Sunday, August 31, 1997
Reporter's notebook
LORETTA FULTON, senior staff writer -- College humor can be
sophomoric, but it doesn't have to be.
Speakers at two of Abilene's universities proved that this
week during opening convocations at McMurry and Abilene Christian.
Hardin-Simmons gets its chance Tuesday.
Dr. Royce Money, president of ACU, made a promise to his new
students during the school's very impressive but lengthy opening
ceremony.
"All chapel services are not as long as this one is going
to be," he promised. His words were greeted by a roar of
approval from the students.
He followed that by introducing the two deans of students,
Wayne Barnard and Cynthia Cooke. Although the pair are both deans,
"they are not known as co-deans," he joked. "But
you will be addicted to them because they are neat people."
That one was met with a few groans along with a lot of chuckles.
At McMurry Tuesday night, a packed crowd at Radford Auditorium
was challenged by a speech from Dallas pathologist Dr. Beck Weathers.
Weathers was one of the survivors of a May 1996 expedition
to Mount Everest in which eight people were killed when a violent
storm struck suddenly.
After ascending the world's largest mountain and being rescued
at 22,000 feet in a helicopter, you would think Weathers would
be used to heights.
He may be, but he loosened up the crowd with this opening line
while nervously peering over the edge of the auditorium stage.
"Did anyone else notice this is kind of high?" he
asked.
---
BETH HALLMARK, staff writer -- Taylor County commissioners
didn't go hungry at their last budget workshop session this week.
They were treated to a platter full of cookies while they worked
to whittle requests off the county's budget.
Where the cookies came from was never divulged, but Frank Cleveland
with the West Central Texas Interlocal Crime Task Force claimed
responsibility -- right before commissioners took up the subject
of his agency's budget request.
Whether he brought the treats or not, commissioners still cut
the request.
However, they disproved their stingy reputation by offering
a few cookies to a hungry reporter.
---
GLENN DROMGOOLE, editor -- The beginning of another school
year reminds me of a funny back-to-school story that happened
a few years ago here in Abilene.
A first-grader packed off to school on the first day. It didn't
seem like such a big deal to him. He had already mastered a year
of kindergarten. It was half-day kindergarten back then.
Came noon on the first day of school and the youngster began
gathering up his stuff and heading for the door.
The teacher asked him what he was doing.
Getting ready to go home, he said.
No, the teacher told him, in first grade you stay all day.
The boy was appalled.
"Well," he wanted to know, "who came up with
that idea?"
Who, indeed?
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Abilene Reporter-News / Texnews / E.W. Scripps Publications
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