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About The Battalion. (College Station, Tex.) 1893-current | View Entire Issue (Oct. 6, 1966)
Page 4 THE BATTALION College Station, Texas Thursday, October 6, 1966 Read Battalion Classifieds Rooms Available LAKESHORE MOTOR HOTEL Across from the State Capitol 1575 North Third Baton Rouge Phone: Area Code 504 348-7111 PETROLEUM GRANT A $1,000 Engineering- departmental assistance grant is presented Texas A&M President Earl Rudder by A. J. Evans, Houston district production manager of the Gulf Oil Corporation. The award was made under Gulf’s Aid to Education. FRONT FLOOR MAT SAFETY BUNKER LANTERN 6-Q-326 DOOR-TO-DOOR •Heavy duty molded rubber • Fits most cars—full contour • Black, white, red, blue, green Limit 2 per customer Additional $2.50 ea. POWERFUL SEARCHLIGHT BEAM •4-way waterproof push button switch • Unbreakable plastic case • Two-tone • Batteries extra FLOATS 6-Q-741 Limit two per customer Additional lanterns $1.95 ea. QQol Each FIRESTONE STORES Corner College Ave. and 33rd Streets Hours 8:00 A. M. to 6:00 P. M. Phone 822-0139 Bryan, Texas Caught In NY Blackout Coll Aggie In The Dark By DANI PRESSWOOD Battalion Managing Editor Where was Gary Sherer when the lights went out? The infamous New York black out of last year caught the Aggie junior in a rather awkward position: carrying a loaded food tray in an eighth floor cafeteria. “When I entered the cafeteria the lights started going on and off and dimming to a low de gree,” Sherer recalls. “I had just gotten my tray and all of a sud den all the lights went out.” The irony was yet to come, he explained, when he could not pay for the meal because the “elec trically operated cash register wouldn’t open.” Sherer, of Binghamton, N. Y., is a transfer journalism major from Broome Technical Com munity College in New York. WORKING PART time for a department store in capital city Albany, Sherer had just gone up to the top floor employee cafe teria for his break. “Going up the elevator, I re member the one I was on was going very slowly, even slower than usual,” he noted. “And the other one wasn’t working at all. “Nobody was caught in either one when the electricity did go, and even more amazing was that in the 16-story bank where I worked in the daytime nobody was stranded in any of its seven elevators.” One of the more fortunate em ployees was just getting off work when he realized what was about to happen. “He tore up the stairs to push in his time card before the power went off completely,” Sherer said, “and just in time. The lights went off just as he’d pushed it jn.” THE FIRST thought that struck universally when the lights went out, Shearer remembers, was an attack on the United States. “To enhance this the radio gave no explanation until about an hour and a half after the lights went out. However, people were too occupied trying to figure out what happened to panic.” After the people were informed that a power failure had caused the blackout “it was funny for awhile, then it became frustrat ing.” “Everybody wanted television and all the selfish reasons erupt ed,” Sherer explained. “First they worried about the country and then about themselves.” Sherer’s first experienced in convenience was eating in the dark before candles were lit. His next bottleneck was encountered in trying to leave the store. “At first they were trying to stop everybody to make sure there wasn’t any looting,” he said. “But that got to be too big a problem and they stopped. “IT TURNED out after it was all over there was practically nothing missing anyway.” His next problem was in get ting to his girl friend’s apart ment during the rush hour. “It took me 30 minutes to make a 10 minute drive,” Sherer con tinued. “Of course the street lights were not operating and the traffic was a real mess.” The power failure, which dark ened the east coast from Canada to New Jersey, forced the Albany Airport to utilize automobile headlights to light the runway for incoming planes. “They spaced about 10 or 12 cars along the runway with their lights on,” he said. “During the time the lights were off 12 planes were landed safely.” One of these carried New York’s Gov. Nelson Rockefeller. Sherer noted that the blackout gave people a realization of how READING PROBLEMS? SPEED READ IN 12 LESSONS See for yourself how you can become a speed reader and under stand what you read at 10 times your present speed. OPTIMA- TION STUDENTS AVERAGE 2500-5000 words a minute at com pletion of the 12 two-hour sessions course compared to about 300 words before taking it. Optimation guarantees 1000 words a minute (a book an hour) with good comprehension or your money hack. You owe it to yourself to attend a free initial class. You will spend a fascinating and informative two hours. FREE INITIAL CLASSES Memorial Student Center Rm. 3B & 3C Wed. & Fri. Oct. 5tW & 7th 5:30 or 7:45 p. m. Sat. Oct. 8, 9 a. m. In Bryan at Stephen F. Austin High School Tues. Oct. 4th thru 11th Daily 6:30 p. m. - Sat. 9 a. m. It takes just two hours for your FREE demonstration class ... if you like what you see take the course, if you are not impressed forget it. There’s no obligation. CALL NOW FOR RESERVATIONS 846-4150 OPTIMATION —" ~T$peec/ Reading SCHOOLS COAST-TO-COAST i much their daily lives depend# upon electricity. “PEOPLE JUST sort of tali it for granted,” he pointed out “Until something like this com# up they don't realize how matj things operate on electricity." The blackout was a major heat ache for the restaurant business in New York. Loss of refrigen tion caused a huge spoilage prols lem and service was halted unti the power was restored. “One restaurant in Albani specialized in candlelight meals, h Sherer said. “People packed tin place just to see each other ani talk.” “Although the restaurant wss unable to serve, the owner sail it was the most customers he hal ever seen.” Lack of electricity put gasolim pumps out of commission for th endurance of the blackout ani only one generator-equipped radii station was able to broadcast. The blackout period ranged ii longevity throughout the aru with Albany plunged in darknes more than three hours. Som cities were without electricity ap to 13 hours. “The whole thing was as ii somebody said ‘stop’ and every thing stopped and then he sail ‘go’ and everyone went,” Sherer summed up. P F sib tin Camera Club To Show Films Two color films will be shown at a Camera Committee meeting in the Memorial Student Center Monday, announced president Ken Reese. The 67-m'ember club will meet at 7:30 p.m. in Rooms 2C and D, After a brief business meeting, color films on the Blue Angels, “Jet Colorama,” and travel will be screened, program chairman Dan Hatzenbuehler said. OPEN YOUR ACCOUNT NOW! 5 Per Annum Paid Quarterly on INSURED SAVINGS AT fo FIRST FEDERAL SAVINGS and LOAN ASSOCIATION 2913 Texas Ave. leg c T A - -I drive a’67 _, DATSUN then decide THE COMPLETE SPORTS CAR! 96 h.p. All-synchro 4-speed. Ready to go —all you add is/un/■ <2546 DEL. SPORTS COUPE Stubblefield's Imported Cars 3219 Texas Ave. Phone 823-6428 — Nigrht 846-3605 1 1 DON’T DON’T DON’T MIND MIND MIND EITHER ! ICri Jn, meeting of the don’t minds If you don’t mind having all the details of planning a banquet or convention taken care of for you, cal! Ramada Inn. We’ll make sure your meeting is trouble-free... no matter what size your group! Try our fast, friendly breakfast and luncheon service. ’•S&uy'Jet- RAMADA INN Bryan-College Station 846-8811