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About The Battalion. (College Station, Tex.) 1893-current | View Entire Issue (Nov. 3, 1988)
Attention!! Days of wine and roaches Everyone who goes away to college finds something that they will always remember about college life. Things, good or bad, that you will never forget, that you will use as a standard for comparison the rest of your life. What about me? Well, I for one have discovered the wonderful world of . . . cockroaches! For the rest of my life, when I see something vile and disgusting, I will rank it as either “Not as bad as a roach,” or “Worse than a roach.” And I hope I find nothing that fits into that second category. Roaches are truly amazing creatures in that they completely lack a virtue of any kind. They don’t pollinate, they don’t kill off more disgusting creatures, they don’t even get rid of garbage — they just nibble a bit then make themselves at home. Roaches are the absolute bottom of the macro-biological world. If someone developed a strain of aardvarks that exclusively ate cockroaches, the world would beat a path to their door, break the door down and level the house in an attempt to get one of the things. Now most of you are probably going, “Yeah, they’re bad — but not that bad!” You, though; were probably raised in Texas and grew up with the things. I, however, am a “Damn(ed) Yankee,” and had never seen one of them (that’s right — never!) til one turned up in my bathtub here at A&M. Turned up as in belly-up, so I got the full gut-heaving glory of its underside. Then another one later appeared climbing up my dining room wall. And then 1 caught one sneaking in during the night and making a dash for the kitchen. How completely gross can you get? Since then I’ve gotten a better “bug-man,” and haven’t seen any roaches, except for the flat kind you see on campus. But still, what a completely revolting creature. And the sad thing is, this is what I’ll remember most about A&M. That and swapping roach stories with classmates. In fact, I’ve started collecting cockroach jokes. I’ve already got such classics as: “I came home last night and found a cockroach using my phone. He was like, ‘Calm down. I’ll be off in a minute’ ” and “So I go in to get something to eat, and there’s this cockroach chewing on a leftover chicken leg, and he’s like, ‘Oh, were you done with this?’ —Yeah, I am now. ” But the one that best shows the attitude of the cockroach toward us and our homes has got to be: “My cockroaches woke me up last night and said, ‘Hey, you know we got ants?’ So, if you know any good roach jokes or stories, tell them to me, and make my memories of A&M just a little bit more vivid and happy. For, in my heart, the cockroach and A&M will always hold a special, treasured spot. (Yech.) Sophomore chemistry major Mike Freeman wrote this Attention!! story. Generation gap prevents shoe shine She walked fast and deliberate through the hallway. The loud clacking of her brightly polished leather shoes rang like an old clock throughout the hallway. There was only a short time for her to be here and she wanted to experience everything this weekend had to offer. Her eyes twitched back and forth, not from nervousness, but from a longing to catch every minute detail of the surroundings. She wanted to take in everything as if this weekend with her collegiate granddaughter were to sustain a lifetime of learning. She felt in place and yet out of time. She was from a generation in the not-so-distant past. To her, this visit was a look into the future, for she had never been able to foresee a place and attitude such as this. The equality was something that she felt she must take in. She had longed to see people living as equals. Men and women able to look upon each other with equal compassion, equal love and equal caring. She longed to be part of this unique utopian world. As the old woman walked, she make light conversation with her granddaughter. She envied this young woman more than any one in the world. Her granddaughter had the chance that she would never have. The young woman gained knowledge through education and thus would be looked upon as an equal by all men. To the old woman equality was something that was very distant from her vision. As she walked, the old woman noticed a sign that said, “Shoes Shined. ” She nervously looked down at her own shoes and said to her grandaughter, “I can never get my shoes shined. I try and try, polish over an over, and still never get them as good as new. ” Her granddaughter answered and said, “We have plenty of time, Grandma. You can go in and get them shined for almost nothing at all.” She looked down, faintly smiled and answered, “I could never go in there, for that is a man’s place and the price, however so slight, is too great for me to pay. ” This Attention!! story was written by senior wildlife and fisheries sciences major David Stacey. — Editor’s Note: This Attention!! page will be used each week as a forum for you, our readers. We encourage you to submit any original work that would be suitable for publication in At Ease. Opinions expressed on the Attention!! page are those of the author, and do not necessarily represent the opinions of The Battalion, Texas A&M administrators, faculty or the Board of Regents. Pictures for the Attention!! page should be black-and- white shots that are unique either in content, angle or technique. Columns, essays or poems should be no longer than 500 words and should be either printed or typed. Don’t forget to put your name and phone number on anything you send us. Then drop it off at The Battalion, Room 216 of the Reed McDonald Building. Be sure to specify that it is for At Ease. Page 2/At Ease/Thursday, Nov. 3,1988
