Page Four
Searching
For Humor
I searched for humor
in the pages of my past
thinking that Scamp and Blondie
could sustain a laugh to last.
But alas, the woe Peanuts gave me
(In fact, the entire conaix cast)
For their jokes and situations proved too slow,
or else my own wit too fast.
So I searched for a funny,
a comedy new under the sun,
or even a well-used line
for hot-crossed buns
still
I searched for humor
and still I found none.
Mad and Lampoon consistently bored me,
Hustler's bold visions completely abhorred me.
I searched the East for Wisdom
and asked God could He afford me
a script to let tears flow
But no,
there was no cosmic comic to have soared me
or let fly a humorous row.
Still I searched
from Marx to Bruce to Simon I'd run
seeking the meaning to the word fun
in the limmerick
the one-liner,
or the eternal pun
still
I searched for humor
and still I found none
Marriage Counseling Service of
Presque Isle Lighthouse will soon feel the force Erie, Inc. and Director of the
of winter storms as another season ends. Graduate Counseling Program at
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ACADEMIC RESEARCH
P.O. BOX 24873
LOS ANGELES, CA 90024
~ ~s ~ ,1 ..... ....................... ~.,. r ,~_.
NAME
ADDRESS
INN
Marc Woytowich
Living With
Children
Seminar Series
On September 15, a seminar
program on the effects of
separation and divorce on
children was held at the Reea
Union Building lecture hall.
The primary speaker for the
seminar was Marla Isaacs, Ph.D.
Dr. Isaacs is a clinical
psychologist. She is the founder
and director of the Divorce
Counseling Service for the
Children and Families of
Philadelphia. Dr. Isaacs has had
wide clinical experience dealing
with the problems of families and
children. Most recently, her
clinical work has concentrated on
the problems that separation
and divorce causes parents and
childien." She has also conducted
extensive research on the effects
of divorce on children. Dr. Isaacs
has recently been awarded a
large research grant to conduct a
long Fudinal study- on the long
term effects of divorce on
children.
In her presentation, Dr. Isaacs
shared her research and clinical
knowledge with the audience. She
emphasized that divorce has
different effects on children in
various age groups. Very yoting
children, for example, may
blame themselves for the divorce
and revert to bed-wetting and
tantrums. Adolescents, on the
other hand, way side with one
parent or the other and become
very moralistic about the
divorce.
As well as identifying the
important issues in divorce for
children in different age groups,
Dr. Isaacs provided the audience
with some practical suggestions
for helping children deal with the
problems divorce can cause
them. Dr. Isaacs examples of
these suggestions by showing on
video tapes segments of actual
therapy sessions with children
and divorced parents.
The audience of over 70 people
responded enthusiastically to Dr.
Isaacs' presentation. The
audience was composed of
concerned parents, teachers
from local schools, and social
service staff persons from
various agencies in the Erie area.
The audience participated ac
tively in the question and answer
panel discussion that followed
Dr. Isaacs' presentation.
The panel for the discussion
consisted of Dr. Isaacs, Mr.
Thomas DiStefano, Family
Services Director for the Erie
Headstart Program, Ms. Terry
Fassette, a member of Begin
nings, an outreach program of
the Hamot Mental Health Center
for the divorced and separated,
and Robert Nelson, Ph.D. Dr.
Nelson is the director of the
Behrend Collegian
Gannon College. The panel was moderated by
Mr_ Dana Anderson, Instructor of Psychology
at Behrend. Mr. Bruce Begin, Executive Direc
tor of the Sarah A. Reed Children's Center
provided some opening and closing remarks.
The Seminar Series is co-sponsored by the
Sarah A. Reed Children's Center and the
Behrend College Division of Social and
Behavioral Sciences with the cooperation of the
Primary Prevention Task Force of the Youth
Services Coordinating Council. Funding was
provided through grants from the office of
Children and Youth and Act 148. The seminar
series is a program for the Erie Community in
celebration of the International Year of the
Child.
The second in the "Living With Children"
seminar series will be presented on Saturday,
October 6th at the RUB main lecture hall. Mr.
Sam Gibbon, Senior Consultant of the Children's
Television Workshop, will speak on "The
Emerging Role of the Media and Its Effects on
Children." Mr. Gibbon developed the "Electric
Company," program on Public Television and
served as porducer for the "Captain Kangaroo"
and "Sesame Street" programs. His presen
tation will be followed by a question and answer
panel discussion moderated by Dr. Stephen
Knouse. Assistant Professor of Psychology at
Behrend.
Registration of this seminar is $2.50.
Registration will be at the door or can be
arranged by contacting the Sarah A. Reed
Children's Center.
• 3 " 411 4.;-,:-" ,
'
September 27, 1979
Searching
for garbage
Some people use a chapel to
pray. Others find peace in the
woods. Still others look for God in
meditation. I find peace in a
junkyard. •
It is here, among the rusted
hulks of automobiles, that I
discovered tranquility. The silent
sentinels, their raised hoods like
frozen screams, never frightened
me. The throb of the nearby
factory faded until I heard the
iron pulse no more. A feather
breeze came up from the railroad
tracks, barely nudging the
squeeky hinge on a '63 Ford.. It
rests. The breeze goes on,
dodging in and out of broken
jagged windshields like a
thought that always escapes me.
The windows had taken a
beating from rocks; projectiles'
launched from the hands of un-'
thinking youth. Cracks spread`
over them like a spiderweb
palms. I coughed. •
Time was stopped here. The
most recent model was a '73
Pinto. It too was slowly rusting
into Earth. I kicked a fender and
red dust rose around me. Again I
coughed. Great red chips of rust
fell like slate as I kicked the
finder over and over again. A
Pinto.
I climbed atop a van to view
this vast graveyard of
mechanical waste. Each car was
a tomb. Each contained a history
inscribed somewhere within.
AI4BIH, J 16308, each license
plate served as gravestone
marker. Numbers forgotten by
their masters long ago. And the
scars of rocks and bottles could
serve as epitaph. Where were the
flowers planted gently in the
radiator? Did no one mourn the
Pinto?
I sat and reflected. "What a
quiet place," I thought. It was
calmer than a theatre after
closing, except that no actors
would ever perform here again.
This was the final rest, the last
show. Flat giants had fallen
beneath the David of decay.
"Perhaps they accept their
fate," I mused, listening to a
small rodent make his nest in the
upholstery. A rear -Ilion I had
then, as to the authorship of those
tiny black beads on the seat of
that Pinto. I had brushed them
aside and had gone on thinking.
I hopped off the van and ran
towards a Camaro. I climbed up
the hood and jumped back down.
I did this many times, rapt in a
child's joy with a. Tonka Toy. I
removed my shirt and felt the sun
reflecting off a windshield not yet
shattered. I paused, then
coughed. Then I found a rock and
broke it. "What a beautiful day,"
I 'thought. I wondered where I
,conl4,find a set of plugs too
.fit Any