Image provided by: Texas A&M University
About The Battalion. (College Station, Tex.) 1893-current | View Entire Issue (Sept. 6, 1988)
Page \2fThe Battalion/Tuesday, September 6,1988 Texas A&M University Art Exhibits Presents ASPECTS OF BRITISH PAINTING Detail of Edwy and Elgiva: A Scene from Saxon History William Hamilton (1751*1801) 1550-1800 Detail of Three Views of the "Amity Hair with a View of Dover and the White Cliffs Robert Dodd (1784-1815) Detail of Posthumous Portrait of Henry VIII with Queen Mary and Will Somers the Jester English School. 16th Century From the Collection of the Sarah Campbell Blaffer Foundation September 8 - October 31, 1988 Rudder Exhibit Hall Exhibition Opening Thursday, Septembers, 1988 Lecture by Dr. Nadia Tscherny, The Frick Collection, New York City ‘‘From Kin to Kine: The British Fascination with Portraiture" 7:00 p.m. Rudder Tower Room 701 Reception to follow the lecture in Rudder Exhibit Hall. Thursday, September 22, 1988 Lecture by Dr. David R. Anderson, Associate Professor, Department of English, TAMU “The Moral Power of the Image for the Eighteenth Century English Collector" 7:00 p.m. Memorial Student Center Room 201 Thursday, October 13, 1988 Lecture by Dr. James M. Rosenheim, Assistant Professor, Department of History, TAMU “The English Collector in Historical Perspective" 7:00 p.m. Memorial Student Center Room 201 Docent tours of the exhibition are available by calling 845-8501. Start practicing for the real world. Using an IBM® Personal System/2® computer to help you succeed in college can also prepare you to succeed in a career. Because chances are, after you graduate, you’ll be working on an IBM computer. Special September Back-to-school Prices! Regular Special Description Discount Price Sept. Price* PS/2® Mod. 25, mono graphics, 640K, 2-720K drives, mouse, DOS 4.0, Microsoft (MS) Windows 2.1, MS Word V4 (Academic Version). $1,247 $1,181 PS/2 Mod. 30, color display, 640K, 1-720K drive, 20MB hardfile, mouse, DOS 4.0, MS Windows 2.1, MS Word V4 (Academic Version). $2,094 $1,935 PS/2 Mod. 50Z, color display, 1MB memory, 1-1,44MB drive, 30MB hardfile, mouse, DOS 4.0, MS Windows 2.1, MS Word V4 (Academic Version), MS Excel V2. $3,367 $3,010 PS/2 Mod. 70, color display, 2MB memory, 1-1.44MB drive, 60MB hardfile, mouse, DOS 4.0, MS Windows 2.1, MS Word V4 (Academic Version), MS Excel V2. $4,984 $4,510 Proprinter II $356 $332 MicroComputerCenter Computer Scdes and Supplies Mon.-Frl. 8a.m.-6p.m. Sat. 9a.m.-5p.m. Memorial Student Center J====§^i=, The Bigger Picture •Prices good for orders placed through Sept. 30, 1988. Offer limited to qualified students, faculty and staff. Prices subject to change. Microsoft (MS) is a registered trademark of Microsoft Corporation. Personal System/2, PS/2 and Proprinter are registered trademarks of IBM Corp. Tailor mourns demise of Old World craftsmen DALLAS (AP) — In the back room of The Tailor Shop, at Midway Road and LBJ Freeway — amid the old black-and-green sewing ma chines and worktables strewed with spools of colored thread, canisters of buttons, thimbles and tomato shaped red pincushions — A.C. Cas tro twiddles a tailor’s chalk in his fin gers and says, “It’s all dying. “There were a lot of custom tailor ing places in Dallas back then in the ’30s and ’40s,” he says. “There aren’t many left now. In that time people used to like to dress. Now, kids wear blue jeans with a tuxedo coat on.” This year Castro will retire after 60 years in the craft, selling out to whoever will buy. He knows none of his seven children will be among the bidders, and he has no apprentice. In a convenience-conscious, one- stop shopping world, instant service businesses are dramatically redefin ing Old World trades, driving tradi tional craftsmen such as Castro and George Nikolopoulos, a cobbler, to the haunting conclusion that their crafts are dying. Today, the crafts honed over life times and painstakingly passed down to apprentices are being taught in two-week group classes and practiced in high-tech chain out lets run by a new generation of busi ness people who say they are rejuve nating the trade, not killing the craftsman. Richard Adams, vice president of a 4-year-old international chain of nearly 60 shoe-repair stores called Heel Quik, says companies like his are “bringing shoe repair into the 20th and 21st century.” And Adams says Heel Quik, a Marietta, Ga. com pany, is about to step into the taillor- ing trade. “We all have in the back of our mind the little immigrant cobbler from Europe coming over to the United States with this trade that has been passed down from generation to generation,” Adams says. “But the American dream came into play here, and that dream is that my son, my daughter should do bigger and better things than me. “The number of shoe-repair shops began to dwindle. If you don’t have someone to pass it down to, then your family business passes into memories. What we’re doing is giv ing people a new chance.” But who are those people, crafts men like Nikolopoulos wonder. “You can get a few people off the street just to put on heel caps, and then they butcher the shoes,” says the native of Trehlos, Greece, who runs The Cobbler shop at Preston Royal Shopping Center. “The real artist is dying.” “That’s not the idea at all,” says Tom Van Pelt, who manages the Heel Quiks in Garland and Arling ton. “The idea is to let people know that the shoe repair business is not a dying art.” It’s just different — more mod ern. “It’s actually better to take a vir gin and train them in our way of re pairing shoes, because sometimes the traditionalist is just so set in his ways, he doesn’t want to move the way we recommend they move,” says Adams. Efficiency of movement is impor tant in the new trade. Executives at Heel Quik conducted time and mo tion studies, then built their two- week training seminars and their shop layouts to provide maximum efficiency. Now that they’ve got a foothold in the shoe trade, they’re moving into tailoring with a new franchise called Heel-Sew Quik shops. “We don’t go into any great tailoring or anything like that, but Sew Quik will be there “The shoe-repair business is so much competition now. It’s not skill. They teach them to put on a tap, and it’s the only thing they know. This is what’s killing the shoe repair (business). ” Cobler Octavio Avila, owner of a shoe-repair business the chains, in most cases. Plus, he says, he offers persons ized service that instant shoe-repa stands can’t provide — like ing and constructing metal inset® for a World War II veteran whosB right Western boot toe tended [ curl up, because he was missing his foot. to hem pants, sew on buttons, shorten sleeves,” says Adams. It’s just the thing that traditional ist tailors and cobblers don’t want to hear. “The shoe-repair business is so much competition now,” says cob bler Octavio Avila, owner of a shoe- repair business on Knox Street. “It’s not skill. They teach them to put on a tap, and it’s the only thing they know. This is what’s killing the shoe repair (business).” Avila, 67, learned the trade while working in his uncle’s shoe factory in Mexico as a boy and is quick to attrib ute the trade’s decline to the instant shoe-repair shops. He repairs about 100 pairs of shoes each week. Each Heel Quik repairs roughly 10 times that number and can do it about 10 time faster, Van Pelt says. But Nikolopoulos, who learned the trade from his father in Greece, says speed isn’t everything and, in fact, is being over-emphasized. He says he can repair shoes just as fast as At the shop, shoes are heapedo:? the shelves in the back workroomJ scuffed brown wing tips, aqua sat slingbacks, white leather thona purple brocade pumps — waiting repaired. Others, already sole-fe and heel-less, hang from bentnit in wootlen workbenches. “I grew up in this business,"Nil( lopoulos says. “It gives me a good lr ing, especially in the times with tit baid economy,” when people ait more likely to repair the soles am heels on old shoes than to buy no ones. He says his shop fixes aboc 750 pairs of shoes and boots a weei Castro, the 69-year-old tailor^h: will retire soon, says sadly thatmos of his work these days is just altera tions: taking in seams and waist hemming pant legs and skirts. Of f-the-rack suits and the fidli fashion industry made theoncentt essary trade a very nearly obsele one, and those who still stitch nt. tend to spend their careers in store alteration departments, Cast:: H says. His shop turns out only out custom-tailored suit from scratch week. Castro remembers the year: when he and his father tailoredeigk suits each day. Police: Some convicts The bluntly But or the sec Chri locker A&M s ceeded thing 1 Pavlas first ha He r carry a three f yards. But settled son am fluster* fense, Ron Sz ist. Osgc | fore, tl stances | seen tl ! taken t j at Kyle But many t: I sissippi No, any po most ct field g Jackie touchd: the two But I coache* tinuity Osgc showin “Off ball as may lead errant youth said aft ball ovi couldn’ HOUSTON (AP) — Some pa roled convicts are returning to their neighborhoods where they become teachers and unofficial leaders of loosely organized groups of errant youths, police said. The youths have a high regard for experienced criminals and the con victs serve as their role models, po lice said. While cities like Los Angeles, Chi cago and New York have been strug gling with a gang problem for years, Houston police have discounted any rumors of organized gangs in this city. But that picture has changed in recent months as police have begun to recognize several small gangs wandering the streets of north Houston at night. In December of 1987, a rash of murders and robberies in an area near Moody Park caught the atten tion of police Chicano Squad offi cers. Officer Rico Garcia said their in vestigation turned up a suspect who they believed was working with seve ral other youths. At first, police thought the crimes were the work of just one gang, but further investigation uncovered sev eral pockets of small gangs through out the area with members ranging from 12 years old into their late 20s. In many cases, the youths were being guided by ex-convicts who were members of prison gangs, Gar cia said. Paroled from prison, the/ex-cons, some still in their early 20s, return to the neighborhoods where they grew up and first began their criminal lives. But their status as prison vetent and members of prison gangs briny them a new recognition, Garicaac The convict becomes the nucleus a group of admiring youths, wheel; he directs in criminal activity. "They (ex-cons) are not actual recruiting them,” Garcia said “These kids just naturally harilj around them, and they see the be u as easy prey to do their dirty wori| for them.” The groups of youths led bymortl experienced criminals are respons hie for soaring crime rates in tl/p area, Garcia said. Houston police Officer Victc;|!: Trevino, who has worked out oft. Wesley Community Center in t ; area for the past 10 years, ki watched many of the neighbo - hood’s children grow up, get it jj volved with crime, serve a prisotjb term and then return to the neigti-i borhood and revert back to oldcriir inal habits. B Wi Tenr The play res Wiml out i day c the v layec watcl pend But Trevino is hesitant to use tit 1 word gangs, which implies moreotl ganization than these groups c:| youths have, he said. tire t It then dal o don hop* thril [s, Tr think of gangs,” Trevino said. "Justil very indiscreet group of individual who do drugs together and comm crimes, and there is an adult, amou experienced criminal or ex-con, wk teaches them. They’re packs, lilt wolves, that’s what they remind mt of.” are ing has don But some police officials said the are noticing that the packs of youth: are getting more organized. Ty T exas A&M Flying Club teaching the (Best to ‘J-Cy tfie (Best brought hospital! Presbyte cials said Dr. Ct Interested people are urged to attend our meeting September 6, 1988 at the Airport Clubhouse For information Call Julie Scott 846-1279 7:00 pan. CLIN Studen FI Lai