texascavers Digest 4 Feb 2014 16:31:21 - Issue 1924
Topics (messages 23358 through 23364):
Re: Aggie Anniversary Party
23358 by: David
UT Grotto Meeting February 5th
23359 by: Andrea Croskrey
Cool canyoneering video Down the Line
23360 by: Frank Binney
23361 by: Preston Forsythe
TC material
23362 by: Mimi Jasek
Virus ?
23363 by: David
AMCS blurb
23364 by: Mixon Bill
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---BeginMessage---
I contacted about 20 old Ass'rs, or at least as many as my fuzzy
repressed memories could dig up. I found most of them on various
social sites and sent them a message.
Here are some names of people I have lost contact with:
Chris Sobin
Tim Jones ( maybe in Austin )
Steve Tonneson ( maybe in Austin )
Pete Baron
Travis Kitchen ( I think he stays in touch with other cavers )
Patricia Wise ( was on Facebook last year )
Cesar Koppel ( maybe Austin )
Audrey Wright ( Sulpher Springs in the late 80's )
The comments below are my personal observations of the A.S.S. from 1984 to 1993.
Many of the former Ass'rs I sent a message have probably not been in a
cave in 25
years.
Back in the mid 80's, each fall semester there would be a handful of
students that would
get super enthusiastic about caving, and want to go every other
weekend for about 2 months, but they usually backed out of the trip to
study, so most of the gatherings were
social gatherings at a food establishment near campus. But after
those few months, they would just drop off the face of the earth.
There was never anybody to keep track
of who they all were. Some where in my storage building I might have
some old members
list, but I think I contacted everybody that was active in the club
from 84 to 87.
I doubt any of them show up, but one of them is still a hiker at
least, and lives in
the vicinity of the party location.
I do not know any Ass'rs after 1993, or at least not that I know of.
There were lots of girls in the A.S.S., in the mid-80's and many of them were
very enthusiastic about the club, but the actual physical part of caving was
something that they were only briefly interested in.Some of them were dating
one of the guys in the club and appeared to be tagging along. For
example, I can't help but remember in 1986 on a trip to Langtry Lead
Cave, everybody had to wait at the
entrance for Susan Shupak to get her make-up on.She got mad when
her boyfriend
abandoned her in the twilight zone, but I was able to guide her all the way down
to the beginning of the crawl to the Hall of Unicorns, before she
became claustrophobic. She and I were close friends till 1989, and
then she married and disappeared.
Another example, is Audrey Wright. She took the National Rescue Cave Class
in New Mexico around 1987, and never went caving again, at least, as
far as I know.
There was one exception though.I won't mention her name, but she
won numerous
vertical contest at TCR, and had dedicated her life to the outdoors.
Also, each semester there would be a grad student who was an experienced caver
that would come to the meetings and a local non-student adult, but they were too
busy to go on caving trips, and just attended meetings.They would
often offer
insight and suggestions, but the only one I remember has passed away.
Also, a lot of the members in the club were just the roommates of
someone who liked
caving or considered themselves a caver.That roommate or friend,
would attend
meetings and help out, and might have gone to Enchanted Rock Cave or something
like that, but by the end of the fall semester they had dissappeared.
The spring semesters were really hard to get new members and to
encourage members to go caving and by late April,
it was almost hopeless.Each fall, the club started over from
scratch, with almost
zero input from any experienced caver, and equipment and stuff from
the previous
generation of cavers disappeared.
And like any caving club, there would be people that attend who have
no desire to
go caving, but just want to be part of something.So the A.S.S.
would sometimes have
75 members by the 2nd fall meeting, and the last spring meeting there
would be about 4
people.
So in a nutshell, I am almost no help.
David Locklear
1987 A.S.S Vice-President
( Disclaimer:Appointed V.P. by outgoing 1986 president
because there were only 2 people in the club )
---End Message---
---BeginMessage---
Howdy Texas Cavers!
I hope you all are ready for another UT Grotto Meeting this week! This
Wednesday we're having a double feature. Maya Liu will share photos from
caves she got to visit while on vacation in Puerto Rico and James
