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About Oregon daily emerald. (Eugene, Or.) 1920-2012 | View Entire Issue (April 7, 1976)
Drawing by JoArm Fantgren Guest lecturers to honor Northwest’s uniqueness Inspired by born the University's centennial and the nation's 200th birthday, the University's Honors College, along with seven other campus groups, is sponsoring a senes of lectures featuring promi nent Northwest writers and his tonans Highlighting the unique charac ter of the Pacific Northwest, the lectures will be held Monday nights at 7:30 in vanous campus locations. They are open to both students and the public. The senes will include presen tations by William Stafford, poet laureate of Oregon, Theodore Roszak, author of “The Making of a Counter Culture" and "Un finished Animal;" Kevin Starr, city libranan of San Francisco and au thor of "Americans and the California Dream" and Norman Clark, president of Everett Com munity College in Washington and author of "Milltown.” Victoria Hochberg, an award-winning filmmaker, will screen and discuss her film, "Metroliner. The last lec ture in the series will feature an Early American potluck dinner and a presentation of Joaquin Miller s play "Forty-nine" by the Eugene Repertory Company. Students can receive one credit hour for attending the series by registering for HC 199 (TLN 6881) this week in the Honors College :*fice in the basement of Fnendly Hall. Students may also register at Monday night's lecture. Discus sion sections taught by Reed Straus and Jack Bennett of the Honors College faculty are being offered for two credits. The lecture Monday will feature Thomas Vaughan, executive di rector of the Oregon Historical Society. He will be speaking in Gerlinger Lounge. Folk song opens celebration By LORA CUYKENDALL Of the Emerald Come you Alsea girls, listen to my noise Don't you marry the Oregon boys If you do, your misfortune it will be Cold Johnny cakes and veni son is all you'll see. Singing a warning to AJsea girls and telling about the lady with red and yellow stockings who liked to walk when the “wind was high," Barre Toelken, University English professor and folklorist, kicked off the University’s centennial lecture series Monday night. Speaking to a crowd of over 100 students and members of the community in the EMU Ballroom, Toelken talked about the impor tance of folklore in general and the particular character of Pacific Northwest folk songs. His presen tation was the first in a series enti tled “The Northwest Passage into the 21 st Century.” Toelken told the audience that folk songs and folklore "give a pic ture of the spirit of this part of the country.” He said a region’s folk songs transcend the formal chronicles of factual history and provide a picture of how people felt about the things that were most important to them. During the course of his talk, Toelken sang nearly a dozen songs about loggers, cowboys, early settlers, women and Oregon rain to illustrate the way in which folk songs capture the feelings of a group of people. He called the songs and customs “a way of pleasing the people you live with” and said that such “inside" know ledge as knowing the proper way to say “Willamette” are the kinds of small things that tie groups of people together. “Some songs and stories last beyond the individual and come to characterize a region — they give the flavor of that part of the coun try,” he said. To illustrate the par ticular flavor of Oregon folk songs, Toelken traced the course of one song as it moved west. To the tune of “Beulah Land," Toetken sung various verses of a song adapted by settlers in Kansas, New Mexico and Oregon to fit the geography and climate of each region. A former editor of the Journal of American Folklore, Toeken high lighted his talk with stories and anecdotes from such local folk heros as Benjamin Franklin Finn of the McKenzie River, who cre dited himself with moving Finn Rock, and Hathaway Jones on the Rogue River, who used to say that his watermelon vines grew so fast the fruit got worn out from being dragged around the yard. Through the course of his lec ture, Toelken emphasized the im portance of good lying. “People don’t always realize the art of lies — but there are liars all over the Northwest ” He credits these liars, or spinners ot tall tales, as per sons who “pass on a way of say ing something that satisfies the spirit of people.” (Continued on Page20) Creme Rinse TRIAL SIZE Limit 4 per coupon Offer expires 4-14-76 Kiccoupo Ngia campus shoe scene Flexible wood wedge, latigo leather uppers. Sizes 5 to 10. And yes, only 17.00 connie FREE PARKING AT REAR OF STORE
