The clocktower on campus is an Evergreen landmark. Whenever I see it, three immediate memories spring to mind. First, there was a guy in 1974 who tried to jump from the clocktower to the library building roof (or vice versa) and didn't make it. He fell all the way to the first floor level and lived. And, amazingly, continued to further his studies after the accident, although he was pretty banged up. Whenever I saw him afterward, I had to admire his tenacity.

Secondly, the clocktower was a magnet for mountain climber types. Rappelling down the tower was sort of an Evergreen badge of honor. Gov. Evans and faculty member Willi Unsoeld (famous for making the first ascent from the west ridge of Mount Everest in 1963) were two high-profile clocktower adventurers. Willi was a great guy, by the way. He was one of those rare people who exuded a kind of energy that made you feel good just being around him. A charisma, I guess. Evergreen knew how to use his talents in the early years in recruitment efforts and also whenever they got in trouble with legislators. Hey, this guy was no wimpy and pale aesthete. He climbed Everest, by God. Legislators liked that. And so did we, actually.

But the third thing I think about whenever I see that clocktower is really the main thing. I don't know what it is like today, but for years the clocks on that tower never worked in harmony. Seminars, lectures, movies, never started when they were supposed to. We were on Evergreen Time. Our very own time zone, totally separate from Pacific Standard Time. And it was OK. Relax. Don't get uptight about it, man. Time is relative.

Unfortunately, the real world didn't work that way. I had classes in grad school at the UW where they locked the door after class started. If you were late-- too bad. And I wasn't prepared for grades. Or tests. Or the Socratic method. Or feeling like I was back in high school. Or doing a lot of work and not really learning anything except the art of data regurgitation. Coming from early Evergreen to the dusty halls of UW's graduate school was a major culture shock.

Anyway, that clocktower is just a pile of concrete arranged in a certain way. But that's what I think about when I see it.