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About Oregon daily emerald. (Eugene, Or.) 1920-2012 | View Entire Issue (Nov. 13, 1972)
Oregon daily _ _ emerald Vol. 74, No. 73 An Independent Student Newspaper November 13,1973 Photos by Ken Van Osdol Saw freak wows ’em with *Lost Sound9 By GEORGE BUDDY Of the Emerald You notice his clothes first: brown bowler and red socks competing with a thin, red tie that looks a thousand years out of place. A wrinkled face, lit up like a Christmas tree with twinkling eyes for bulbs, peers out at the world and you’d swear the man belongs to a different time, another age. He carries a worn and battered black case, this old man. Printed on the side in white letters is the legend, “The Lost Sound,’’ and if you think the case contains a violin, or perhaps an oboe, you’d be far off the mark. Inside that old, weathered case is a man’s livelihood: two wood saws, one a baritone, the other a tenor, in terspersed with newspaper clippings that attest to their fame. Old Tom Scribner plays the saw. He plays it sweet and low, fast and cheerful, striking each preposterous note with a violin bow. His saw is haunting and eerie; dancing notes floating gaily in the wind, at once very distant and very close. It’s a sound that’s not heard much these days. Scribner visited the campus last Friday and wound up giving an impromptu concert outside the EMU fishbowl to a large crowd of delighted students. After each song, Scribner received lusty ap plause for the performance. Scribner, of Santa Cruz, Calif., first learned to play the saw in 1910 and has kept at it diligently ever since, going up and down the Pacific coast to play the big spots: The Blue Banjo in Seattle, San Diego’s Mickey Finn, The Red Garter of San Francisco, and a thousand places in between. “They call me the ‘Saw Freak’ down in California,” he says proudly. He used to be a logger, playing the saw only during week-ends, but since retirement a few years ago, he devotes full-time to his unique vocation. The violin for many years was Scribner’s “first love,” but a logging accident in 1947 left him a finger short on his bow hand and from then on, the saw received his full attention. Scribner plays the music of the 90’s and 20’s on the saw and, in the course of his many jobs, he’s played the bill with some pretty diverse groups, including Muddy Waters and Country Joe MacDonald. At one time, he was an instructor of Musical Saw for the University of California at Santa Cruz. He’s appeared on both televison and radio over the past several years. Now he’s scheduled to play at the University’s folk festival in early December. Playing the saw, Scribner explains, is a dying art. He said that at one time, several big bands had saws, but now there are only 44 saw players left in the Musician’s Union. • He tapped his saw fondly and told his audience, “This is a great instrument in a band.’’ Then he waved his hand in the air of the fishbowl patio and shrugged. “But in a solo out here, it’s nothing.” After playing “Bye, Bye, Blues,” someone asked him which side of the saw he played on. “Oh, you play opposite the teeth,” Scribner hastened to explain, “or you’ll cut your bow to hell.” He looked off to the side for a moment and gave a wink. “I do that when I’m drunk sometimes.” ASUO primary begins today for Senate seats By GORDON MACCRACKEN Of the Emerald Each year the ASUO Senate allocates approximately $800,000 in incidental fees. That money comes directly from the pockets of University students. Today and Tuesday, students will have an op portunity to decide who will be spending that money as 92 students are running for 28 Senate seats. Doubt still surrounds funds for Eugene, Lane child care The financial future of Lane County’s 4 C child care centers is still in doubt. Eugene’s 4 C council plans to make voluntary cuts in its budget but still doesn’t know how much money will ac tually be available. Richard Trafton, director of Lane’s 4 C’s (Community Coordinated Child Care), said the county’s 4 C program directors will meet this afternoon to discuss the budget crisis and what to do about it. He said he hopes to know by then how much will be cut from the operating budget. “They’re giving us a different figure to work with every day,” Trafton said. “It’s really hard to know exactly what’s going on.” The State Emergency Board postponed Friday a decision to make a $550,000 cut in the child care programs, a cut suggested by state director of human resources Jacob Tanzer. But directors of 4 C councils in Eugene and Portland say they will make voluntary cuts in their budgets and hope the Board won’t make further cuts. Trafton said one of the council’s main problems is adjusting the budget when the fiscal year is already half over. The ap proximately $500,000 in cuts the Board is expected to made in December will be retroactive to July 1 of this year, which probably will trim the Lane 4 C budget from $323,809 to $240,199 for the 1972-73 fiscal year, said Trafton. Trafton said the directors will also try to decide today if any child care centers will have to be closed and if any children will have to be dropped from the program. The ASUO Child Care and Development Center — partially funded by 4 C’s — has tentatively decided to cut out its hot lunch program and to start charging extra tuition to try and make up the budget deficit. The budget crisis developed because of a limit on federal revenue sharing which forced the State Department of Human Resources to cut $4.6 million from the $30.8 million it received in federal funds. About $500,000 was cut from the 4 C programs. Several members of the Board ex pressed criticism Friday of the lack of direction from the Governor’s office in making a statement on the social service programs budget cuts. The Board ordered the Department of Human Resources not to implement any new programs involving federal social service funds. It also or dered human resource priorities to be developed for presentation at the Board’s December meeting. This week’s election is a primary in which the top two vote-getters in each race will win spots on the general election ballot. The general election will take place next Monday and Tuesday. Today’s piling places are the EMU, the 13th Street information booth, the Co-op, the library, Hamilton dormitory complex and on 13th Street near Commonwealth Hall. All polling places except in Hamilton complex will be open from 9 a.m. to 4 p.m. The Hamilton voting booth will open at 11 a.m. and close at 7 p.m. In Tuesday’s voting, the library and Hamilton complex will not be used as polling places. Instead, Carson Hall and the intersection of 15th and University Streets will be the locations for voting booths. Students wishing to vote will be required to present both their plastic identification card and their current certificate of registration. They will be asked where they live, what their class is, what their major is and what ethnic group, if any, they belong to. These questions will be asked in order to allow poll workers to decide which categories students are eligible to vote in. The four categories are residence, class, academic area and ethnic-at-large. In the residence classification, there is one candidate for a single sorority seat, 14 candidates for four off-campus seats and three candidates for one position representing the Bean dormitory complex. The class candidates include seven fresh men, four juniors and two graduate students, all running for one seat to represent their respective classes. The academic area category has 11 seats up for election this term, including four from the College of Liberal Arts. Thirteen students are running for those seats. All other academic areas have one seat alloted to them. The candidates up for these positions include three in education, four in business, two in law, two in jour nalism, three in music-library, two in CSPA and two in Supportive Services. (Continued on Page 8)
