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Thursday • December 8, 1994
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The Battalion • Page 9
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VIEWS
, 1995
1994
EWS
, 1995
), 1995
Parades halt the traffic on the drive through life
Avenue continues unchanged,
regardless of who's driving
B:
FRANK
STANFORD
Columnist
ecause I live only a couple of
blocks from Texas Avenue, I am
constantly reminded of the hus
tle and bustle of a main thoroughfare.
It’s not that Bryan-College Station
has so many cars, or that Texas Av
enue is a “big” four lane highway —
that stuff is all relative to other towns
- but rather, that all the cars, trucks
and buses are all hurriedly on their
way north or south, one way or the other.
They enter the avenue, they exit the avenue;
it never, ever stops. Cars wreck sometimes, and
passengers get hurt sometimes, but the mess
gets cleaned up fairly quickly. The avenue al
ways stays intact, however. In fact, just a few
hours after a most horrible accident, you’d never
know by looking that a life was endangered, re
routed or lost.
The entering and exiting continues just the same.
I guess it’s mainly the noise that keeps the av
enue ever-present in my mind. Oh sure, like
everyone, I use it almost every day; but even
when I’m sitting at my desk it’s active presence
remains. The screeching halts, the squealing
starts, the unceasing whizzing of cars and gear
changing of big diesel en
gines permeate my
eardrums and never let
me forget the avenue.
Last Sunday there was
a parade.
A Christmas parade.
Part of the avenue was
temporarily detained. It
strained at the barriers
like a bronco at the gate.
It was obvious that high
ways don’t like being
blocked off. No cars were
allowed and everyone be
haved, but policemen were
still necessary to make sure.
Can people have a parade without police?
Most everyone liked the parade. I could tell.
The curb teemed with wiggling children, but the
parents who brought them also were excited — I
could see it in their faces.
Every time a new band, float or group of
twirlers came into view there was wonderment
in young eyes and smiles on everyone. Real
smiles: the kind you don’t even know you’re do
ing at first.
One woman was expressing to her husband
that it was a shame for a parade route to be
lined with vendors. They always stand around
with balloons, pirate flags and blow-up Dallas
Cowboys football helmets. They even had some
Christmas stuff. They’re just souvenir salesmen.
I’ve always thought vendors were actually a
part of the parade because they seem to add
something. Besides, no one can ever claim it’s “a
shame” there are so many video salesmen.
Lawyers, maybe.
I didn’t really watch much of the parade as I
spent all my time watching everyone else. And I
decided that the parade doesn’t mean quite the
same thing to adults as it does to children.
To most children everything in the parade is
new and amazing; Santa is real. To most older
onlookers, the parade is a needed time to reflect
and enjoy, a reminder of when everything was
new and amazing; when Santa WAS real.
It’s impossible to see a parade and not feel one
way or the other. But children seem to enjoy
With finals around the corner, there's not
much time to think about parades. Or av
enues. We're all busy bustling about on
The Avenue of life, making lots of noise.
their way the most.
I guess with finals around the corner there’s
not much time to think about parades.
Or avenues.
We are all too busy hustling and bustling
about on The Avenue, making lots of noise. The
Avenue is our life, and we use it every day.
We go, go, go, driving fast with eyes straight
ahead, changing gears, straining at the yield
signs that allow us onto The Main Avenue.
Sometimes we have accidents and get hurt.
Sometimes we have a stop sign.
A few of us screech to a halt, many more
squeal to get going. But we still enter The Av
enue only to exit and enter again.
Some people just stay on until they run out of gas.-
Some hate The Avenue; they take the back roads.
Sometimes we have Parades. They make us
smile. They are a chance to block off part of The
Avenue and sit on the curb for a while.
These are the only times you can just sit on
the curb of The Avenue in the middle of the day
an d not feel like a bum.
Often times our friends, lovers or
spouses have to be our police. They
block off The Avenue for us and make
us watch.
Some of us watch every Parade like
children and some of us watch every
parade as “older onlookers, but “chil
dren” still seem to enjoy their way the
most of all.
Parades are what make The Avenue worth
having.
Frank Stanford is a philosophy
graduate student
The Battalion
Editorial Board
Belinda Blancarte, Editor in chief
Mark Evans, Managing editor
Jay Robbins, Opinion editor
Jenny Magee, Asst, opinion editor
Editorials appearing in The Battalion
reflect the views of the editorial board. They
do not necessarily reflect the opinions of
other Battalion staff members, the Texas
A&M student body, regents, administration,
faculty or staff. :
Columns, guest columns, cartoons and
letters express the opinions of the authors.
Contact the opinion editor for information
on submitting guest columns.
The new front line
From battle plans to lesson plans
Troops to Teachers, a new $65
million dollar Pentagon program
which places former armed forces
members as teachers or aides in low-
income school districts, is an excel
lent idea.
In this day and age, public school
ing has become somewhat of a bat
tleground. With the increase in
guns and drugs on playgrounds, the
school can no longer be considered a
safe and secure place.
Placing former military personnel
in public schools will not solve the
problems entirely, but perhaps will
enforce some discipline and order on
school campuses.
Furthermore, it is evident that
teachers have lost a tremendous
amount of respect in recent years.
They no longer are serve as a “scare”
factor in children’s lives.
By putting former military lead
ers in teacher positions, perhaps
children will learn to respect educa
tors once more.
In today’s problem-plagued soci
ety, children, especially of disadvan
taged backgrounds, need good role
models. Many of the former military
personnel are from minority ethnic
and racial groups, and perhaps will
contribute positively to the lives of
such children. By placing such role
models in the schools, the image of
inner-city schools is likely to be im
proved.
The need for talented, dedicated
teachers has increased dramatically.
In many ways teaching is no longer
an enjoyable profession — in some
cases it has become a dangerous one.
The military personnel who are
participating in this program are not
only helping children, but they are
also alleviating the stress level of
teachers and helping to cushion the
low supply of educators. “It’s a win-
win situation,” said Defense Secre
tary William J. Perry.
Perhaps the most important as
pect of Troops to Teachers is the fact
that veterans continue to serve their
country. Instead of being on the bat
tleground, these servicemen get the
opportunity to work on their second
careers by contributing positively to
the nation’s welfare.
This new program sponsored by
the Pentagon is one of the best yet.
It will benefit not only children and
teachers, but it will also benefit edu
cation — an aspect of society that is
in desperate need of help.
Aggies should take time
to see women's sports
I just wanted to tell all you Ags out
there in Aggieland that ya’ll have re
ally been missing some great athletic
events. No, I’m not talking about our
Fightin’ Texas Aggie Football Team,
I’m talking about women’s basketball.
The Lady Ags have had a pretty
good season, and a lot of ya’ll missed
it. I bet you they could have been
much better if we had more people in
attendance to support them.
Crowd involvement really works, I
know from previous experience. The
Lady Aggies Volleyball team went to
the SWC tournament at Rice. They
easily defeated Rice in the first round
and were ready to face t.u. in the sec
ond round.
Both times we played t.u. this sea
son, they defeated us in five games.
But this time, those of us Ags who
were there at the t.u. game made the
difference. We stood behind the team
and really pumped them up, and
when the team switched sides after
completing a game, we stayed in the
same place and razzed the t-sips.
ms mmssmmmm
HgHHi 1 .,5s?Hi T-v.,?-iimiill?
Every time out we did “Beat the
Hell Outta t.u.” non-stop.
I think we broke a record for the
most consecutive “beat the hells.”
You could tell it was getting to the
t-sips, too. We defeated them three
games to one.
The Lady Aggies finished their
season against BYU the day after
Thanksgiving and just won the first
round of the NCAA playoffs on Nov.
30. Volleyball is pretty much over,
but the basketball season is just get
ting started.
Now I know all of you plan on go
ing to men’s basketball, but what
about the women’s team? They really
are much better than the men’s team,
and I think they will go all the way
this season.
If you really want to see some hot
stuff, come out and watch the Lady
Aggies.
Hey, if you try it, I guarantee
you’ll like it.
Reed Watson
Class of ’98
Member of A.R.M.Y.
(Aggies Ready to Motivate You)
The Battalion encour
ages letters to the editor
and wi ll print as many as
space allows. Letters
must be 300 words or
less and include the au
thor's name, class, and
phone number.
We reserve the right
to edit letters for length,
style, and accuracy.
Address letters to:
The Battalion - Mail Call
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Texas A&M University
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77843-1111
Fax: (409) 845-2647
E-mail:
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I’ll be home for Christmas ...
Changes in holiday traditions don't mean loss of their real meaning
LYNN
BOOMER
Columnist
T he semester is over,
and less than one
week from today, life
will be much less stressful
for all of us. By now I’ve al
ready finished the horren
dous amount of homework,
the paper and the test I
had to take before I could
even begin to focus on fi
nals. I also found my I.D.
holder and a new roommate, so most of my semester’s stress
has dissipated.
The holidays are just around the corner, and with them
comes good food, wonderful family and nice presents. Soon
my parents will be dragging the 10-year-old fake Christmas
tree out of the storage shed in the back yard, dusting it off
and stringing the lights around it. The old tradition of deco
rating the tree will be a little different this year since both
my sister, Karen, and I are away at college.
As children, we used to fight over which one of us would
get to put the 15 boxes of decorations on the tree. By the time
we were teenagers, we were arguing over who would be
forced to decorate it. Eventually we settled on pitching the
ornaments at the tree and seeing where they landed. My par
ents put a quick stop to that tradition.
Then came the time for the outside ''
decorations. Dad would string lights
on the house while Karen and I would
cover the trees and the fence with
more strings. At one point we had a
large wooden mailbox shaped like a
doghouse that was built to hold pack
ages. It made a perfect manger for the
mini-nativity I would carefully set up
each year.
The tradition ended the year baby Jesus was stolen from
the mailbox. Not too long after, we got a normal stone mail
box that prevented future manger scenes. This year we won’t
be home early enough to set up the yard display, so my dad
was industrious and put the outside Christmas lights up the
day after Thanksgiving.
The Christmas cookie bake-a-thon was another exciting
ritual in the Booher household. Over the years we collected
dozens of creatively shaped cookie cutters, ranging from
three or four versions of Santa Claus to snowmen, bells,
wreaths and of course, gingerbread people.
Mom would mix up infinite batches of sugar and ginger
bread cookie dough, leaving us kids to cut the cookies out
and decorate them with colored sugar and sprinkles. Karen
liked to pour hundreds of teeth-cracking silver bb’s all over
her cookies.
For a few years, all our friends and the neighborhood gang
would gather ’round in the kitchen to help on a day filled
with laughter, warmth, the smells of baking — and best of all,
no school.
One year we got so caught up in the fun that mom let
every kid make gingerbread houses out of graham crackers,
icing and dozens of different candies, only half of which made
it into the houses. Unfortunately, these traditions are also
dwindling. The excitement has worn off with age, and the
passel of neighborhood kids are now teenagers or older.
On Christmas morning in days of yore, I would jump out o
bed at six in the morning and run into the living room to see
what Santa had brought us. Some years I would exercise con
straint and go into the kitchen first for a bowl of cereal, all
the while bouncing in my chair with the anticipation of see
ing all the presents in the next room.
After a while I would walk in there to see two chairs side
by side, one with my stocking draped over it, the other with
Karen’s. Piled all over the chair and on the floor around it
would be an abundance of really cool presents. After dig
ging through the dolls and toys, I would run to Karen’s
room to wake her from the dead so that we could enjoy
everything together.
Christmas morning was probably the only time we could
play alone together
The traditions will continue this year,
though not exactly the same as when I was
a kid. But they still include the most impor
tant aspect: being with the family I love.
without ever fighting
In the afternoon
came relatives and
glorious food. My
family really knows
how to throw feasts
for the holidays. Be- ;
tween late November
and Jan. 1, we have
at least three major banquets, and sometimes more. No one
could not love the turkey and stuffing, green beans, Jello
molds, sweet potatoes and best of all, the melt-in-your-
mouth rolls, fresh from the oven.
Thoughts of the wonderful food ahead are sometimes the
only thing that sustains me while I’m at school, cooking for
myself.
The traditions will continue this year, though not exactly
the same as when I was a kid. It doesn’t matter, though, be
cause they still include the most important aspect: being with
the family I love.
Happy holidays to all of you, and beat the hell out of finals!
Lynn Booher is a junior English and psychology major