Student Survey
|On the lighter side 4
The Student Government is interested in establishing Homecoming.
Below you will find a survey to get student inpit on the event.
Any suggestions in addition to the information below should
be submitted to the Student Activities'Office.
by Stephani Veff
Opinion/Copy Editor
-SURVEY-
Should we have Homecoming?
NO
YES
Toys lose in a new era
Should there be a Homecoming Court?
NO
YES
3)
If yes# how many couples would you like to see on Court?
( Including the King and Queen)
4)
If we were to have Homecoming/ would it be inconvenient
on a Saturday night? •
5
4
3
The shopping days have
begun. Already shopping malls
and centers are being packed by
eager Christmas shoppers and
who can blame them with only
22 more shopping days Left!
As I set out to begin my own
shopping this season, I soon
realized that it just may take me
until the 24th of December to
find the gifts on my list. The
first thing I discovered was that
shopping for the children on my
list is going to be the most dif
ficult.
Every toy store I visited was
filled with children “oohing” and
“aahing” over the strangest
toys you could imagine. Most of
the toys I have seen in television
commercials, but many of them
were still surprising.
My first stop was the doll ai
sle. Here I was hoping to find
some of the dolls I remembered
from my childhood. Instead I
was bombarded by every type of
Barbie doll you could imagine
and got lost in fields of Cabbage
NO
YES
If it "ere inconvenient, which other day would you prefer?
M
6)
TU
F
Should it be an event that would include activities for
a full week?
YES
7)
TH
WED
NO
What activities do;you suggest if you answered yes to the
previous question?
8)
Should the Homecoming Dance be :
9)
Should the dance music be provided by a D. J. or a Live
Band?
FORMAL
D. J.
SEMI-FORMAL
CASUAL
Live Band
Thank .you for taking the-time to give us your input. Please
return this survey to the Student Activities Office in care
of Maggie Rhodes or Cathi Pearson by January 8, 1988.
Patch Kids. Not a single Holly
Hobbie rag doll was to be
found. .
Turning the corner at the end
of the aisle I was surrounded by
G.I. Joe and Rambo dolls dress
ed in camouflage clothes
holding little guns and grenades
in their little plastic hands. Lit
tle boys filled the aisle playing
mock war games with realistic
looking and sounding machine
guns.
Quickly I moved to the next
aisle which contained the
cartoon-related toys. Here He-
man and She-rah stood side by
side with the Smurfs and My
Little Pony. What is the
wonderful world of television
doing to these kids’ minds?
How little the children of to
day have to use their imagina
tions. They are given everything
- the future is literally at their
fingertips with computerized
toys and games. Instead of kids
being satisfied with their draw
ings just lying there on an Etch-
Wooden shoe
like to know?
by Heleen Veenstra
Editor
Russians are people
Last week my dad came back
home from a trip to Holland
and brought me an 82 page
magazine. “Big Deal!” you
might think, but it was.
The magazine was about the
Soviet Union, and not about
government stuff. No, it was
about the Russian everyday, or
dinary life, and believe me it
was fascinating.
I was amazed by the many
similarities between America
and Russia. It showed that we,
as Westerners, are not as dif
ferent from the Russians as we
think we are.
Every thing that had to do
with the Soviet Union always
has been very far away, simply
because the Russians didn’t
want anybody to know about
their culture and daily life. But
lately the USSR is much more
accessible to the world than it
has ever been.
That whole concept started
with Michail Gorbatsjov, State
Secretary of the Soviet Union.
He introduced the term
“glasnost,” which means being
open to the rest of the world,
and showed that he, unlike his
predecessors, is not afraid of
communication with the
Western world.
Through the “glasnot” he
made himself very popular in
West Europe, and as the
magazine states it, “The por
trait of a Soviet leader was
never that often on the cover of
Western newspapers and
magazines. And never was a
Soviet leader more popular than
his American competitor.”
As I said before, there are
many similarities between the
SU and the US ordinary life.
For example, the Soviets skate
board, listen to hardrock and
punk music, they hitch hike,
they have advertising for .com
panies in magazines, and there
even are millionaires in Russia.
The “glasnost” brought us
all that information, which
helps us understand their
culture a little better. But
besides the similarities, there are
also many differences.
The Russians are very bitter
people because of the land’s
history. Nobody can take that
feeling away, so the people will
never be as open as Westerners
are.
They also live very sober
lives. They don’t have the
freedom of just doing what they
want, and are always limited in
their actions. Soviets don’t have
the opportunity to buy luxury
goods either. The goods are
available, but only for very high
prices, and in order to get them
the people have to stand in line
for hours. You have to be very
patient otherwise you’ll never
get anything!
As I just showed, because of
the culture, Russians live their
lives different than we do.Their
sober life and their bitter attitude
will keep the culture barrier up,
but barriers are there to be
broken down, right?
Next week Gorbatsjov will
come to the United States
hopefully to get some negotiating
done. He indicated that he and
Russia are ready to take some
steps in breaking down that bar
rier every way possible.
I think the rest is up to us in
helping them with that. Maybe
you still are scared towards the
thought of working closely with
the Russians, but as I tried to
show, Soviet people are just as
normal as anybody else.
They only have a different
culture and a different govern
mental system but should that
really scare us away from them?
centimeters
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Colors by Muriseli Color Services Lab
II
■
a-Sketch, they are now able to
watch them move on the
Animator.
No longer do young children
need to make up voices for their
stuffed animals and dolls, these
toys now come with their own
voices. Teddy Ruxpin and his
talking friends have now
eliminated the creative conver
sations that can only be shared
between child and stuffed
animal. This type of growth ex
perience is soon to become ob
solete. •'
I did discover a few of the toys
from my childhood that
somehow didn’t get covered up
by the new, more advanced era of
toys. These mainly consisted of
“building” toys. Legos, Lincoln
* Logs, and Erector sets were
among those that have survived
the past decade.
It’s hard to say why some toys
have remained while others have
disappeared, but it does cause
some to wonder what toys will be
like in the decade to come.