"Davidson"

Media

Part of "Davidson"

Title
"Davidson"
Description
Image of a creative nonfiction piece from the 1964-5 Inklings
Date
00-00-1964
content
TO BE A CARIOCA, continued
How can I explain something like that to an American?
--Luiz Carlos
S.
Joaquim
DAVIDSON
Hattie's is crowded. You see the myri~d off
. .
aces, person-
alities, temperaments, emotions, problems-some dry some bloodshot
The smoky haze stings your eyes enough to give the,illusion of

atmosphere. Lots of people, lots of noise, lots of smoke, lots of
beer. Hopefully the alcohol will give the illusion of escape.
Twe~ty miles north of Charlotte and one mile east of U.S. High-
way 21 lies a rnnall to,,m called Davidson. A sleepy, peaceful proto-
plasm whose docile nucleus is a college b~aring the same name. Some
thousand students and numerous janitors, teachers, and campus police-
men reside on this academic Everest. There comes times in the lives of
men when evaluation becomes necessary - for survival, sonetimes for
maintainance of sanity. College is such a time, a ferment of curiosity,
tradition, change, enthusiasm. College is often the last time for
evaluation. Davidson, curiously, provides the traumatic shock of fer-
ment and the wall of safety which stifles it. The freshman, most
curious, most eager, least protected, is most susceptible to the shock,
and as summer turns to winter and freshman to senior, the spirit is
mmbed, grows more secure, or per haps, more sensitive.
The psychologist tells us that every action and reaction we per-
form, every idea and impression that is cast upon the screen of our
mind is a result of, in effect, is caused by four things: the behavior
of the organism_ the man, the college student, the freshman, is a
product of his physiological equipment (as for as we are concerned,
his intellectual capacity)--, his previous experience (all the things
which have happened to him since his cre~tion as a liv~ng organism,
his physical and mental condition, and his present environment.
~-le
assume from college propaganda and admissions department
publicity, that the Davidson freshman. is endowed with superi~r a~a-
demic abilities and high college board scores, a result of his high
intelligence. The freshmen vary widely in the nature of th~ir past.
experience, nearly all possessors of numerous aw~rds of achievement in
high school and nearly all are by nature and choice southern Anglo-Saxon
protestants.
15







16
DAVIDSON,
continued
The small drops of
role down the
·ct
.
~weat stick to the ca
the better. T:~ =~d:lidingh~nto the ring of
:a:i
th;hlarge dr?ps
h
are w ite and prett

e more rings
beer •.. t e beer is wet cold
d
Y, and sort of pur . Th '
than it did the first time: ,T:: ~r
•. nthrot delicious, but it t:~tes ~etter
better
"'hr
f
ee nore
d ·

i
ee or our more and it'll
.
an it'll taste much
fo:11' more an~ it t 11 go down like w
taste much better. Three or
thing's a little blurred and fo ater ••• tasteless and good. Every-
thing's still blurred and foggy
ggi.
iou clean your glasses. Every-
gorilla, Davidson fades
Thi- :
ou ean back against a painted

s is good
D · d
by. Everythingts tolerable
That d •
avi son's gone. Time sips
so bad afterall. He looks ;s ha
amn fool over there must not be
difference does it make?
y
p~y as you are. Are you happy? ~Jhat
·
ou must be happy.
Davidson's a thousand small towns
,
moral, law-abiding
Color it
. t . ' one main street' a few stores'

quie in the summer red and b
d
o:'ange and yellow in the fall, maybe a little dark and lonelro~ :e
winter•. From the air it looks mostly like trees. From the ~round it
looks like mostly trees, with a few houses, buildings and streets
Plenty of ~irds and leaves. Plenty of silence. The ~ail comes t1--1;
or three times~ day: Sometimes it brings magazines, sometimes news-
papers, always it brings church bulletins, once in a while it brings
a lette~, maybe a letter from home, maybe money, Maybe from a girl.
Mostly it brings nothing. The train comes once or twice a day. Hhi te
people live on one side of the tracks, black on the other. One or two
old faces lean against walls or doorways. Young faces collect on the
corner and laugh and joke. The old faces wait and the young faces wait-
for tomorrow, ~he day after that, and the day after that. They don't
anticipate. They only wait.
Across the street is the college. Lots of trees, lots of grass,
a few sidewalks, some old buildings, some new ones, radiate from its
heart, Through its arteries End veins flow students and teachers,
?lindly, intently, passively. Its heart nourishes its product, its ideal,
its image, and its beat is timed to shape its goal - a graduate with
sophistication a keen sense of discrimination of values, wrapped in
modern-day gentlemanly virtue - a Davidson Gentleman. Six times a week
students learn of history science mathematics, culture, language, and
'
'
. d
their fellow man
Three times a week they hear recognize and unrecog-
nized authoritie; speak with varying degrees ?f authority and skill,
but always the student's minds and ears are finely tuned, ~nd always
the benefit. Knowledge is the thing, knowledge, ru:1d l~arn~ng to reason,
to understand, to use knowledge wi~h reason and g111de_ it with under-
standing never achieved, without high grades. Accordingly, grades are






DAVIDSON, continued
the thing, and knowledge and grades follow, as surely as the night
does the day.
17
The freshman comes to Davidson with sound intellectual potential
and to develop it, he needs an atmosphere of calmness, of non-transient'
structure, of little distraction, of no temptation. His academic develop-
ment is secured, and the proud parents are sure also that he has been
sent to a nice place where, untempted his mind will remain sound his
.
'
'
soul ~ure, his character strong. His moral development must stay on
the right track, for he already knows what is right, what is acceptable.
Hatching over him night and day, in bed and in class the code of honor
is his guardian. He remains chaste and assured of s~lvation, and with
understanding, faith, and enthusiasm. He learns a place of worship is
provided, and he need not feel persecuted and cannot possibly doubt,
for he looks around, and everyone attends, with his faith, with his
enthusiasm. To be the leader he will someday be, he must learn to be
a willing and obedient follower, and efficient following and able
leading are adequately developed in an exciting military program.
Confident of his choice, proud of its purpose, the freshman
arrives in the dying warmth of summer. In stead of the God-fearing,
law abiding persons like himself, he finds a microcosm of humanity,
and only a few hold like himself to what is right, what has been,
what always will be. He finds his traditions attacked, his ideals
rationalized and he wonders what is right. In his mind comes toleration
'
of others and then doubt in himself. He wants to test the new freedom
his inteliectualism has released, that he may shape his present and
future accordingly. But he cannot, for it is unethical, immoral, untradi-
tional to violate the past. He wishes to test his new ideas mentally,
if not physically, but he has nothing to go on, and he can only sit
and watch those who live the new philosophy undercover, behind closed
doors in open rejection and hidden violation. Perhaps he may decide
to join the fun, destroying the past, and acting without reason, per-
haps the future.
1.-Jhether his stay is a semester or four years, a different
Davidson is stamped on the mind of each student. The physical Davidson
changes only from time to time, but ?avidso~ is an emotional experience
and what he is and has been colors tne looking glass of each. In time
his new environment may change what he sees, so that in time he sees
a different environment, a different Davidson. The condition of the
organism, of the student, changes and in doing so, changes Davidson,
bringing it in and out of f~cus. The freshman comes ~o school curious,
exci ted enthusiastic, confident he has chosen the right path. Hork
'







DAVIDSON, continued
and monotony and failure - sometime~ frequent f ·1
t
d th
.
·
.:,
ai ure, dull the
studen, an
rough tired eyes he may see no D "d
1 th
·
"b"l"
avi son at all
on y
e impossi i
1
ty of finishing yesterday'
c:•
k b f
'
F
.
.:, wor
e ore to-
morrow.
reshman turns to senior learning th
.
.
.
,
e ropes, the tricks
Sometimes curiousLy and challenge remain sensiti·
d
d

f
·
d t
t
ve, rea y an
una rai
O
ac • Somet~mes senses are dumbed and hardened, and the
student sees only a Davidson he doesn't like but can't h
hi h
d
·
d
,
c ange, w c
he espises an tolerates. He can be cool and indiffer nt
H 1·
•th ·t h
e •
e ives
wi _
1
,
e goes around it. So the student arrives at Davidson
confident_ofii:Bperfection. Sometimes slowly, sometimes abruptly:
always painful~y, he sees imperfection. He may fight, ignore it,
or perhaps valiently try to change it. He may care. He may not.
He may be tired or he may be eager. He may be drunk and then it
doesn
1
t matter.
The beer is warm and bitter. Bits of foam cling like tired
spit to the sides of the can. Through your numb eyeballs you see
the little man sweeping off the tables. Time to go. The door opens
and closes and opens and closes. Haze filters into the night but
the room stays blurred.
So what is the purpose of Davidson, of college--to teach us,
to learn about life and how to live it, to live with ourselves, with
each other? :Jhat is God and what is His nature? Hhat is man and
what is his nature. Hhat is right? 1.Jhat is wrong? He go to college
to learn, to learn to think, to reason, to find a guide for our lives,
and perhaps a purpose. He use the basis we get from college to
evaluate, but how do we evaluate our basis?
18
The poem that is a morning in spring-soft sounds, gentle breeze,
pale colors is a thousand miles from the dark sleepless hours of the
,
night before. Perhaps the poem hides the truth, perpaps the still of the
night. The fire that burned between dusk and dawn flickers and smolders.
The storm turns to lazy morning mist, then melts before the sun.
You suck the cool night air into your lungs with a sickening
shudder as your stomach climbs halfway up your throat before collapsing
with a thud. The stars, still there, wander around, then slowly settle
into place. The sky is black, black and deep.
--Jim McHillan