hassler BY THE LIGHT OF THE MOON and a torch held by Kenny Walters, Joe Richards replaces a 20-year-old cable which burned out and caused a power outage. Richards works for Associated Electrics and Walters is a university maintenance worker. “TESS OF THE D’UBERVILLES” is read by Bates- Runner resident Barbara Davenport shortly after the power outage began. The freshman did her required reading for an English 101 class by candlelight. Others used flashlights and battery-operated lamps. Mark Lyons 27 Power outage