Thursday, March 23,1989
The Battalion
Page 15
Writer, storyteller makes career
of saving traditional Turkish tales
LUBBOCK (AP) — Ask Barbara
Walker to tell you a story, and she
can entertain you for a few minutes.
Ask her to share every story she
knows, and you’d better pull up a
chair, because she knows enough
tales to talk for months at a time.
“I enjoy stories that speak to peo
ple who have weaknesses like mine
and who are encouraged to laugh
about those weaknesses,” said
Walker, who is curator of the Ar
chive of Turkish Oral Narrative at
Texas Tech University.
Although Walker knows thou
sands of folktales from various coun
tries, she focuses many of her story
telling sessions on yarns from
Turkey.
“I would like to have people in the
United States better understand the
Turkish people,” Walker said. “I
would like to share with people that
Turks care for one another.”
Because folktales reflect the be
liefs and fears of a people, insight
into a culture is gained through tell
ing folktales. Walker shares Turkish
folktales at schools, libraries, group
meetings and festivals. In July, she
will be spinning tales at a festival in
Orange County, Calif.
She began collecting Turkish
folktales with her husband, Dr. War
ren S. Walker, in 1961, when the two
made a trip to Turkey. Since then,
the couple has traveled to Turkey
several times and collected more
than 3,000 tales on tape. About one-
third of the tales have been trans
lated into English with the aid of
Turkish students at Texas Tech.
With the Turkish folktales they
amassed, the Walkers formed the
Archive of Turkish Oral Narrative
in 1971. Nine years later, they do
nated the materials to Texas Tech,
where they continue to work.
Walker has published 12 chil
dren’s book that are based on Turk
ish folktales.
Her latest book is “A Treasury of
Turkish Folktales for Children,”
which includes 34 folktales and 12
riddles. Despite the title, the book
also appeals to the child in every
adult.
“Everybody who can sit down long
enough loves to hear a story. It takes
them out of themselves, and they
can take a look at themselves,”
Walker said.
Storytellers are able to capture an
audience with changes in their
voices’ tone, speed and inflection.
During some storytelling sessions,
Walker wears native Turkish cloth
ing and accents her tales with hand
gestures and different facial ex
pressions.
“Good storytellers are not nec
essarily born, but an ability to ham
and a desire to share are innate. It
takes lots of practice, but you also
have to love the story and want to
share it,” said Walker, who describes
storytelling as a “shared experience
between audience and storyteller.”
An audience’s excitement during
a storytelling session encourages the
storyteller to learn more tales, she
said.
Walker first learned of the joy of
storytelling while growing up in El
mira, N.Y., where her father was su
perintendent of schools. Each night,
Walker would make up a bedtime
story for her sister.
“I knew when I was 7 that I
wanted to write books and tell sto
ries,” Walker said.
Her love of stories grew as she vis
ited the city library every Saturday to
read books. At age 11, she had her
first poem published in “Children’s
Playmate Magazine.”
At age 14, she collected her first
set of folktales. The stories were
about Elmira’s role in the Under
ground Railroad, which helped run
away slaves reach safety in the North
and Canada before the abolition of
slavery.
With the aid of a black man she
met at the library, Walker was able to
meet several people who knew sto
ries about the time.
She later wrote a paper about the
tales when she was a sophomore at
State University of New York at Al
bany. The stories also were pub
lished in New York Folklore mag
azine, Walker said.
“I wanted to write. I wanted to get
it out. It wasn’t for money, and it
wasn’t for reward. It was in my sys
tem, and I wanted to get it out,”
Walker said.
At the University of New York,
Walker received a bachelor’s degree
in 1943 and a master’s degree in
1947, both in English. While at the
university, she met her husband,
and they were married Dec. 9, 1943.
In between obtaining her bache
lor’s and master’s degrees, Walker
taught junior high students at Corn
wall, Albany and Ithaca, New York.
In 1961, she taught English as a sec
ond language to elementary stu
dents in Ankara, Turkey, while her
husband taught at Ankara Univer
sity as a Fulbright scholar. She later
lectured in undergraduate and
graduate classes in Illinois, Iowa and
Texas.
In 1964, the couple moved to
Lubbock, where he taught in Texas
Tech’s English department and
eventually earned the honorary sta
tus of Horn Professorship. Mrs.
Walker concentrated on writing
about Turkey and sharing its
folktales.
Thus far, she has published 375
articles, 20 children’s books, two
books for children and adults, six
books for adults, four filmstrip texts
and one filmstrip kit.
Several of Walker’s books have
been translated and published in
Turkey, including “To Set Them
Free: The Early Years of Mustafa
Kemal Ataturk.”
She currently is collaborating with
Monica Hilling of Amarillo on a
book that tentatively is titled “Turk
ish Folk Art: Visual and Oral.”
For the future, Walker hopes to
continue sharing stories about Tur
key through books and storytelling,
which is gaining in popularity, she
said.
“The long-term view is service. I
want to serve. I love everything I
do,” Walker said.
Good storytellers are not necessarily born, but an
ability to ham and a desire to share are innate. It takes
lots of practice, but you also have to love the story and
want to share it.”
—curator,
Archive of Turkish Oral Narrative,
Texas Tech University
New series
looks at hearts,
souls of ‘Men’
TORONTO (AP) — Yes,
they’ve heard the jokes about
“mensomething” on the set of the
new television series “Men.”
But cast and crew alike say
viewers of the new ABC series,
premiering Saturday, are not in
for another dose of yuppie whin
ing that ABC’s hit “thirtysometh
ing” has been accused of.
“It’s the time to look at the
male point of view of life,” exec
utive producer and director Peter
Werner said.
“It’s time to consider what’s
going on inside a man’s life and
psyche.”
The new series is inspired not
by “thirtysomething” but the
“About Men” column in The New
York Times Magazine and its
wry, unconventional looks at
what it means to be male in mod
ern times.
ABC is giving the one-hour
drama series a spring tryout.
Werner calls the idea of mak
ing the series “a combination of
inspiration and logic.”
He said the four most popular
genres in television are shows
about doctors, police officers,
lawyers and reporters.
So, the four long-time friends
in “Men” are a surgeon, a news
paper columnist, a lawyer and a
cop.
They live in Baltimore because,
the pony-tailed Werner said,
that’s the kind of place where you
could believe four guys who knew
each other in high school still
might hang out together.
Werner said humor definitely
will play a part in the show.
“The biggest danger is taking
yourself too seriously,” he said.
The creator and other exec
utive producer is Steve Brown,
who was involved in “Cagney &
Lacey.”
Canadian actor Saul Rubinek,
who plays the newspaper column
ist, said the show won’t be simply
four guys sitting around talking.
“It won’t be boring,” he said,
on a break from filming a party
scene. “You may like it, or hate it,
but that’s one thing I can promise
you. It’s not going to be boring.”
He said the subject matter will
be men in their roles as brother,
son, husband, friend and lover,
so there will be plenty of territory
to cover.
Also starring are Ted Wass as
the surgeon, Tom O’Brien as the
young policeman and Ving
Rhames as the lawyer.
Rhames, who grew up on Flar-
lem’s 126th Street, said the theme
of a black man whose three best
friends are white hasn’t been ex
plored too much in the first set of
shows.
“I think we have a ways to go as
far as that aspect,” he said.
The actor said the show is “not
cliche” and will be delving into
men’s hearts and souls.
For that reason, Rhames said,
“I think women are more ready
for the show than men.”
Psychologist deems collecting
normal, hoarding a problem
ASSOCIATED PRESS
What’s the difference between a
hoarder and a collector?
Dr. Russell Belk, a psychologist,
says a hoarder saves things even
when he can think of no earthly rea
son for doing so. A collector, on the
other hand, is usually purposeful
and systematic, whether the objects
saved are valued for their utility or
for other reasons.
Belk says the tendency to accumu
late things is nearly universal — “at
least in this culture in which we see
collecting as a useful contribution to
science or to art.”
Belk, who teaches at the Univer
sity of Utah business school, was one
of a group of 21 researchers who
traveled by bus from Los Angeles to
Boston, stopping along the way to
interview consumers.
For many people, he learned, ob
jects with sentimental memories at
tached to them, such as gifts, art
work and handmade furnishings
and photographs, are more mean
ingful than those with great external
value.
When items such as a pair of
bronzed baby shoes or a wedding
dress are disposed of, it’s often be
cause there has been a death or a di
vorce. By disposing of them, an indi
vidual may be attempting to get rid
of sad memories.
Want to get rid of something but
can’t seem to do it? Belk suggests
putting it out of sight for a while.
“As time elapses,” he says, “objects
lose their meaning and it is less pain
ful to part with them.”
When is saving — or hoarding —
serious enough to warrant attention?
When it’s irrational, says Jerilynn
Ross, president of the Phobia Society
of America and a psychologist who
counsels individuals and couples at
Roundhouse Square Phobia Treat
ment Center in Alexandria, Va.
On a radio call-in show, Ross
fielded phone calls from hoarders.
One woman confessed that she
couldn’t throw away ice cream sticks.
Another person collected newspaper
comic strips.
A hoarder may reform. For exam
ple, tag-sale operator Irene Marce-
naro of Westport, Conn., arranged a
sale for a woman who appeared un
able to resist buying cups and sau
cers.
“They were in drawers, on
shelves, even in the oven,” says Mar-
cenaro, who learned that the collec
tor was driven by the fact that when
she was a child there were none in
her home. Though she couldn’t re
sist buying them, she was able to sell
them.
Going into business helped turn
Marcenaro from her acquisitive
ways. Once she had found it difficult
to resist Limoges dishes and crystal
stemware, but no more. “I see so
much, I don’t want anything
around,” she says.
Others who run sales say it’s senti
ment rather than calculation that
causes people to change their mind
about selling something.
“At first they are eager to put ev
erything in a sale. T hen they start
thinking. Next thing you know
they’re pulling out things,” says
Debby Berman, co-owner of The
Good Riddance Girls, a Stamford,
Conn., tag-sale business.
Typically, clients remove items of
purely sentimental value, such as
linens, silver, photos, books and
small pieces of furniture, rather
than practical things, she says.
Berman herself is not immune to
sentiment. She says she is attached to
a butcher’s knife that belonged to
her late grandfather, even though it
doesn’t cut as well as a new one.
Dr. L.ynn Kahle, a psychology
professor at the University of Ore
gon, says holding onto things may
indicate satisfaction with yourself as
you are.
“People buy things that reflect
their self-image,” Kahle says. “To
the extent that they want to change
their self-image, they will try to get
rid of the old things to buy new ones
that reflect a new sense of self.”
Popularity of cruises gives travelers
better bargains, new destinations
ASSOCIATED PRESS
When it comes to deciding what to
do for a vacation this year, many
travel consultants are of the opinion
that some 3 million Americans can’t
be wrong.
That’s the number of U.S. travel
ers expected to take cruises in 1989.
The choice of itinerary ranges
from a 25-cent ride on the Manhat-
tan-Staten Island ferry (round trip)
to a round-the-world trip in a pent
house split-level suite aboard the
Queen Elizabeth 2 at $360,000 each,
double occupancy.
For travelers lured by faraway
places with strange-sounding names,
there’s a cornucopia of adventurous
cruises offered this season.
For example:
• An Amazon River expedition
that includes fishing for piranhas
that later become a luncheon treat.
• A visit to the Galapagos Islands,
described by Charles Darwin as “a
living laboratory of evolution,”
where he formulated his “Origin of
Species” in 1835.
• Siberian River cruises led by Sir
Fitzroy Maclean, a noted Soviet ex
pert from Great Britain.
• A trip aboard what is billed as
the first and only luxury ship to
cruise China’s Yangtse River.
• In-depth luxury cruises in the
Baltic Sea and Gulf of Bothnia.
Despite the millions of cruising
Americans each year, travel experts
say less than 10 percent of U.S. vaca
tioners have discovered cruising.
But because of an expected in
crease in popularity, more ships are
being constructed, said Douglas
Ward, executive director of the In
ternational Cruise Passengers Asso
ciation.
The result is an overcapacity of
berths in certain cuising areas, keep
ing prices modest and competitive
for passengers, says Ward, author of
the Berlitz “Complete Handbook to
Cruising.”
Since 85 percent of those who
take cruises are eager to go again, he
adds, the overcapacity is expected to
decline as the margin grows.
Robert Thornton, professor of
marketing at Miami University of
Ohio, agrees with Ward that overca
pacity means the cruise industry may
not be in for smooth sailing.
While cruises are in the midst of
an unprecedented boom in popular
ity, Thornton foresees a change in
marketing strategy if that growth —
which averaged 10.5 percent an
nually from 1980-87 — is to con
tinue.
Plans by the cruise industry to ex
pand by 30,000 berths in the next
five years, he says, could result in a
classic overcapacity squeeze in prof
its.
Because the market is already so
heavily discounted, the Miami Uni
versity professor recommends that
consumers find a travel agent who
specializes in cruises.
Bargains exist and more may be
available for those who can wait for a
last-minute trip, he says, for no
cruise line will leave with an empty
cabin if possible.
Thornton says industries ap
proaching overcapacity typically at
tempt to segment the market, and he
believes that tactic will be used more
and more by the cruise industry as
capacity exceeds demand.
“That means you’ll have ‘dinks’
(double income, no kids) on cruise
A, singles on cruise B and retirees on
cruise C,” he says.
Ward puts it another way. He
notes a trend toward “specialty”
cruising, using smaller ships
equipped to cater to young, active
passengers, pursuing their hobbies
or special interests. * *,
In advising vacationers how to
make a selection, Ward says there is
a trend by some cruise lines to offer
“more ports” in a week than their
competitors, according to Ward.
But such intensive “island hop-
ping” gives little time to explore a
destination to the full, he says, add
ing, “While you see a lot in a week,
by the end of the cruise you may
need another week to unwind, and
you’ll be hard put to remember what
you saw on which day.
New Spanish selections
in Freeport Library help
residents learn to read
FREEPORT (AP) — Because
of minimal English reading skills,
Greg Vargas never had a reason
to visit the Freeport Library.
Vargas, an Oyster Creek resi
dent for the past four years, said
through an interpreter the li
brary had nothing of value to of
fer him.
Library officials, taking into ac
count Vargas is one of a growing
number of Spanish-speaking resi
dents, are working to change
that.
In January the library, armed
with a $23,000 grant, instituted a
Spanish Language Center. The
center is a first-of-a-kind idea for
the Brazoria County Library Sys
tem, one officials hope can boost
readership by appealing to the
area’s increasing Spanish popula
tion.
“Right now, we’re just building
a collection,” head librarian Betty
Pritchard said of the more than
1,000 Spanish books and video
tapes making up the section.
“Even though it doesn’t look like
much, we feel like we have a lot.”
Bill Hord, assistant director of
the county system, said the word
among other libraries and pa
trons so far has been positive.
“There’s been a lot of interest,”
he said. “If it grows, we’ll cer
tainly spend more money on
materials.”
Hord said the center is a result
of the large Hispanic population
that has flocked to the area dur
ing recent years. That increase
has caused a demand for the
hard-to-find books in Spanish.
Maridale Martinez, a first-
grade bilingual teacher at T.W.
Ogg Elementary School in Clute,
sees the changes. More schools in
the area have some sort of biling
ual class than when she started
teaching eight years ago.
Martinez estimated there are
20 to 30 bilingual teachers in the
Brazosport Independent School
District alone, and only standard
textbooks to keep students read
ing.
“We’re always needing Spanish
language books and it’s been real
hard to come by them,” she said.
“There was no good literature for
the children to hear.”
Pritchard was the only librar
ian in the area who applied for
the one-year grant, noting more
than one-quarter of the popula
tion in Freeport is Hispanic.
“I felt like the need was there,”
she said.
As well as the books and vi
deos, the library used some of the
funds to hire a part-time Spanish
speaking librarian, Anna Marti
nez, who oversees the collection
and interacts with patrons using
it.
Though some of the children
have English skills, Pritchard said
a majority of the adults tend to
speak only Spanish.
“If they’re looking for some
thing, she can talk to them,” Prit
chard said.
Though lacking in some sub
jects, the collection runs the
gamut from novels by Spanish
authors and translated English
authors to car repair, math and
picture books.
Anna Martinez said about 600
selections are children’s books,
because they tend to get more
use.
Hord said the program can
help children from Spanish
speaking families, who statisti
cally have a high dropout rate
from school. Exposing the books
to families for whom English is a
second language and encourag
ing parents to read to their chil
dren in Spanish will benefit them
in school.
“We have a lot of children who
come in and order for their par
ents,” Pritchard said, adding tea
chers from across the county also
are putting in orders for the chil
dren’s books in bulk.
“They’ve gotten a lot of use
that way,” she said.
Pritchard added the books and
tapes also will help English-speak
ing students studying the lan
guage who hope to improve their
vocabulary.
To encourage more use, Anna
Martinez is spearheading a series
of special programs in Spanish,
including story times, crochet les
sons and an income tax seminar.
Vargas, who learned about the
center from his 14-year-old
daughter Martha, is a regular vis
itor, picking out children’s books
for his younger child Reyna or
checking out popular Spanish
movies for future viewing.
The self-employed repairman
said he is telling friends, who also
have been by to see what’s avail
able.
Maridale Martinez said Vargas
is a typical success, one member
of a relocated culture in which
reading plays a minor role.
“Very few of my students have
any books at home, Spanish or
English,” she said, noting many
are now reading during the week
ends because the books are avail
able.
Her hope is, like Vargas, it will
encourage other adults to read,
setting an example for the
younger generation.
“If the kids can see their par
ents with a book, they know it’s
important,” Maridale Martinez
said. “It makes a big difference to
see their parents reading.”
New York club revives
past glamor, memories
with ritzy renovation
NEW YORK (AP) — The pot of
gold may remain elusive. But here,
the rainbow is back in the sky.
The Rainbow Room of beloved
memories — the first really big date,
the celebration of certain wedding
anniversaries and birthdays, the one
go-for-broke dinner on that vacation
in New York — is operating again,
recalling bygone days.
As the song says, they’ve “put it
back the w'ay it was” — when it
opened in 1934 as the epitome of el
egance on the 65th floor of the art
deco RCA Building at 30 Rockefel
ler Center.
The Rainbow Room has never
been updated but, Joseph Baum,
whose company now leases the two
floors of the Rainbow complex, says
that changes had crept in. “All of us
make little changes. Suddenly they
become big changes.”
The Rainbow Room, which has
spectacular views of the Manhattan
skyline and a revolving dance floor,
reopened in December 1987 after a
two-year, $20 million renovation.
“It was completely rebuilt down to
the steel, every square inch refur
bished, put back to be in perfect con
dition,” says Baum.
Renovation became complete this
year with the opening of a cozy caba
ret named Rainbow and Stars.
Baum, who likes to talk about an
ambiance of “dine, dance and ro
mance,” says that the Rainbow Room
now has alternating dance bands
and its circular, wooden dance floor
revolves again.
“It hadn’t been used for years,” he
says.
What isn’t in the Rainbow Room
that was at its opening 55 years ago is
the “color organ.”
It shot lights in the colors of the
rainbow onto the ceiling’s white
dome and crystal chandelier, de
pending on what notes were played,
and gave the Rainbow Room its
name.
The rainbow theme — updated —
is carried out in Rainbow and Stars.
The long interior wall is dotted with
tiny lights — the stars. Periodically,
the stars disappear and the wall be
comes curved rows of rainbow col
ors.
“I think what we have is what
Rainbow stands for,” says Baum,
“history, memory and the energy of
today.”
Baum says, “The whole idea of
Rainbow is again to be showing the
world what it means to be a New
Yorker, and those who want to be
New Yorkers for a short time how to
enjoy seduction and celebration.”
Waving at the view, he adds, “This
is your town expressing all its possi
bilities. People dress up. We have 30
to 40 percent every night in black
tie.”
Rainbow and Stars is on the north
side of the RCA Building’s 65th
floor, and a bar, Rainbow Prome
nade, is on the south.
On the west, where the Ellington
Band formerly swung two en
gagements a year in the Rainbow
Grill, the room is renamed Rainbow
Pavilion and is rented for private
parties.
The entire floor is a private lun
cheon club on weekdays.
The Rainbow Room is open to the
public for brunch on Sundays.
Baum says the average food check
in the Rainbow Room is around $50
for food per person; drinks, tax, tips
and a $15 music charge take it
higher.
Dinner prices in Rainbow & Stars
are comparable, with an entertain
ment charge usually at $35 per per
son.