Monday, April 3,1989
The Battalion
Page 11
Forget air conditioning;
woman keeps her cool
collecting old hand fans
PLAINVIEW (AP) — The
electric fan — not to mention cen
tral air conditioning — has
largely replaced the hand fan as a
practical means of cooling off.
But ornamental hand fans still
maintain their air of romance.
Eula Hayes of Plainview says
many of the hand fans she has
collected over 35 years have their
own stories.
“My husband and I went to
Georgia to visit relatives and I
found some fans in a store. I
bought two of them,” said Hayes,
recalling a 1953 trip with her late
husband, Henry, that led to her
collection.
“1 intended to put the two
small silk fans in a frame, but the
frames have to be built for the
fans and they are expensive,” she
said. “Different people began giv
ing me fans after I began collect
ing them.” One of Hayes’ fans,
made of fine black linen, be
longed to her grandmother. The
fan was used for the practical
purpose of cooling but had a
fashionable design that Hayes has
enhanced by adding black lace
along its fringes.
“It was given to my grand
mother in 1920 by my sister,” she
said. “It’s still in good condition.”
Hayes says she can’t put a price
ion her most valuable fan, made
of ivory and purchased at a
Washington, D.C. antique shop.
“It was given to me in 1965,”
she said. “The woman who
bought it was from Tulia and she
gave it to a friend of mine who
gave it to me because she knew I
was collecting them. I would have
to see an antique dealer to esti
mate a price on it.”
Hayes’ collection has never
been tagged and numbered, but
the spacious walls of her apart
ment are filled with fans of dif
ferent colors.
She has many more boxed up.
1 here are too many to display,
and some are too fragile.
“1 have an embroidered fan
from a craft store,” she said. “It’s
made from fine linen. It has flow
ers and ribbon tied on to it. I had
wanted it but my daughter-in-law
bought it first and had the kids
give it to me.” .
She has a fan made of seaweed
from Texas beaches. She has fans
made of chicken feathers. Her
tans commemorate the Battleship
I exas and the Hearst Castle in
San Simeon, Calif. One is a me
morial to the assassinated leaders
of the 1960s—-John F. Kennedy,
Robert Kennedy and Martin Lu
ther King Jr.
People send me greeting
cards shaped like fans,” Hayes
said. “I have political fans and a
collector’s box of advertising
fans.”
“ I he tiniest fan I have is a little
charm with a place to put a ch
ain,” Hayes said. “It came to me
as a mystery. My grandson gave
me a lovely solid brass fan. There
was a brown envelope under the
box. 1 his little fan was in the en
velope. Nobody knew where it
came from.
“On my way to Georgia one
time, I bought a fan made of wal
lpaper at Sallisaw, Okla,” she said.
“I put it in the back of my car for
all to see as we traveled.”
Hayes has some fans made of
china on display throughout her
• house and other fans as small as
one inch in length delicately
stored in jewelry boxes.
Hayes, a native of Trickham,
taught school in Coleman County
for three years before her mar
riage in 1924. She and her farmer
husband lived in Swisher County,
then moved to Plainview in 1943.
Hayes has two living sons, eight
grandchildren and three great
grandchildren.
Restored colonial seaport
thrives near Wall Street
NEW YORK (AP) — Surviving at
jthe foot of the glass and steel towers
|of Wall Street, the 200-year-old
ISouth Street Seaport has become
lone of New York City’s most popu
lar new tourist attractions.
The restored seaport, with its tall
filing ships, historic buildings and a
schedule of entertainment, at-
Itracts an estimated 12 million visitors
|each year.
New York’s financial empire be-
|gan in South Street’s 18th century
warehouses and counting houses,
handling the wealth growing out of a
burgeoning ship trade. With the
opening of the Erie Canal in 1825,
produce and goods from the Mid-
pest fueled the boom, and South
]>treet became known as the “Street
Pf Ships.” China clippers, trans-At-
jbntic packets, Caribbean schooners,
“Tain barges, fishing smacks and
Steamboats crowded the wharves
pong the lower' East River tip of
plan hat tan. I he heyday lasted until
Phout 1860, when New York out-
gtew the port and trade shifted to
|he Hudson River.
Today’s Seaport thrives on tou-
P’ ‘ ts 91^ buildings and sailing
t?’P s helping visitors relive the past,
hw ca 9 take harbor excursions
P oard vintage ships like the cen-
fry-old schooner Pioneer, or tour
ermanently moored ships such as
Previews
Film examines civilization
By Shane Hall
REVIEWER
On the surface, “Walkabout” ap
pears only to be a simple story about
two children lost in the Australian
desert and led to safety by a young
aborigine. But when examined in
depth, the film is an insightful and
fascinating examination of the effect
civilization has on people.
“Walkabout,” a 1971 film made in
Australia, is photographed and di
rected by British director Nicolas
Roeg (“Performance,” “The Man
Who Fell to Earth”). The film cen
ters on two school children who, for
some unknown reason, are driven
into the desert by their father, who
intends to kill them. Failing that, he
kills himself instead. The children
are left stranded in the desert.
After days of wandering in
scorching heat, the children are w-
eary and near death. But an aborig
ine finds them and leads them back
to civilization before abruptly disap
pearing.
The movie opens with a rapid
montage of urban scenes. We see
closeup shots of traffic jams and
crowds of people. The people are
not socializing or even smiling. The
effect is that of a cold and imper
sonal environment.
However, the urban world’s in
habitants are shown as removed
from nature as well as from each
other. The extent to which the civi
lized world has encroached upon the
natural world is emphasized in a
scene of people swimming in a pool
built right next to the coast.
But despite the negative light in
which the urban world is shown, the
wilderness is not shown as a favor
able alternative. Roeg fills the screen
with panning shots of the seemingly
endless desert, making the wilder
ness seem a desolate place.
The combination of story and
master cinematography makes “Wal
kabout” a remarkable experience.
“Walkabout” is this week’s MSC
Aggie Cinema international feature.
If you hate reading subtitles, you’re
in luck — because this movie is in
English.
T he film will be shown Tuesday at
7:30 p.m. in Rudder Theater. Ad
mission is $2.50.
Players show modern Antigone
By Cray Pixley
ENTERTAINMENT WRITER
The Aggie Players present the
A.R. Gurney Jr. play Another Anti
gone at 8 p.m. Wednesday
through Sunday in Rudder Forum.
The play is based on Sophocles’
myth of Antigone and is an exami
nation of the problems between a
university professor and his preco
cious student.
A New England classics professor,
Henry Harper, is faced with a situa
tion in which a young Jewish stu
dent, Judy Miller, wants to write a
contemporary “Antigone” for her
term paper instead of the assigned
topic.
Miller’s paper “Antigone” is based
on the arms-race issue, and Harper
adamantly refuses to accept the sub
ject because he does not believe in
present her version of “Antigone”
and the professor’s effort to pre
serve his view of academic integrity.
The Aggie Players’ Another Anti
gone is an all-student production.
The director, senior theatre arts
major Troy Herbert, came across
the play this past summer and de
cided that the subject would be well-
received by a Texas A&M audience.
“The thing I like about this play is
that it really hits home,” Herbort
says. “The issues that the play brings
up about students and professors’
relationships are those that I think
people on campus can identify
with.”
Herbort. applied for the opportu
nity to produce the play through a
theater arts program that allows up
per-level students to apply for ap
proval to direct a studio production.
Steven A. McCauley will portray
Professor Harper. Danyah Arafat is
his opponent. Miller. Mary Ellen
Brennan is Dean Eberhart, and J.
rewriting the classics.
The play centers on a battle of David Roberto plays Miller’s boyf-
wills between Miller and Harper riend, David.
with Harper becoming Creon to J u-
dy’s Antigone. The university griev
ances committee and accusations of
Harper’s and-semitism all converge
in the student’s determination to
Alone in a desert wilderness,
ranger works to protect land
the four-masted bark Peking, the
full-rigged three-masted Wavertree,
the lightship Ambrose or the fishing
schooner Lettie G. Howard, each
about 100 years old.
The Seaport also is home of the
venerable Fulton Fish Market and
Sloppy Louie’s, a small shopfront
restaurant dating from the 1930s.
These have been joined by hundreds
of other modern stores, restaurants
and boutiques since the Seaport re
storation began in the 1970s.
Bowne & Co. stationers on Water
Street is typical of the old buildings
in the 11-block restoration. A mu
seum replica of an 1870s print and
stationery shop, it has old hand-op
erated letterpresses producing
cards, stationery and pamphlets for
sale at the front of the store. T he
South Street Museum offices are in
two Front Street buildings thought
to be the oldest on the block, dating
from at least 1797. They were once
used by grocery firms, and one of
the buildings still has a wooden
wheel in its attic, part of an old
hand-hoisting system.
Live indoor and outdoor concerts
are regular Seaport events, and fire
works shows are added for holiday
weekends. Memorial Day events are
scheduled May 27-29; Indepen
dence Day, July 1-4; Labor Day,
Sept. 2-4.
BIG BEND NATIONAL PARK
(AP) — According to most people’s
standards, Kenneth Grigsby lives
alone. Very alone.
He disagrees.
He considers his home one of the
most populated areas in the South
west. Grigsby counts deer, antelope,
mountain lions, bobcats, foxes, jack
rabbits, javelinas, mice, coyotes, bad
gers, hawks, quail, eagles and many
other kinds of birds and his cat,
Butch, as neighbors.
But he may spend days without
seeing another human.
“It’s a bunch of wild country,”
Grisby said about his home where
he’s the law-enforcer, the mainte
nance personnel and the overseer.
Grigsby is the park ranger for Big-
Bend National Park’s recent land ac
quisition, the Harte Ranch, in the
northwestern corner of the park, a
100-square mile piece of land that
starts at Persimmon Gap, takes in
the Rosillos Mountains and spreads
out to the edge of Corazone Peaks.
It takes him at least 30 minutes to
reach the main road from his home
and another 30 minutes to the park
headquarters.
The land, mostly Chihuahuan de
sert, adds to the park’s 1,106 square
miles.
Officially a part of the park since
Jan. 19, the land holds five springs,
including Buttrill Spring, the largest
in the park.
“Water is the source of life out
here,” he said.
There’s no camping allowed in
the area yet, but Grigsby said hiking
in the foothills of the Rosillos Moun
tains and day use of the park are
open.
“It belongs to the public and it’s
for the public,” he said.
Park Superintendent Jim Carrico
said plans for the Harte Ranch are
not a priority.
“We hope to come in with a small
group of planners to look at the
area, evaluate what’s there and what
can be done with it,” he said.
“I can just speculate that there’s
not going to be much in the way of
major development in the immedi
ate future,” Carrico said.
The springs on the land probably
will be a major focus, Carrico said.
“That has to be a focus,” he said.
“The Indians used it, the early set
tlers used it and I would hope that
we could come in and have visitors
use it without destroying the charm
of the springs.”
Grigsby is anxious to get the land
open for camping. The campsites
will not be major and campers will
have to be self-contained, he said.
Back country campsites could be set
up as early as this summer.
The land holds a lot of history.
Grisby said 61 archeological sites
have been discoverd and 15 of those
have become state landmarks. But
hunting for artifacts on state prop
erty is illegal.
He remembers a staring contest with
a badger, whose face he thought
beautiful, and a golden eagle with a
huge wing span.
Bringing large numbers of ante
lope back into the area is Grigsby’s
next goal.
“We’ll be taking down the internal
fences because antelope won’t cross
them, whereas deer will just jump
over them.” he said.
The Rosillos Mountains are be
fore Grigsby every day, and they
have their own personality, he said.
“Rosillos means rosy or pink in
Spanish,” he said. “And that’s what
We’re not going to have inappropriate
development of that land. It might have ended up
being subdivided into little ranchettes that would have
cobbled up the feeling of a big, wide-open space.”
— Kenneth Grigsby,
Big Bend National Park ranger
Adobe ruins can be found on the
land. Grisby said they were built in
1899 by a ranching family.
He recently met a 79-year-old
man who used to live in the ruins by
Buttrill Springs.
“He took me through it and
showed me where he slept and liv
ed,” Grisby said. “I don’t know what
he expected, but there’s no roof and
the walls have eroded.”
Paved roads don’t exist in the ex
tension, only dirt roads that are
driven best in a four-wheel drive ve
hicle.
Cattle, which no longer graze the
land, are the only animal native to
the area. Grigsby said the last cattle
were removed in May.
Cacti, criosalt, yucca, mesquite
and tasajillo fill the area with vegeta
tion.
“Hopefully, we’ll get about one
very good rain, and we’ll get a good
bloom out this year.”
Grigsby said the animals in the
area aren’t hard to find.
Deer often graze along the road
side and the birds are everywhere.
color they are. They are made up of
green granite and where that’s ex
posed to the atmosphere, they turn
pink.”
The main road will not require a
four-wheel drive, Grigsby said, al
though many of the internal roads
will. Vehicles will not be allowed in
the fragile land near the springs.
Hunting was the land’s original
purpose. Three houses can be
found, with a landing strip hunters
used to fly in for their stay.
The land was given to the park by
Ed and Houston Harte in 1984. Be
ing a national park, the boundries
could not be amended without ap
proval from the U.S. Congress.
The Texas Nature Conservancy
acted as caretakers while in tran
sition. Carrico was called to go be
fore Congress to state the reasons
the ranch should be added to the
park.
Carrico said the reason he fought
for the land was to “protect that
wonderful panorama you get when
you come in through Persimmon
Gap.”
ids Costello’s no genius; if he were, he wouldn 7 be in music
[SSOCIATED PRESS
P* Costello has been called a
sical genius by many critics in his
■‘•year career
J e has an
Fhere
answer for them.
ne J e u are no geniuses in this busi-
L,,’ ,, sa y s - “If there were, they
I n t be in this business.”
L n |i m L erviewer H’-hckly discovers
pin? R * laS an 0 P* n * on about every-
iriJ n 111 ^ lat c ^ oesn t come as a sur-
■curp T tello ’ s albums display his
XnH f 0bservat * ons °f ^e human
Inw 0n ’ S P [ke ’ his 12th, and first
T» rpn arner brothers Records, is no
r-eption.
L s |T as ^ 0 - 30 and climbing on the
tiling w ma S azine March 25 best-
al bum chart.
or! l reCOrd ta ckles such topics as
lobW- ar S aret 1 hatcher, coal-train
■ell eS an< ^ ca Phal punishment, as
lelat;l S P^hlems with personal
Ly i h^P 8 ' If that weren’t
In tolu 11 con tains two songs writ-
in P- , anot her famous Liverpud-
Kr IMcCa « ne y'
Jd k " ar tney called and asked if
W ” lateres t e d in writing a few
jtien’ n Cos l ell ° says. “It was lyric
^ 8- ^ou go back and forth
with each other. We’ll just have to
wait and see if it works.”
One of the songs they co-wrote is
“Veronica,” the album’s first single.
McCartney also plays bass on the
track”. . .This Town. . .
Another song, »“Baby Plays
Around,” was co-written by Costello
and his wife, Gait O’Riordan, for
merly of the Pogues, an Irish band.
“Gait wrote it while I went out to
buy a paper,” Costello says, em
phasizing how small his contribution
was. “It was all there on tape. All I
did was some musical editing.”
He continues: “This album took a
bit more planning. I knew the play
ers on the other records and they
were familiar with the sound. In this
case, we put the musicians together.
Supporting players include Rogei
Mcfcuinn, once of the Byrds, former
Beatle McCartney, Chrissie Hynde
of the Pretenders, guitarist Marc Ri-
bot and the Dirty Dozen Brass Band
from New Orleans.
“We had to get the right collection
and make the right mistakes to pro
duce this album,” Costello says. It s
his first album of new material since
Blood and Chocolate in 1986.
Spike has been well-received by
the critics, even better than most of
Costello’s previous efforts, which
also have been favorably reviewed in
general. Costello‘is a critical success
but has not been a commercial su
perstar. He doesn’t seem unhappy
really.”
Spike is a typical Costello mix of
musical idioms. He has always been
able to scramble different musical
forms together, driven by the imag
An artist takes what he has and uses it with the
material at hand. It’s like Bon Jovi. He sells records
and doesn’t pretend to be an artist. I enjoy him
because he does what he does well.”
— Elvis Costello
about the situation, but did leave Co
lumbia Records for Warner Broth
ers.
“I don’t want to go around bash
ing my former label,” the singer
says. “The people at CBS who didn’t
help me know who they are and the
people who did help know who they
are. The Warner people know the
business and want to sell the record.
“I’m successful and enjoy what I
do,” he laughs. “That and selling re
cords are two different things,
ery of his lyrics. He finds some idi
oms — such as jazz — have been
used too much by careless hands,
saturating the public’s appetite for
them.
“Let Him Dangle” deals with a
real British murder case.
“It’s a famous murder story and I
grew up hearing about it,” Costello
says. “Now, every time someone gets
murdered or something horrific
happens, the tabloids scream, ‘Let
Him Dangle.’
His lyrics have created a public
image of anger and suppressed vio
lence. Costello feels that’s the pub
lic’s problem, not his. After he has
finisned a song, what people do or
do not read into it is in the public do
main, he feels. However, Costello
has strong reactions to critical re
views.
“They don’t always grasp every
thing,” he says, leaning forward in
his seat. “They’re saturated with free
music to the point where they can
only listen to eight bars of it. The
people actually putting their money
down to buy the record have a dif
ferent relationship with it. What
bothers me about critics is their tell
ing me I can make a better record.
Well, if they think so, let them go out
and make it.
“An artist takes what he has and
uses it with the material at hand. It’s
like Bon Jovi. He sells records and
doesn’t pretend to be an artist. I en
joy him because he does what he
does well.”
Costello also wrote the highly
praised lyrics of “The Comedians,”
which the late Roy Orbison sang on
his last LP, “Mystery Girl.”
Tickets for Another Antigone are
on sale at the Rudder Box Office.
Student and senior citizen seats are
$2 and general public seats are $3.
Review:
‘Same Time’
love story
fun fantasy
By S. Hoechstetter
REVIEWER
It would be hard to walk away
feeling cheated after seeing the
Aggie Players’ production of
“Same Time, Next Year.” T he
play was an outstanding affair.
The play, written by Bernard
Slade, is a romantic comedy about
a couple who has a one-night
stand and decides to continue the
affair every year on the same
weekend. By the end of the play,
they have had more than 20 an
nual affairs.
Ginny Green played Doris, a
middle-class high-school dropout
in the 1940s who works to be
come a successful, educated busi
nesswoman later in life. She is the
realist who does not worry or get
emotional about things not worth
worrying about. She has common
sense and always sees the truth in
situations.
Mark Hadley played George,
who was an eager but timid CPA
when he first met Doris. He, too,
goes through various job and atti
tude changes over the years.
George is emotional and melo
dramatic — Doris’ exact opposite.
During one of their weekends
together (while she is eight
months pregnant), Doris goes
into labor. George almost faints.
Green and Hadley did an ex
cellent job of making the audi
ence laugh at their awkward situ
ations, such as waking up in bed
together that first morning and
barely recognizing each other.
George thought Doris’ name
was Dorothy until she finally cor
rected him. They break the ice by
telling one good and one bad
story about their spouses. The
practice becomes a tradition to
make themselves feel comfortable
during their first few moments
together each year. They also
come to know and respect each
other’s spouses through these sto
ries.
The audience gets to know the
couple as they grow together,
sharing good and bad times.
They love each other and their
families at the same time.
In 1968, Doris comes to the
cabin dressed like a flower child.
She has bell-bottom jeans, a T-
shirt and leather vest. She tells
George about her experiences as
a protesting student at Berkeley.
George is appalled at her liberal
views.
The audience feels like it has
been punched its collective stom
ach as George begins to cry when
he tells Doris that his son was
killed in Vietnam. It is one of the
most authentic and touching
scenes in the play.
Each scene shows how the two
get to know each other over the
years and how the relationship
matures into one of extreme trust
and friendship.
The music and clothing are in
dicate the changing years. The
Beatles’ “All You Need Is Love” is
played as the fifth scene opens.
George is dressed in a tie-dyed
shirt and torn jeans and he bab
bles about the bad vibes and neg
ative karma he senses from Doris.
“Same Time, Next Year” was a
heart-warming play about love
and friendship. Viewing it al
lowed the audience to engage in a
fantasy that few people live today.