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About The Battalion. (College Station, Tex.) 1893-current | View Entire Issue (Feb. 25, 1983)
Some people keep magazines in their bathroom for people to read. Some people write on the walls when they're bored. And some people read what others write because there are no magazines handy. Why do people really write on all available surfaces? Why Graffiti book good for a few chuckles Remember in fifth grade when you wrote "Billy loves Kathy" all over the bathroom walls? And then Kathy moved away so you crossed it out and wrote "Billy loves Sandy," in- OxMraKXk* stead. Didn't you ever wonder what kind of graffiti Kathy wrote about you? Was it bad? Or good? Does she still write about you? If Kathy ever attended a university in the Southwest GRAFFITI SOUlHWEiT CONTEREHCf Marina N. Haan Richard B. Haramerstrom Graffiti clean-up 'no big deal' by Kathy Wiesepape Battalion Reporter Graffiti may be written on Texas A&M bathroom walls by people who want to leave their mark in the world, but it will be wiped off — at least most of it. Regular inspections by custo dial workers have reduced the amount of graffiti at Texas A&M, said Manager for Custo dial Services O. O. Haugen. "Our policy is to get rid of it as soon as we see it," he said. Some people, when they see graffiti scrawled on the wall, think that it demands a reply, so they add their own comments, said Haugen. Cleaning up graf fiti as soon as possible elimin ates this problem. Most of the graffiti on campus is found in the restrooms, Haugen said, and it's usually pretty risque. "Some people just delight in drawing dirty pictures," he said. To combat the problem. Most of the graffiti on campus is found in the restrooms, and it's usually pretty risque. Some people just de light in drawing dirty pictures. — O. O. Haugen, manager for custodial services. many of the partitions in cam pus restrooms have been coated with a polymer finish, said Haugen. This coating resists ink from both ballpoint and felt tip pens. Cleaning up graffiti is more of a nuisance than a major prob lem. The cleaners used on wood and marble surfaces are inex pensive. "It just takes a little elbow grease," said Haugen. Spray painted graffiti has to be sandblasted. But Haugen said that this process is not ex pensive either — just time- consuming. Haugen said the graffiti from Texas A&M in the book, "Graffi ti of the Southwest Conference" was probably collected a few years ago when it was more of a problem on campus. Recently, he said, the amount of graffiti has decreased. "I think we have very well- behaved students here," he said. do people read graffiti? How is it cleaned off the walls? All these questions and more will be answered in this week's scan dal-ridden issue of At Ease. Muckraking reporters have interviewed janitors, and pro fessors to find out the hows and whys of graffiti. They have braved the hath- room elements to retrieve the best and worst of Aggie graffiti. So, the next time you're in a bathroom with barren walls, just whip out an issue of At Ease and be entertained with the latest examples of Aggie intelli gence. Conference, you can find out. Graffiti in the Southwest Con ference may provide the answers. Marina N. Haan and Richard B. Hammefstrom, authors of the book, traveled to all of the Southwest Conference schools — including Texas A&M — and selected and recorded examples of the "art" found in the campus buildings. Most of the graffiti samples chosen from Texas A&M walls were found in the Teague Re search Center and Scoates Hall. Examples are included in the accompanying article. The authors grouped the graffiti into several categories, including "I suffer from being exposed to school," "Dear Zor- ro," and "Rock 'n roll will send you to Hell!" Each section in cludes samples from all the schools in the southwest. — Graffiti in the Southwest Conference; $4.50; Warner Books. Graffiti for eternity The following examples of graffiti are excerpts from Graf fiti in the Southwest Confer ence. According to the au thors, all of these scribbles could have been located somewhere on the Texas A&M campus — in bath rooms, classrooms and offices — but don't count on it be cause maintenance crews are fast with the soap. Here are some of Texas A&M students' fine contribu tions to the eternity of publi cation. • The West is the best! •Have you heard the latest Aggie joke? Football •Aggie make better lovers. Why do you think all those pigs are smiling down at the pig barn? •No where else but Aggieville • I hate this university, (re sponse) Highway 6 goes both ways. • Nuke the Waggies • Thank God for the Corps, it keeps the ugly girls off the street and out of our hair. • If it weren't for the Corps, there never would have been an A&M. (response) If it we ren't for A&M, there never would have been a Corps, or crops, for that matter, to spell it another way. • Join the Corps, learn to kill. • The few. The proud. The non-regs. • Did you hear about the T-sip who tried to blow up a school bus? Burned his lips on the exhaust pipe. • Have you ever met a pre- Med that didn't have a brown nose? •Trivia Freaks do well in his tory courses. • Statistics is like a bikini. What shows is real, but what is hidden is vital. • Has anyone ever died from Engineering Math 151? •B.Q.'s are the lowest form of life on Earth. • Wanted: Two petroleum en gineering professors for em ployment as mudflaps on my truck. • Beware of the creatures that ■ lurk in the bowels of our building. • Let it not be said that I was nowhere. • Finals make me urinate. • Life is like a fart — you hold on to it the best you can, and when you least expect it, it slips away. • What is life? The kind of cereal that Mikey likes. • Your body is the temple of God. Keep it clean and Holy. And turn out the lights when you leave. • Jesus was a wino. That is why He was always turning water into wine. Thus was be gat the song "What a friend we have in Jesus." • Before Christ, no one knew. During Christ, no one be lieved. After Christ, no one cared. • Baptists are like cats. You know they raise hell, but you can't catch them at it. • Always marry an ugly girl, that way she'll never leave you, or if she does, you won't mind. • Candy's dandy, but sex won't rot your teeth. • He who goes out with a flat chested girl has a right to feel low down. • Bow-legged women stay on longer. • Aggies do it better. Wildlife biologists do it like animals. Farmers do it in the dirt. Wel ders do it with bigger rods. Well diggers do it deeper. • A reefer a day... I forgot the rest • Ronald Reagan was here, but I flushed him. • Teddy for life guard, (re sponse) And Senator Ken nedy, what would you do to straighten out the economy? "I'll drive off that bridge when I come to it." • That is so funny, I remember the first time I heard it, I laughed so hard my dinosaur damned near bucked me off. • See? you didn't have to after .all. • If the toilet paper runs out, fear not, the afternoon Batta lion is out. • How did Man communicate before the stall was invented? He dribbled in the sand. • Be true to your teeth and they will never be false to you.