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About The Battalion. (College Station, Tex.) 1893-current | View Entire Issue (Sept. 13, 1978)
Page 10 THE BATTALION WEDNESDAY, SEPTEMBER 13, 1978 Jazzed up retiree steps out Disco therapy helps old man United Press International HOU STON — Logan McGowan well knows if the spirit’s willing, the body won’t be far behind. And by his gyrations you will know the 79-year-old "semiretired” insur ance man as he swings, shuffles and sways to the vibrating, pulsating and cacophonous tunes blaring at a half- dozen hot spots nightly. For the last year and a half he’s been coming to the discos with his steady friend, Betty Ellis, a mother of four and grandmother, where he does his higb-steppin’. “You can’t sit still. 'Neither can she...She wiggles like hell all the time. 1 just love the stuff.’’ “I always liked to dance,” he said while a "bellyrubber” (slow dance) was in progress at Tingles, his favo rite nightery. “I used to live on the border. And those Spanish girls taught me how to dance. I had a lot of Spanish friends. I knew a lot of girls. ” Dancing was one outlet for many years. But it is the disco scene that sets Mac’s toes to tapping and his fingertips drumming the table around the scotch and water he keeps within reach. “I prefer this disco dancing to any thing. It just stirs you up. You can’t sit still. Neither can she,” he says, casting an eye to Betty. “She wiggles like hell all the time. I just love the stuff. “I like the beat. It goes bam! bam! bam! bam! (now pounding his fist into a broad palm) “What’s your number? What’s your name? That’s how I stay young,” he said. There is staccato like delivery as he talks about him self. He knows all the singers, disco jockeys, managers and waitresses at his favorite hangouts. Betty is a steady companion on Mac’s nights out. “I met Betty (at a church social). She likes to dance. I don’t care any thing about the exercise, I get that every day. It’s a pleasure,” he said. "I bring her Tuesdays and Saturdays. But I come Thursdays by myself.” Coming alone is no barrier for Mac. prints and goldmedallioned young men with their manicured hair styles. “We dance the fast ones and sit the slow ones out. They work eight hours a day and are tired. But I’m not.’’ “We dance the fast ones and sit the slow ones out,” he said. “They work eight hours a day and are tired. But I’m not.” “I still work eight hours, you tur key,” Betty said, nudging him in a gentle reminder. “I come out here by myself and these young girls say, 'Come on let’s dance.’ Age is no barrier out here— at my age. They know me. They’re all friendly. Congenial. I got a lot of acquaintances out here,” he said. “If I see one I like, I get her. I have trouble finding anyone to dance with. I have fun. If I don’t find some body, somebody will find me.” There is no generation gap on the dance floor, although Mac’s light- colored business suit is a shade more conservative than the polyester Mac lives in a quiet neighborhood near Rice University. His wife died six years ago and his readjustment called for self-imposed dance therapy. “My niece told me, she said, ‘Mac, go have fun. We don’t need your money. Spend it. Go places,” he said. "I take vitamins. I have a lot of energy. Thank the good Lord. I wake up every day, I pray, ahead of the game. Don’t do anything wrong. Feel good. Drink a little scotch. But dancing is my life. Keeps your ego going.” professional hair dizsignfzrs FEATURING SEEKING MON.-SAT. 9-5:30 693-1772 1510 HOLLEMAN (ACROSS FROM THE SEVILLA APTS.) THE FOUR R’S Now that you've graduated from the first three, you're ready to learn the 4th: Reality. Peace Corps/VISTA will teach you about people and places you’ve only read of. SIGN UP NOW FOR INTERVIEW CAREER PLANNING & PLACEMENT RUDDER TOWER - 10TH FLOOR PEACE CORPS & VISTA REPS ON CAMPUS SEPTEMBER 18 & 19 Mel Mehrtens and Georgia Grubbs took ad vantage of a lull in Monday’s thundershowers to sit by a fountain near the MSG. Mehrtens is ‘Godfather of bridg plan to link Italy, Sicili United Press International ROME — Evoking a dream that began with the unification of Italy in 1862 but has roots in Homer, a state-backed consortium wants to build the world’s longest suspension bridge between Italy and Sicily. The bridge across the Strait of Messina, a notoriously rough and turbulent stretch of water, wotdd have a central span twice as long as San Francisco’s Golden Gate bridge and New York’s Verrazano Narrows bridge put together. It would extend more than two miles. Its two massive suspension py lons, one on the Italian mainland and the other on Sicily, would tower fupTnamk* IS® 1,250 feet into the sky, making them nearly as tall as the World Trade Center buildings in New York City. When Public Works Minister Gaetano Stammati gave government approval for the bridge July 22 he merely repeated an order Prime Minister Emilio Colombo gave in 1971. But Colombo’s government fell, and his grand notion with it, leaving the project on the drawing board. The dream of a bridge across the strait Homer described — between the mythological monsters of Scylla living in a cave on the Italian side and Charybdis in a whirlpool off Sicily — has intrigued Italian engineers and politicans for more than a century. But a geologically unsound sea basin — a 1908 earthquake devas tated Messina and killed 75,000 people — kept the dream in limbo. The Agg den That situation prevailed uad Gruppo Ponte di Messina, a tium of public and private ini including Fiat and the poweAli steel company Finsider, releass 30-volume study on the proj The cheapest solution, esfin to cost $1.4 billion and appro Stammati for government stni by far the most spectacular. It calls for a bridge that« stretch unsupported between steel pylons and hold sixtrafficli and two railroad tracks. Itwould seven years to build. But there are problems. Communist and Socialist parti ficials are doubtful thebridgecai: kept to cost. They fear that ifti consortium runs short dash, state, which holds a 51 peicectin terest in it, would have to the bill. Student on probation for cat cruelty charg By SCOTT PENDLETON Battalion Staff A Texas A&M student Tuesday was placed on 90 days probation and ordered to pay a $444 veterinary bill on a cruelty to animals charge. John R. Garza, a senior in chemi cal engineering, had pleaded guilty to the charge. Garza had been arrested Aug. 22 for actions two days before that caused a cat to suffer a cracked lower jaw, a shattered hard palate, two broken legs, several broken teeth, and bleeding in the chest cavity. A graduate student who said he saw Garza “fling” the cat from a sec ond floor breezeway took it to the emergency section of the Texas A&M small animal clinic. Veterinarians treated it for shock and other injuries. Surgical pins and stainless steel wire were required to repair the cat’s palate and one a! legs. The graduate student then member of the Brazos Coi H umane Society, who alerted police. Garza was arrested Am and subsequently released on! bond. Garza told The Battalion that cat was a stray he had often fed said he had had a bad day Aug and took his frustrations out on cat. He threw the cat from breezeway, he said, and later kid it from the breezeway when it turned. I He said he later regretted the^ "I feel like hell for what I did, Gad said. Cruelty to animals is am demeanor under state lawpunfl ble by a maximum of$2,000finead two years in jail. j TWOS, InxiteO SEPT. 14, 15 & 16 Fairgrounds - Caldwell, Tex. Street Dance Wednesday Night ★ Music by Good Vibrations THURSDAY *** Parade Queen Contest Little Miss Contest FRIDAY *** Rodeo Dance (Dennis Ivy) SATURDAY * * * Little Britches Rodeo Livestock Auction Dance (Johnny Lee) Carnival & Rides, Exhibits, Beer Garden, Chili Cook-Off, Bar-B-Que Contest and Much More!^