Mason's Picks- The Best of The Web

Everyone has a Mason in their life. I met Mason my first year of college at the State University of New York at New Paltz. We were dorm-mates in Chango Hall. Chango Hall was an all-black dorm that the University tried to integrate in the Fall of 1975. They did this by taking the last 125 white people who registered to live in the dorms and placed them in Chango.

Our first impression- hmmmm... nice dorm.... a little old...... a little run down.... but nice.

Our first night- we are awakened by the chanting of "Get our Whitey", marching of feet and clanking of pots and pans against our doors and anything else that was not harder than a steel pan.

Our first morning- 114 of the 125 white students moved out. Who stayed on? Mason, myself and about 9 other misfits of the college community for what turned out to be a great year in the dorms(Among other things, this was the only dorm on campus that you could walk to your English class in your bathrobe and slippers, holding a cup of coffee and not have to go outside and face the elements).

This Mason(that we all have one of- unless we are one!) was older than us(we were 16-17 and he must have been about 20 or so). The four years made him seem a lot older and wiser than us... but in retrospect, now that I think of it 35 years later, he was just.... just ummm ........ a kid.

I lost contact with him for about 30 years but recently we reconnected. He was working in the San Francisco school system as an audiologist... Before that.... he was the unofficial photographer for Garrison Keiler's Prarie Home Companion Show(a photograther for a radio show?). But now his most important function seems to be to pass on jokes, videos, photos, articles and anything else of interest that he finds on the internet that he thinks is worth sharing..... Having a huge archive of his picks that was clogging up my computer, I thought it would be a good idea to post them on The Carrboro News so that anyone who has nothing better or is bored can go and read up on Mason's favorites.

Lee, Carolyn and Mason- 1976

Bicentennial OJ Anyone? .... Guess not... One Fourth of July morning- in 1976 to be exact(this is after we moved out of the dorm). We looked out our window and saw hundreds of people milling around. We got dressed, ran out to investigate and saw that there was a ceremony unveiling a new Bicentennial Plaque. Astute as we are, we saw the money making potential of this opportunity that was placed right outside our doorstep. 90° temperatures, hundreds of people and not a vendor in site.We ran to Tthe Red Barn across the street bought 10 cans of OJ, paper cups, Wrote "Bicentennial OJ" on one of our notebooks, set up the stand and presto..... we were in business. We were expecting profits in the hundreds of dollars and I had visions of grand shopping sprees at the end of the day(more like early afternoon as this would be a short dedication ceremony). Well, the grand total in sales.... zero.... although we almost sold a cup to a 6 year old for 10 cents(down from a high of 25 cents) at the very end of the ceremony, but he too passed us up....