Cashier's smiling service
By TONIA STIVALE
Daily Collegian Staff Writer
When a cashier takes your money, how
often do you get a smile? How often does
the cashier look at you instead of just
your merchandise? It happens, but not
too often. Business is business and
you're lucky if the cashier doesn't drop
your change on the floor or push you
hurriedly aside to get to the next
customer.
Elga Eckley is different. Elga has
worked as a cashier for 11 years at the
HUB's Lion's Den. Her experience
shows. But unlike those cashiers whose
years behind the register have soured
their rapport with their public, Elga still
loves her public and her job.
From 7 a.m. to 3 p.m. Elga analyzes
the contents of students' trays, quickly
rings up the bills, exchanges cash and
manages to squeeze a few seconds out of
each sale to say something kind or witty
to a customer who was only passing
through and never really expected any
humane treatment.
Watching Elga in operation is uplif
ting. A student slumps to the cash
register, downcast perhaps by a failed
test or a broken love affair. He' hands
Elga his money and starts when he hears
her say, ."How are ya honeybunch?"
He'll smile then, quite pleased with
himself that anyone cared enough to ask
about his day.
Someone like Elga would have to like
her job. But Elga responds candidly, "I
don't know why I even work here. .I could
go to a supermarket and make $6.00 an
hour." She pauses, her flashing brown
eyes still for just a moment, and you
realize she's not earning $6.00 an hour in
a supermarket because she just wouldn't
be happy there.
"I like kids," she sayt. "I• always did.
I've seen 'em grow up, from freshmen to
seniors. They come back to visit and it's
nice to see them." To a student walking
through the line, she winks and says,
Personal gets response
Kilian Kuntz (graduate
philosophy) recently had an ex
perience most men only dream of
he received 25- phone calls from
women requesting to meet him.
The source of this sudden
popularity with the opposite sex was a
personal ad in The Daily Collegian.
The ad listed Kuntz' attributes, his
request of "a bright female for
platonic relationship," and his phone
number.
Kuntz, identified as "Killer" in the
ad, was not totally , receptive to the
attention he received. The ad had
been placed by his roommate,
Edward Daniels, (graduate
philosophy), and a friend, Warren
Ziegler (graduate-meteorology).
"Curiosity got the • better of me,"
Kuntz said in explanation of his
eventual follow-up of several calls.
Although Kuntz said it was nice
talking to some of the women who
answered the ad, he wasn't interested
Student invents air conditioner
Heat 'fans' the flame of invention
By SUSAN FITZGERALD
Daily Collegian Staff Writer
Peter Schwarze always disliked hot
weather. But when he came to Penn
State Summer Term 1976 as a freshman,
that dislike turned to hate.
"All I kept thinking was that it would
be great to have an air conditioner in my
dorm room," Schwarze recalls. "But it
was forbidden since air conditioners put
such a great drain on electricity.
"So I decided that I was going to come
up with an air conditioner that didn't
need the University's electricity."
To many people this may seem like an
idle wish, but for Schwarze, a sixth-term
biochemistry major, it was a dead
serious prediction. Today, less than a
year and a half later, Schwarze's in
vention a battery-run portable air
Conditioner has been sold to the Hag
Kong Plastic and Metal Products Co.,
and is being readied for production and
worldwide distribution.
Schwarze calls his invention "Por
tac." Unlike standard air conditioners,
the Portac does not rely on a condenser
to work. Instead, a six-volt battery
powers a fan that blows cold air
Elga of HUB's
"Have a good day now!" No wonder they
come back to visit.
She takes a puff of her cigarette and
her tone grows serious. "All these years
I've been working here, I'll tell ya why I
like it. People are nice, but the kids are
special. They're polite, they're fun. I can
kid with them in any.way, sometimes in
a smart way," she adds con
spiratorially.
"They smile and never get mad at me
and they compliment me. They come to
me with their problems. Some kid told
me the other day his father died. This
one's in love and that one's flunking out,
while the one's getting A's. It's like a
confession center here." But Elga
listens, because to her, the students are
her children.
Elga has her own children, but they
are all grown . and gone from the nest.
"You need kids," she shrugs, "so I call
the students my children. They want
attention. They want somebody to care
for 'em and I do."
Elga confides a favorite anecdote.
"One of the guys I always kid with, he's
real tall. Well, one day, I said, `Hiya big
boy,' and in back of him was this short
fellow. He looked up at me and said,
`How come you never say that to me?'
Well, I felt kinda bad about it, so the next
day I saw this guy, I grinned and said,
`Hiya Sweet and Low.' He got a kick outa
that!"
Elga's boss, Melvin Getz, Food
Supervisor for The Lion's Den, pulls up a
chair. "Do you want your picture taken
with me?" Elga teases.
"She'd have to haVe a wide-angle lense
to get us both in there," he teases back,
laughing wickedly.." Make sure you get
her with her mouth open, that's nor
mal," he adds.
"When he talks to me like that, he likeg
me," she assures me.
"I'd say something nice about her, but
she's sitting here and I don't want her to
in any kind of a lasting relationship
with the potential suitors.
The ad, though partially a practical
joke, was also a sociological ex
periment. "We wanted to see what
responses we would get," Daniels
said, "and to make him feel un
comfortable."
Daniels and Ziegler said that they
felt there is "no place to meet people
in State College." Both attended
undergraduate school in metropolitan
areas and Daniels said that people in
big cities are friendlier than in State
College.
Kuntz said that the fact he received
so many calls indicates "There are
matey people who would really like to
Meet people."
"It's not my style to meet people
that way," Kuntz said, concerning his
particular situation, "I would like to
meet people, but I prefer to do it in
more natural ways."
produced by a block of freezella (the
substance used to keep coolers cold).
Schwarze admits that the Portac will
not be as cold as a regular air con
ditioner, but he says it will be a lot colder
than a fan. He predicts the Portac will
have enough power to lower the tem
perature in a dorm room 20 degrees in a
short period of time.
"The most important feature of the
Portac is its versatility,." Schwarze
says. "It was initially designed for use in
the dorm, but it can be used anywhere:
in the house, on the patio, in cars or
campers. •
"What good is it to have a regular air
conditioner in your house, if you only use
it a few hours a day."
Schwarze says he is not sure what the
retail price of the Portac will be, but it
will be less expensive than a low-priced
electric fan.
While the Pottac is, Schwarze's pet
project at the 'moment, he has over 70
other inventions to his credit. In fact,
Schwarze likes to call himself an in
ventor.
"I come up with ideas everydaß" he
Cpllegian living
on by Mark VanDlne
by Sheila Glusco
ion's Den
get swell-headed," he chuckles again.
Elga shoots him a nasty look, but it
doesn't last for long. Soon she is grin
ning. "Excuse me a minute, I wanna get
a Coke."
Once Elga is beyond earshot, Getz
levels with me. "She's an excellent
cashier one of the best I've seen. And
she's really good with the kids. I think
it's because she mothers them. The kids
are away from home and they're real
glad she can talk them out of their shells.
"She does have a way with the kids.
She's real fast on register. She usually
has the trays figured out before they get
there. She's working back of the line
about three trays."
Elga returns and he says, "She's a
pretty good cashier even though she is a
little on the old sidd." "I'm like an old
wine," she retorts, "the older I get the
better I get!"
"It's that old imported stuff that you
gotta watch," Getz says. .
Elga came to this country from
Bulgaria in 1947. "I'll have thirty years
in this country December first," she
says proudly.
A backlash from Getz is inevitable.
"What thirty years here and forty years
in Bulgaria? ! "
"I'm 63 and I'm proud of it," she says,
"I'm not gonna hide my years!"
"I'm gonna work till I'M 65 and now
just because he doesn't think I can make
it. But maybe not, my mind's startin' to
fail me. People think I have a computer.
mind when I'm on the register. Well, I
don't. After you work so many years,
you automatically look at the tray and
you don't see a hamburger or
cheeseburger, you see 55 cents or 45
cents.
"Kids can't understand that, but that's
the way it's done. When I see someone's
got a $1.20 tray and $2 in his hand, I have
80 cents in my hand right off the bat. It's
a kind of game all day long, but it's a
nice game."
antasy, sci-fi books catch student interest
By DEBBIE CAIN
Daily Collegian Staff Writer
With students busily preparing for
final exams, asking anyone the
question: "What are Penn State students
reading?" would generally draw the
response, "Textbooks, of course."
But a. survey of local bookstores
suggests this is not necessarily the case.
Reading material in demand varies
from the newest hardback Tolkien to
Cosmopolitan magazine.
Jan Bixby of the Student Bookstore
says that the biggest seller right now,
despite the fact it is available . only in a
hardcover edition, is "The Silmarillion"
by Tolkien. Due to its popularity; other
Tolkien books such as "The Hobbit" and
"Fellowship of the Rings" have seen a
sales boost, as have guides to Tolkien.
The Tolkien craze seems to have
spawned a renewed interest in fantasy
as the steady trade in books of this sort
at the University Book Centre suggests.
Science fiction, too, is big in this
community.
"Science fiction is huge in State
College," says John Osborn of the
University Book Centre. "We are con
stantly buying and replacing titles in this
area. It is one of the biggest, if not the
biggest seller overall in this store."
Books in this category do well at other
stores downtown, with Kurt Vonnegut
books doing exceptionally well.
Horner's Bookstore on College Avenue
reports steady sales in Vonnegut books.
In addition, Frank Horner mentions the
recent interest in books written about
life after death,
Osborn says there is a fad peculiar to
State College that of interest in books
about the Hitler era. Osborn has new
novels constantly arriving to fill the
demand for this subject.
Bookstores all over the area see a
steady audience for romance novels and
sports books. The Rosemary Rogers
books like "Sweet Savage Love" and
says. "It's not that I'm bright or in
telligent. I just have an imagination.
"I look at something that has faults.
Then I see what's wrong with it and what
causes the problems. I can come up with
an invention upon being presented with a
problem."
Schwarze's interest in the problems of
energy has led him to develop some
ideas for the use of solar energy. After
refining these ideas, Schwarze says he
hopes to get a federal grant to do work in
the area of solar energy.
Many of Schwarze's inventions are
protected by poor men's patents. With a
poor men's patent, the inventor has a
witness sign a sketch of his invention,
and he then sends it to himself by way of
registered mail. Schwarze explains that
the postmarked letter, which must be
kept sealed, becomes proof of the in
vention.
"The poor men's patent is just as
legally binding as a regular U.S.
patent," Schwarze says. "I could take
someone to court with this type of
patent, and since it is dated I could prove
that I came up with an idea first.
"But then one year after my product
registers with students
has pleasant words for all
Trust is the name of one of the games
played at the cash register. "When we're
in a rush, I don't have time to count
money any more than the kids count
theirs. When I give 'em . their money,
they put it in their pockets. They trust
me, I trust them, we have a trust going.
"Or they'll come in and say, 'I only
have 19 cents for coffee.' All right, I have
a box that I call the poor box. When I find
nickels and dimes on the floor, I put 'em
in the box. And I give 'em that money. It
comes in handy. But the point is they
won't hand you only 19 cents and not tell
you about it. And they always pay me
back, every time."
Elga's brown eyes are still for just a
second, then she laughs heartily, "Why
wouldn't I like it here?" It's obvious that
she does, and the students pick that up.
"That's 'sweet thing,' as I call her,"
says Mike Kusuplos (Bth-business
logistics). "She always has a good word
for you. She's a wonderful !lady and it's
wonderful to see a smiling face."
Elga's smiling face sets off a chain
reaction. Her laughter is infectious, her
candor appealing. "Dieting's nothing
more than mind over matter. My mind
says it doesn't matter!" or "Cigarettes
are my weakness, but I quit. I quit every
night and I start every morning."
Elga takes a last sip from her Coke
glass and a last drag from her cigarette.
I ask her ' if she wants to say anything
else, before she goes back to her cash
register. "No,'! she says emphatically,
"I'm getting conceited now."
She stands tall as she takes her place
behind the register. As she deftly rings
up the sale for a bright red apple, she
leans. toward the student and declares,
"That's a nice apple you got there." The
student leaves, smiling. I notice a small
sign taped beside the register. It reads,
'Keep on smilin'.' Somehow I know that
Elga passes the message along.
Jill) Fonda (4th-biology) takes time out from studying .to read Psychology
Today.
other romantic novels draw the women,
while personal sports experiences make
book buyers out of the men, Osborn says.
Best sellers, whether hardbound or in
paperback do very well in this area,
although as Horner says, the sales drop
off noticeably after the books appear.
Among the best sellers doing well in
would go on the market, I would have to
get a U.S. patent."
Schwarze explains that poor men's
patents were originally for poor men.
"It can easily cost $l,OOO for a U.S.
patent, plus it can take three to five
years to get one," he says. "But, a poor
men's patent costs only $2.50 the price
for the registered letter and it takes
only two days for mail service.
"Even if I were a millionaire, I'd still
use poor men's patents."
Schwarze says he has no specific areas
of interest when it comes to inventing,
though he does. like electrical ap
pliances. "I just try to get ideas that are
relevant to people, he says.
Looking towards the future, Schwarze
hopes to make inventing his full-time
job.
"There's a need for inventors," he
says. "There's too much useless
research going on, and not enough in
spiration for invention.
"When I tell people I'm an inventor,
they look at me like I'm crazy. But being
a little crazy is all part of being an in
ventor.
A weekly look at life
in the University community
Elga Eckley, cashier at the HUB's Lion's Den, rings up a purchase on her
register. Elga has been giving out change and kind words for her customers
during her 11 years at the register.
bookstores locally is the latest James
Herriot book, "All Things Wise and
Wonderful," the third in his series
focusing on a veterinarian in England.
"The Dragons of• Eden" by Sagan and
"Your Erroneous Zones" by Dyer both
listed on the Time best seller list are in
big demand, as are "Trinity" by Leon
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Photo by Phil Norton
For Peter Schwarze (6th•biochemistry), heat was the mother of invention for
his portable, battery operated air conditioner designed specifically for use in
the dorms.
Uris, author of "Exodus," and "Even
Cowgirls Get the Blues" by Tom Rob
bins, about a model turned cowgirl and
her adventures on an all-girl ranch. '
The Bicentenniel Series, runaway
sellers last spring, are still doing con
sistently well. The series is likely to get
yet another boost, when the seventh in
the line comes out sometime in the near
future. _ •
Spare moments will often find
students leafing through magazines. It
will come as no surprise to anyone who
has ever set foot within a dorm room,
fraternity house, or apartment that the
best selling magazines are
Cosmopolitan, Playboy and Penthouse.
Bixby says that the. Student Bookstore
used to receive 40 copies of .
Cosmopolitan per week. This figure has
now been upped to 80. Each week, they
are sold out.
Time, Newsweek and Consumer
Reports do not do as well on the
newsstands as one might expect them to
in a collegiate community. One possible
reason for this could be the fact that
students take advantage of the Campus
Rates offer, and have them delivered at
reduced prices. In conversations with
students at their mailboxes, it was found
that this was the case..
Women's, magazines sell much better
than their male counterparts, with
Glamour, Mademoiselle and
Cosmopolitan leading the way.
At this time of the year, craft books
begin to show an increase in sales, as
students. begin to make gifts for the
holidays for family and friends.
Students are showing their loyalty to
their home away from home, as the
Penn State book, "Road to No. 1," is
being purchased in increasing numbers,
chiefly as Christmas presents for
family.
"The Nothing Book," a book of blank
paper bound in an interesting cover is
available for all budding authors.
Tuesday, November 8, 1977—.6