ARCHIVES

This is a photo of the book made of the pieces of the Ghost Memory Totem. I presented it to the UNC Archives on May 6, 2008. There are 31 pages. There’s also a copy of the Greeley Tribune from April 30, 2008 with the story of the deconstruction on April 25th.

I’d forgotten about the text that I wrote on the hoop that held the image of the bear. I think that I may have been influenced by James Joyce a little when I wrote it. It’s a little mushy, but came from my heart. It’s sad to see the passing of something that means a lot.

“Ghost Memory Totem standing vigil silent homage to the Bears of long ago long gone away the Bears of time gone by remnant of a time gone by another age long gone away born again in memory a shadow Ghost…”

It was interesting to be so embraced and respected by the folks in the Archives while being ignored by the VP of Alumni Affairs and President Kay Norton. Of course, the Archives are all about the past of the university, which must, by definition, include tradition.

If there are any students still with me here, you may write directly to me at directortv41@yahoo.com to discuss the possibility of finding a space for the ReInCairnation. If enough students are into it, it would be a trip to have you form a bucket brigade line… (as I understand was used to transfer all the books from the Carter Library to the Michener) to move the 462 blocks from its current site to another site. One move would probably put the image upside down in a new cairn, but with a little figuring, it will be easy to reassemble it right side up. This cairn is 66 tiers of seven blocks instead of my first idea of creating it with tiers of five. Of course, with a ladder and more than one person doing the assembly, it can be reassembled to the original height of ten and a half feet. The current cairn is 8’3” high. The image of the bear is more abstract than I’d like.

The blocks were originally moved in bags of seven each. Another way to recreating the cairn would be to invest in inexpensive trash bags to carry the blocks in. I like the image of a line of supportive students formed to transport the blocks to the Bru-Inn / Gunter site. It's hard to be optimistic, but the fun of working together, maybe fraternities and sororities taking charge and putting their pledges to work to include the bear in their own traditions?

much love...