I reporter’s notebook
Our intrepid reporter guzzles liquor,
intimidates governors, and discovers.. .
Nobody yelled "All aboard!”
I was looking forward to
that, too. Here it was, my first
train ride, and I was lucky
enough to draw Saturday's
ceremonial run of the
Willamette Valley Express.
Maybe I should have been
thankful for that in itself, but I
had two expectations besides.
One, I wanted to hear a
conductor with a pocket
watch yell "All aboard!"
Two, I wanted to get drunk
off my ass.
The trip was half
successful.
State and Amtrak officials
planned the run to gain
publicity for the new
Portland-to-Eugene train,
filling the six whistlestops with
a Dixieland band, balloons
and politicians.
"The history people
thought railroads were dead
as a dodo — but they
weren’t,” Gov. Vic Atiyeh told
a crowd of 400 Very Important
Freeloaders in Portland The
governor's wife wasted a
bottle of champagne
christening the train, the
crowd cheered, and
everybody boarded the train
for a free ride to Eugene.
On board, passengers
found plenty of
complimentary champagne to
make up for the wasted bottle.
Train attendants distributed
foldable paper engineer’s
caps so everbody could look
silly while feeling happy.
And then tell all their friends
what fun it is to ride the train.
I had fun.
Putting on my Joe Rossi
face, I walked up to the
governor, shoved a
microphone up his nose and
asked him how the state could
foot one-fifth of the bill —
$600,000 — for the train’s
11 -month trial run when
everything else in the state
budget was getting hacked
I asked him nicely, mind you
— the governor’s wife was still
holding that broken
champagne bottle.
“It’s a contract that we had
concluded before all of this
came along,” he said. “We
just don’t think it's
appropriate to cut back on
contracts that we’ve agreed
to.”
Feeling happy that I had
asked the Tough Question, I
retreated to my seat (ooooh,
the legroom), balanced a
plastic champagne glass in
my hand and looked around.
Amtrak brought out the Big
Guns for this trip — four
brand-new, million-dollar,
double-decker Superliner
passenger coaches. Upstairs
it looked like a jet interior;
downstairs the toilets lurked.
Two holes were cut out by the
sink: one marked “Trash,” the
other “Sanitary Napkins and
Disposable Diapers.”
Both emptied into the same
bin.
I emptied a few rum and
Cokes when I returned to my
seat. The can of Coke cost 50
cents at the downstairs
concession stand. The rum I
had bought the night before.
If I had not planned ahead,
the Amtrak folks would have
stiffed me a buck for each can
of beer. Higher-octane
premium brews cost $1.25.
How sobering.
But not sobering enough,
Photo by Dennis Tachibana
thank God. By the time the
train arrived in Eugene, I had
neatly consumed two-thirds of
a flask of rum, along with a
dollar’s worth of Coke. My day
was over — I would happily
stagger to my car and violate
a few driving laws before I
made it home.
The Portland freeloaders
were not so lucky. They had
to endure a few more
speeches before they were
allowed to head back.
By bus.
Story by MIKE LEE
TEST PREPARATION
SPECIALISTS SINCE 1938
Call Days Evenings & Weekends
Prepare for October
4th Exam
Eugene: 485-5699
Course begins
(IN EUGENE)
August 9th _
5th Street Public Market
Eugene,Oregon (503)687-1775
il
TURN YOUR BOOKS INTO CASH!
BOOK BUYBACK STARTS
WEDNESDAY, AUGUST 6 AND
ENDS FRIDAY, AUGUST 8.
Our Buyback Policy:
1. You get half-price—
if a faculty member has ordered the book for the next quarter
However, at times we have more books for a class than
needed and we will not buy these books at the half price
2. You get Dealer prices—
for those texts not needed on this campus We ll pay the price
offered by book dealers, which is based on the need for the
book in the national market
uo
BOOKSTORE
13th & Kincaid 686-4331
Open Mon-Fri 8:15-5:30
3. We do not accept—
old editions, spiral-bound books, programmed texts; certain
inexpensive paperbacks, workbooks, most consignment
material, and extensively cribbed or damaged books They
are of no value to us or the used book dealers We purchase
such books only at our option
When to sell your books—
The buyback counter, located upstairs, is open during regular
business hours It's not necessary to wait for a specific buying
period to resell your books However, the best service can be
had during the above time period because we have arranged
with the wholesale book company to have their buyers at the
Bookstore on these dates
University offers coast
Dhotoaraohv workshop
A practical photography
workshop will be offered Sept
24-28 at Heceta Head light
house on the Oregon Coast by
the University Museum of Art.
The workshop is designed for
intermediate and advanced
photographers and focuses on
learning by doing, according to
Ben Kerns, director of the mu
seum’s Photography at Oregon
Gallery.
Students will work at three
photographic activites: person
al photographic analysis and
problem solving, the nude as a
portrait and collage/montage
image making.
The workshop runs from 8
p.m. Sept. 24 to 5 p.m. Sept. 28.
The $125 workshop fee in
cludes tuition, model fees and
dormitory accomodations. Food
is not included in the fee, but a
kitchen will be available to
prepare simple meals.
Persons who register before
Sept. 1 receive a $15 discount
on the workshop fee. The ses
sion is limited to 20 participants.
Students will be able to work
with five models in addition to
the natural landscape of the
ocean cliffs and coastal forest.
Limited facilities for developing
and contact printing will also be
available.
For further information, call
Kerns at 683-4269
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