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Image provided by: Elmira College
%. U ) 16 THE OCTAGON, THURSDAY, MAY 19, 1988 Hal Roach To Deliver Legendary Hollywood producer Hal Roach will deliver the main address at Elmira College's 130th Commencement on Sunday, May 29, at 11:00 -am. About 350 graduate and undergraduate students will receive their master's or bachelor's ceremony takes place in the lawn area adjacent to The Puddle, and will be presided over by Elmira College President Dr. Thomas K. Meier. Born in Elmira in 1892 Hal Roach made his mark in Hollywood - with comedy. Hal Roach Studios produced some of America's most memorable comedies, with stars such as Laurel and Hardy, Harold Lloyd, degrees. The - Commencement Address and the Our Gang Kids. Unlike rival Mack Sennett, Hal Roach was able to move away from silent movie slapstick by developing storylines and characters for sophisticated talkies. Among his features are Topper, Turnabout, Of Mice and glen, and the original One Million C. During hisvisit to Elmira, Roach will spend time at Quarry Farm, the former Mark Twain family homestead and now home to the Elmira College Center for Mark Twain Studies. Roach remembers, as a young boy in turn of the cen- tury Elmira, meeting Mark Twain and visiting the Langdon Family farm. To this day, he is a fan of Mark Twain's. LIVING FOR GRADUATION No one wanted to leave. Five weeks in the island paradise of San Salvador had given us a taste of what living the good life is all about. The Bahamas are all they {> ~are hyped up to be, and then some. Could-one stay forever? Perhaps; and in backwards glance, inad- vertently |~came very close to _doing just that. On the last complete day, our professors had given us a break from the ordinary routine. A whole day to do with what we please! With ladies outnumbermg the gentlemen by 4 to 1, a prompt out- voting occurred. Ladies choice for the day's activity? Lying out like lizards to deepen that tan before returning to the states.: Not my idea of the most spontaneous day, but enjoyable nonetheless. As we arrived at the chosen beach, the group was a little bit confused about what w2s waiting for it. The usually clear-blue sait water resembled more a Maine coastline in a stormy November. Enormous waves crashed haphazardly on the sand, whitecaps were hitting coral reefs hard enough to rip off chunks of it. Pr. Lindsay, our resident marine a»f>iologlst suspected a hurricane ' off the coast of Florida had triggered this force. The girls duely took their place on the sand, sp- reading towels and slathering on lotion. Always having an aversion to boredom, | started looking around for something to do. Gazing at a coral cliff running per- pendicular to the beach, it struck me. \Don | said, \let's head out on that cliff.\ We both felt it would be an up close and personal look at the power of nature. This was a big mistake. As we started out, the ocean was about 20 feet below us. The waves would smash into the cliff, sounding loud as thunder during a good storm. From where we roamed up top, only the harmless salt spray could reach us and cool us off. We walked further out, while discussing some of the more pressing issues of our time. The ensuing summer, summer jobs, summer cars, summer girls; in- tellectual conversation, man. At one point, we laughed about being in the water below us. As if by magic, a flat, smooth slab of rock appeared in front of us. A good resting place, we decided, and took a seat to catch the spray from the next wave. It took about one terrifying second to realize what was hap- pening. A wave rose up and out of the water. The ocean was. in a receded state when we arrived, but was now on the frighteningly same level as us. | felt myself being picked up and dropped into the whitewater below. I became an unguided missle, shooting head- first past coral and rocks. The wavés above pounded me deeper and deeper into the surf. Saltwater surged through my nose and into my lungs and stomach. | turned somersaults, pikes, half-pikes; moves a free-style ski jumper might have found inspirational. Only one thought that I can recail now was in my head. No bright lights at the end of a tunnel, or life flashing before my eyes; just one. profound thought ... now | am going to die. Incredibly, the same-power that was keeping me down took a turn upwards, and me along for the ride. | was completely ejected from the water. The daylight startled me, air burned in my lungs I took my first breath in probably 60 seconds. Bobbing in seething whitewater, | was aware of the stakes Mother Nature and | were playing for. Two quick looks was all there was time for. About a foot behind me was the coral cliff, providing a literal definition of having ones' back against the wall. Directly in front of me was another whitecap about half-way through its curl, getting ready to smash in- to the cliff and me into bits. With all my strength I pushed off the rock and dove into the collapsing wave. | got my arms arid legs pum- ping and began swimming out to escape the riptide that had me on- ce already. Slowly it felt like things were going to be alright. The rock, coral and the extremely large waves were behind me now and | was in some sort of control. Earlier in the year, t recalled Dan Williams skating out a game in which he suffered a broken vertabragé. The combination of adreniline and shock had blurred the pain of his initial fracture, and that this could be happening to me. Floating on my back, | slowly drew my limbs one by one from the water. Everything seems in order. 'Hm- mm, not even a scratch,' I thought to myself, is this possnble’7” 1 looked at my tight foot and there was the only visible injury. Three small cuts ran from my toes over the top of my foot. It looked similiar to scratches from finger- nails or a scalpel. Out of the corner of my eye I saw Don still up on the cliff, slowly picking himself up. Later on, we made these deduc- tions. The first wave had hit him head on and drove him back. From where | sat, it caught me on the side and scooped me right off the cliff and in. As the wave fell back into the ocean, it tried to drag Don in, but he managed to dig in with his forearms, losing some skin in the process. As | headed in, everyone on the beach was sitting upright to see who the hell was in that water. I was impressed. | had sufficiently aroused an otherwise dead-to-the-world tanning harem. 1 reached the beach and just laid there for a little while. In retrospect, I would like to share with the Elmira College community what this experience taught me. At some point in everyones life, things can start spinning out of control. You'll feel like a tiddelywink as you get tossed about by a force that can be much greater than anyone can imagine or understand. However, this can't be an excuse to live ones' life according to the \Shit Happens\ phflosOphy Please, don't give up or in. A turning point will occur, but you have to be on your toes to see it. Realize the point at which you can get an edge up on a seemingly helpless situation.... and change it. \Carpe Diem\ Kenneth M. Peen, Class of 88
