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About The Battalion. (College Station, Tex.) 1893-current | View Entire Issue (Sept. 17, 1979)
MONDAY, SEPTEMBER 17, 1979 Fountain in campus mall flowing after out 4 months Traditions’ origins unknown Prof says folklore all around By DINA KRUMNOW Batfaiion Reporter After a four-monm drought, the water is flowing in the fountain in front of the Chemistry building. The drought was not caused by lack of rain, but by a broken water line and a cracked fountain bowl, said Ed Kozlowski, assistant direc tor of campus maintenance and modification. The water line had broken be cause of shifting grounds, which could have also caused the fountain bowl to crack, Kozlowski said. The break in the water line was heated in the middle of the walkway alongside the fountain, Kozlowski said. This caused the delay in repair ing the fountain. “We didn’t want to break up the walkway and pretty bricks while the students were here,’ Kozlowski said. “Also, we had a lot of other repairs to do all over campus.” The delay in repairing the foun tain lasted from May until the end of summer, when few students were here. The repairs were done by the Area 2 maintenance crew at a cost of about $2,000. This amount included repairing the lights in the fountain and painting the bowl with a blue epoxy paint which will help avoid future cracks, Kozlowski said. The new paint and the lights cause the water to appear light green. Kozlowski also said he hopes this is the last of the problems with the fountain, which has run dry several times since it was installed in 1976. To help avoid future problems, the fountain will be cleaned almost every day this fall due to the amount of falling leaves. “Leaves gather in the strainer in the bottom of the bowl. If it is not cleaned, the pump will clog up,” Kozlowski said. Kozlowski said the pumps often become clogged, not because of leaves, but because of people. The fountain is an excellent target for people who throw soap into the fountain to watch the bubbles. When soap suds gum up the pump, the fountain must be drained and cleaned, Kozlowski said. However, this time the blame for the problems with the fountain be longs to Mother Nature, not to the “soapers,” Kozlowski said. “If she just wouldn’t shift around so much, we would be OK. ” For the first time in four months, water jets from the fountain by the Chemistry building. The dry spell was ended by repairs to a broken pipeline. Battalion photo by Lee Roy Leschper Jr. Now you know In 1895, the U.S. Supreme Court ruled a tax on the income of Ameri cans was unconstitutional — but later reversed itself on the issue. The English language, with 490,000 words and another 300,000 techni cal terms, has a larger vocabulary than any other language. By ELLEN EIDELBACH Battalion Reporter Despite what many think, Ozark hillbillies and Deep South blacks aren’t the only people with folklores and traditions, a Texas A&M Uni versity folklorist says. Dr. Sylvia Grider, who teaches Introduction to Folklore (English 329), said she tries to help her stu dents recognize traditions in their everyday lives. “For instance,’’ Grider said, pointing out her office window to the skeletal structure of the new Academic and Agency Building, “when the top girders are put in, an evergreen tree is put on top of the building to signify that’s as high as the building will be built. The tree will stay there until it dries up and falls off.” The tradition began, she ex plained, because the evergreen was believed to have magical qualities since it never turns brown. More locally familiar traditions abound in Aggieland. Plants need housebreaking, scientist says United Press International LINCOLN, Neb. — Houseplants that have spent the summer out doors need housebreaking before you bring them indoors for the winter. Start by moving them as far as the porch, terrace, garage or side of the house in partial shade, says Don Janssen, an extension horticultural assistant.. Do this a few weeks before the first expected frost in your area. Wash their leaves to get rid of ac cumulated dust, mud and mineral deposits, spray them with an all purpose insecticide, repot if neces sary, and prune and stake them. A week or so later, transfer the plants indoors early in the day, be fore the house or apartment has warmed up. Leave the windows open, Janssen adds. Leaves often will start to shed be cause the plants get less light in doors. This will stop eventually, Janssen says, adding that plants that will be kept in low light areas be moved there gradually. Janssen also recommends mist spraying and tepid showers dr a' room humidifier indoors. Grider says most Aggie traditions can be traced back to the early days of Texas A&M, but “nobody knows why they got started.” A more recent example, she said, involves two different stories from students about not walking on the Memorial Student Center grass. One version says the “tradition” began when the lawns were first seeded to let the grass grow- Another says the grassy area was considered a memorial like the building itself. “You can’t verify tradition,” she said. An impressive Aggie phenome- mon, Grider said, is the tremendous crowd control yell leaders have by “mere hand signals” during football games. “I ve never seen anything to equal that, ” she said. Moving away from campus, the folklorist explained other familiar traditions are holidays. The word “holiday” originally meant “holy day’ and were associated with churches, she said. Grider said Halloween, for exam ple, was called Allhallows Eve. The day which marked the end of har vest, the death of crops. Death was evil; therefore, witches became as sociated with Allhallows Eve, she said. Grider says the origin of trick or treat is a mystery. “Oddly enough, she said, “no one knows how Halloween came to the U.S. or how it became a chil dren’s holiday. “There’s been a tradition of chil dren begging on holidays that goes back to the Middle Ages,” she said. Grider sums up tradition as “do ing something because mama did it or daddy did it.” Maxell cassettes are like a good marriage — made for keeps. After all, the ”1 do" will only happen once. So you want to be certain your tape is good enough to capture every nuance of sound. With no sticking or jamming, ever. r Keeps. Maxell meets the most demanding quality control standards in the world. That's why all Maxell tape products are guaranteed for life. 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