Beware the hazards of punting!
OUR
MAN
Bu DAVID FINCH
Cambridge, in England, is famous throughout the world for its historic university. A visitor to the city sees noble spires rising into the sky, the worn masonry of the colleges and the quiet, secluded cloisters.
A visitor to Cambridge should also see the river, the Cam, which winds its way gently behind many of the colleges. Indeed, a very good way to see the colleges is from the river.
There is a boathouse on the Cam where you can hire punts—flat-bottomed boats which you propel with a long pole. You get into the punt, the boathouse keeper gives you a shove into midstream, then you are on your own.
IN KEEPING with the scholastic atmosphere in Cambridge, punting must be approached in a leisurely fashion. Watch the students as they pole their craft along while their girlfriends relax and study. You'll soon get the knack.
You push the pole vertically down in the water on one side of the rear of the punt, then push the boat forward firmly and steadily when the pole reaches the river bed. When the end reaches your hand, you disengage the pole from the bed by giving a sharp jerk, keeping your weight slightly forward.
Then, if you are not traveling in the direction
you intended, you can let the pole trail behind in the water and use it as a rudder.
BUT, ALTHOUGH punting is basically simple, beware the pitfalls that have given many a novice a dunking.
Don't jump into your punt, or else you are likely to land in the river when the boat rocks. Don't wear shoes or socks; in bare feet you get a better grip. And roll up your shirtsleeves, or else the cuffs will get soaked when you run the wet pole through your hands.
Most important of all, don't get your pole stuck in the river bed. Of course, this cannot always be avoided, but it can be avoided in most cases by not pushing the pole too firmly into the mud.
BUT IF THE pole does become stuck, let go of it and either use your hands to paddle back or get someone else to retrieve it. If you keep trying to pull it out, the chances are that the punt will travel on, leaving just air between you and the water.
If the pole does get stuck, it is usually in the upright position, and this is often firm enough to jerk you off balance and over the side of the punt. This has left many people clinging desperately onto the pole. Some are lucky and are rescued before the pole gives way. Most finish in the water.
This happened to a friend of mine. We were
with a party from our grammar school and were visiting Cambridge for the day. My friend, who later studied law at Christ Church, Oxford, fancied himself a punter, and so he hired a punt.
I WAS SITTING at the edge of the mud on the lawn of King's College, when I saw Pym, as we called him, punting down. I had my camera with me, so I thought I would take some shots of him. It was a good thing I was ready.
Pym thought he would go past us all in grand style, and so he gave an extra hard push on his pole.
It got stuck, and in a trice Pym was whisked off the punt and left stranded on the pole, much to our amusement.
He clung to the pole for a few moments, but then it slowly keeled over and Pym plopped into the water.
BY THIS TIME, quite a crowd of school children, visitors and students, had gathered, and we all roared with laughter as Pym's head reappeared rather sheepishly above the surface. When he saw the crowd, he gave us a Churchillian victory sign and swam to the bank.
There he stood for a while—up to his knees in the river—with water streaming from him. But although he was soaked, his spirit was not dampened; and, wringing out his school tie, he clambered upon to the bank to dry out.
Student troupe volunteers for actor duties in Vietnam
By NED VALENTINE The sights are set on Viet Nam and the ammunition is entertainment.
This, in a nutshell, is the goal of a new USO group here headed by Sandy Gresham, Prairie Village senior.
The unit, still in its incubation stage, will be making a test run at Ft. Leonard Wood, Mo., on March 10.
"WE HOPE TO MAKE a big enough hit there to get a USO tour in Viet Nam," she said.
The Army is paying us to entertain from 18 to 20 thousand men, mostly basic trainees not long out of high school, she said. "We will entertain in field houses, officer clubs, mess halls, enlisted men's clubs, and the base hospital.
"I understand some of the men have to attend these performances. They are marched into the field houses," she continued. "This creates a real challenge for entertainers. We'll have to knock 'em dead from the first."
The show consists mostly of musical numbers with some straight music and a few monologues, Miss Gresham said.
AFTER A WEEK of briefing
sessions and rehearsals, the unit
Peace Is Available
Now
Hear A Christian
Science Lecture
by
Roy J. Linning
'Peace Is Individual'
Thursday, Mar. 2
7:30 p.m.
Jayhawk Room
Kansas Union
will leave for Ft. Leonard Wood, she said. "We will be billeted in barracks. We will give half a dozen shows, not including small group visitations to hospital wards.
"Wherever this USO unit goes we will be representing KU. That is why I have selected people who love entertainment and people."
The unit does not have a name vet.
The talent was selected from the University Theatre and all students are from KU, Miss Gresham said.
THEO PARTICIPATING are Shirley Williams, Olathe junior, Pat Royse, Stilwell senior, Melinda Grable, Shawnee Mission sophomore, Sheri Romeiser, Salina junior, Carol Wilcox, Kansas City senior, Dorothy Barnhardt, Coldwater junior, Cindy Brown, Lawrence senior, Ken Marsalois, Auburn, Wash., graduate student, Jim Woods, Topea graduate student, John Young, Braintree, Mass., graduate student, Nick Rigler, Highland Park, Ill., sophomore, Nick Eliopoulus, Prairie Village sophomore, and Mike Fisher, Wichita minor.
The assistant director is Durward Redd, drama graduate student.
10
Daily Kanjan Friday, February 24, 1967
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