25 JAN 08: FABULOUS 50
"We started cutting into the cat...." No, not the cake - the CAT. A guest speaker talked about cat-cutting Thursday, at the first event marking Columbus State University's 50th anniversary. What better way to spend your lunch hour....
The woman who brought this up was Marlene Melvin, who was invited to speak at the kickoff event for C.S.U.'s golden anniversary. She was one of 31 people in the first graduating class of 1960, and was asked to go through what she called "the museum of my memory." Based on some of her comments, it turned out to be a bit like "Ripley's Believe It or Not."
Marlene Melvin said a reproductive sciences class found a pregnant cat in an alley one day, and decided to experiment with it. She told a crowd moved from the C.S.U. clock tower to the Davidson Student Center: "My job was to hold the cup...." Now now - don't get wrong ideas, you urology students....
Marlene Melvin explained she held a cup over the pregnant cat's mouth, so it could breathe. That's when she uttered the line that had some spectators rolling their eyes with disbelief: "We started cutting into the cat." Trouble is, Melvin's cup slipped - and the cat "died on the operating table." It's a wonder an animal rights activist didn't scream at that moment and rush the platform.
Marlene Melvin said after the death of that pregnant cat, the local humane society made sure no more experiments were conducted with live animals. This may explain why no real cougars prowl around, at Columbus State University sports events.
Marlene Melvin also recalled the first student function at the old Columbus College in 1958 - a "Harvest Hop" with lots of straw. I should have asked her if anyone twisted that straw, to make it look like a noose.
Then there was the early Columbus College float in the Bi-City Christmas Parade - and the male student who suggested to Marlene Melvin that a Santa Claus be put on it, to hand out beer to children. Does this explain why I didn't recognize any of the 31 names in the first graduation class?
Marlene Melvin lives in south Alabama today, and admitted she had her doubts about attending the golden anniversary reunion for Columbus State University. She feared the event would be for old folks - only to have a four-year-old grandson remind her: "You ARE the old folks."
In fact, Marlene Melvin had not returned to Columbus State University since she graduated in 1960. She was impressed by how things have changed since the first fall semester at the old Shannon Hosiery Mill. Today C.S.U. has about 7,600 students - and much of the Riverpark campus is still in an old mill.
Columbus State President Frank Brown invited Bo Callaway to the platform as well, for Thursday's golden anniversary kickoff. Callaway was on the Georgia Board of Regents when the college became part of the state university system. So why isn't there a garden on campus, named after him?
After the story about cutting a cat was finished, it was time to cut a cake. Two big ones were prepared to mark Columbus State University's golden anniversary. But it was a standard white cake with white icing - because the price of gold is way up there these days.
We thank the blog reader who alerted us to free cake - but that wasn't the half of it. The refreshment tables included hot apple cider, flatbread wraps with turkey, and decorative nacho chips with salsa. But the organizers made one big mistake. The nacho chips were red, gold and green with no C.S.U. blue corn in sight.
(I was even able to get seconds - which led me to think Thursday's "Homeless Resource Fair" may have been at the wrong place.)
The golden anniversary celebration continued all afternoon at Columbus State. Students were invited to Woodruff Gym, for a 1950's costume contest. Women wore poodle skirts - and hopefully did NOT feel tempted to go looking for pregnant poodles.
The afternoon also included a groundbreaking ceremony for Columbus State's next building - the "Schuster Student Success Center." If you can say that five times fast without a slip, you're a success in language arts courses.
I'm not sure why Columbus State University needs a Student Success Center. Does this mean the graduates of the last 50 years were NOT successes? Or is this like the Academic Success Center - and it's really for college students on probation or parole?
The party doesn't stop at Columbus State University today - as a Hollywood actress is coming to campus. Kerry Washington will join in "a discussion on Barack Obama." Considering the fliers promoting this are paid for by the Obama presidential campaign, I'm assuming everyone is expected to talk nicely about him.
BLOG UPDATE: The final vote was taken Thursday night, to build the Muscogee County School District's new administration building. The school board voted 5-4 in favor of a bond issue, worth as much as $18 million. If the board had voted no, a wonderful mathematics lesson would have been lost.
WRBL's late news broke down the 5-4 school board vote. The supporters included Patricia Hugley Green - which could set up an interesting competition with City Manager Isaiah Hugley. Both the city and school district will want approval of one-cent sales tax questions. If voters support only one, will the Hugleys quietly hand over money to each other?
Superintendent John Phillips denied claims that the high cost of the central administration building has cost the school district, in terms of voter trust. He said everything promised in recent school sales tax issues has been done -- and besides, only a handful of people still have the list of projects from the last issue, anyway.
But school board member "Fife for Fighting" Whiteside warned if the district can't keep its recent commitments, voters won't commit more school sales tax money to them in the future. And if the critics are as numerous as they claim to be, the next major high school expansion in Columbus may be at Pacelli.
School board member Cathy Williams also opposed the bond issue, saying the district should NOT go into debt to pay for a new central administration building. More government officials in general could learn a lesson from my Thursday nights at poker tournaments. If you run out of chips, you go bust and can't play anymore.
It happens that a poll released in Atlanta Thursday found 52 percent of Georgians are dissatisfied with public schools. Wow - I never realized that many districts are planning new central office buildings.
A strange thing happened earlier in the day, at the site of the new administration building. A driver veered off Rigdon Road, and crashed into a giant hole where the Sears Automotive Center used to be. You may draw your own comparisons, with the amount of debt in the bond issue....
E-MAIL UPDATE: Our comment about the new "Back to the Grind" coffee stand in the Bibb City neighborhood Thursday brought this....
You fail to understand the "cultish" nature of the StarBucks movement. Just any ole coffee shop will not do. It would do Bibb City some good, Starbucks people like loft apartments. They go hand in hand. Soon more high tech industries will be able to relocate to Bibb City because of the Starbucks as well.
Ohhhh -- so it's the Starbucks chain that's the cult here?! I thought there was a general addiction to coffee. I've attended church with people who simply had to drink a hot cup before the service, even when it's 98 degrees in August.
But there's a good point here, about "Starbucks people" liking loft apartments. Yes, they DO go hand-in-hand. In fact, it's more like hand-over-fist - as both require a good deal of disposable income.
WLTZ reported Thursday was the most depressing day of the year -- but we found other things which might cheer you up:
+ The Muscogee County Schools called off classes at Kendrick High School today, due to a natural gas leak. It doesn't help that the Academic Success Center has all the available space heaters for awhile....
+ An Alabama state board fired Southern Union State Community College President Susan Salatto. She was cited for 20 different policy violations. And if the baseball team can't compete with Chattahoochee Valley Community College, something simply has to change.
+ The annual "One Columbus" dinner honored Aflac's Dan Amos for promoting diversity in the workplace. Amos said he doesn't like to take a "cookie-cutter mentality" when it comes to employees. The use of a duck in Aflac's commercials should tell you that....
+ Georgia Corrections Commissioner James Donald told a legislative budget hearing the state will need 15,000 new medium-security prison beds by 2015. I'm sorry, but I'm not donating mine - because I still consider waterbeds very comfortable.
(James Donald said the Georgia prison system needs to separate prisoners - between "those we're afraid of, and those we're just mad at." Is there really a difference between the two? Plenty of workers get mad at their bosses - but they're also afraid they'll be fired.)
+ Georgia flattened Florida in women's basketball 82-55. It was the 700th career win for coach Andy Landers - so he should watch his mailbox for a proclamation from Pat Robertson, officially admitting him to The 700 Club.
+ Another women's basketball game found Louisiana State stopping Auburn 79-59. It was billed as "Cram the Coliseum Night" in Auburn. But so many seats were empty or blocked off by curtains that the only thing "crammed" might have been popcorn in boxes.
+ Instant Message to former Mayor Bob Poydasheff: It was good to see you downtown the other day! I saw you walk across Second Avenue toward the Government Center, simply holding that cane instead of using it. But it's too bad I didn't have my camera out - so show you jaywalking in the middle of the block.
SCHEDULED THIS WEEKEND: Oh no - an e-mail brings up Britney Spears!....
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