A hellish
vacation
treasure:
Murdock
Looking for a new hot spot? A
Spring Break delight? How about
white-sand beaches? Cows?
There's a dreamy little spot about
30 minutes from campus that goes
by the moniker "Murdock." Re
plete with white sand beaches, there
are dozens of tiny little cottages,
each with a hell of a view.
Actually, hell isn't too far off.
Seriously.
Rumor has it that hell lies about
5 1/2 miles south of Murdock.
Granted, it is on a different meta
physical plane, but it is there. You
can feel tne difference. Murdock's
close proximity to hell makes an
obvious difference in its climate,
raising the annual average tem
perature to about that of Pnoenix,
Ariz.
Beaches do not play a major
role in the topograpny of Lincoln
and its surrounding vicinity. They
do in Murdock, dominating the
docile country side alongside fields
of green grass.
Cows graze on fields of green
grassat night and spend theirdays
at the beach. Just as all good cows
should do. Occasionally they arc
milked, as necessity merits.
Outside of greater downtown
Murdock lies tne Pond. Cleverly
named by now-dead town icon
John Smith, the Pond is surrounded
by beaches and rather tan cows
with attitudes. On a clear day —
which is quite often—you can sec
Charon, gate-keeper of hell and a
really nice guy. He sort of floats
across the beautiful, crystal, still
pond. His pink boat is emblazoned
with the town saying across its
side:
"You can have a hell of a time in
Murdock."
He usually waves a lot too, but
never throws candy.
Incidentally, did you ever
wonder exactly where the phrase
"that's a hell of a tan" originated?
Hell's been around a long time.
- — *1
A hell of a long time.
So has Murdock.
Murdock's close proximity to
hell may also give reason for the
longevity of the town's existence.
Murdock was founded in 1890 by
Mr. Murdoch — note the spelling.
Apparently a bureaucratic Doo-boo
in the filing section accounts for
the name. Or a real selfless person.
Or a bad speller.
The population of Murdock is
240-245. In the summer, the popu
lation swells to almost 300. Col
lege students come home to live
parasite-like off their parents.
Parents likewise live parasite-like
off their children, busily violating
all sorts of child labor laws.
Murdock's summertime popu
lation glut makes parking a uni
versity-sized problem. Luckily,
unlike Lincoln, Murdock doesn't
have summer school.
A rather convincing selling
point, don't you think?
I'm not trying to sell you on
spending your summer there. Not
yet. I am trying to get you to give
it a try over Spring Break. Drive
through the town. It's full of your
kind of people.
The town highlight, Dairy Sweet
Ice Creem Treets and Other Non
Dairy Niceties, rests in downtown
Murdock and is open for five
minutes a day. No one ever knows
what five minutes the "home of
neet Sweet compleet treets" will
be open. Mystery and luck are
part of the fun. Besides, we don't
nave a lottery.
Dairy Sweet's owner, "Hal,"
deriveshis rather clever nickname
from his constant patter of nice
ties.
"Oh Hal! Some son of a batch
left his tweezers by the blender
again!" or "You damn kids would
go directly to Hal if I had anything
to say about it! Do not pass go! Do
not collect 200 dallers!"
Hal tells limericks for a quarter,
too.
And just think, Hal is only one
of 240-245 people. Tha t leaves 239
244 left to meet.
Murdock is its people. Its his
tory is rich with them.
From Maxine Cline's book of
Murdock history':
"In 1903, George Pickwell and
his children were standing on the
porch of their farmhouse catching
hailstones. Lightning struck George
and little Ray Pickwell. Ray was
killed instantly. One of the older
girls told the others to help her
pull their father out into the rain.
They did and George Pickwell was
revived.
"With this experience in his
background, Gayle Pickwell, Ray's
brother, became interested in
weather. He studied meteorology
and taught at San Jose State Col
lege in California. Gayle Pickwell
(later) authored several books on
weather."
In 1890, when the Burlington
Missouri River Railroad "came to
town," it made the town. Burling
ton sold land to investors and
farmers, issuing fliers unsring set
tlers to come to the area. The Fliers
read: 'The earth here is kind; just
tickle her with a hoe and she laughs
with a harvest."
Oh, yeah.
Check it out over break if you
get a chance. Beaches. Hal. Intelli
gent geographers. A good view of
hell. Cows. What else could you
ask for?
Besides, my parents would love
to have you.
Michael Stock, a native Murdockian, is j
an English major and Daily Nebraskan |
arts and entertainment staff reporter and
columnist.
Each Harris Study is supervised Call in advance of the physical
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—**
m #1 The Silence ot the Lambs
I apt by Thomas Harris !
\ #2 The Bourne Ultimatum
QM by Robert Ludlum
m #3 Bitter Sweet
pB I by LaVyrie Spencer
|H #4 The Anasiasia Syndrome
ngU by Mary Higgins Clark i
Eil #5 Dances with Wolves
Ejj3 by Michael Blake
"KJ by Dick Francis
#7 The Gold Coast
'|a by Nelson Do Milte
*■ #8 Sleeping with the Enemy
; by Nancy Price
#9 Caribbean
I by James Mkrhener
■ #10 Bright Star
H§| by Harold Coyle
Scott Mauer/Daily Nebraskan
Lincoln-bound?
Videotapes await
the sad, lonely
As Scott and I drove up and
down O Street in my brown '81
Mazda GLC we were constantly
harassed by short, ugly, dark
haired guys with glasses. They
wantea us to drag race their
jacked-up Pintos.
"Let's race, dirt ball," they
said.
We happily obliged as we
reminisced about past high
school Spring Breaks, when we
didn't have to worry about going
on a trip—because we couldn't.
Our parents wouldn't let us leave
town.
55 mph, and through a red
light.
Our parents fooled us. They
told us we could go on a trip if
we made it to college. We aid,
but our parents knew we
wouldn't have enough money.
We didn't.
Bu t now here we are going 75
mph down O Street, college
juniors, bright, good-looking,
parental permission intact — and
we're still going nowhere, for
Spring Break, that is.
Driving down O Street at
accelerated speeds gave new
perspective to "the strip," as we
calmly took in all that Lincoln
had to offer in the way of fast
food. "Slow down, there's a cop,"
Scott said. As I slowed down, I
took a sharp right turn and then
another and another.
"Close call, but we dodged
'em," 1 said.
The Pinto was not so lucky.
We decided we were both
hungry so we stopped off at a
new fast food place — one that
looked like a cross between a
taco place and a body shop.
Video Station, 4550 O St.,
seemed like the perfect eating
place. Nice colorful carpet, lots
of big picture windows, a cool
silver turnstile and a lot of read
j ing material cluttering the walls
characterized the joint. As we
ate our overpriced bag of pop
corn and drank caffeine- and
sugar-saturated Pepsi products,
we gazed around tnc store at all
the movies.
e
m
*
i
JO
Z
X
jg
w
_ J
"I haven't seen a movie in a
long time/' Scott said. "This store
has a great selection and the
prices are very reasonable —
almost sexy."
"Scott, how can PRICES be..
. sexy?" "Flowers are sexv, laced
underwear is sexy, Elle Macpher
son, now she is sexy."
But before he could answer, I
noticed Scott in the adult sec
tion — looking at the different
titles and smiling with a "insuf
ficiently ventilated" look.
After a dazed look myself —
previously, 1 had thought Scott
was gay — I realized that I had
found my perfect Spring Break
activity.
Scott and I left, but I made a
vow to come back. 1 was not
going to just do nothing over
my break. I was going to do
something productive.
No drag racing, no bar hop
ping, no books, I was going to
the video store — Video Sta
tion, 4550 O St. — to be exact. I
wanted a movie, a good movie,
and maybe a car iuneup and
some popcorn.
What better more productive
way to spend a week than watch
ing videos in the privacy of my
own home.
When I walked in the store
for the second time, I went
straight to the "Latest Releases"
section. On their shelves were
"Young Guns II" (R), "Flatlin
ers" (R), "The Freshman," "Days
of Thunder" (R), and "Die Hard
II" (R). These movies were $2.49
overnight.
Regular movies were $1.99
overnight. Blockbusters Videos,
140 N. 48th St. is more expen
sive, so I made the right choice.
In the past I had seen many
horrible movies, so I had to
compile a list of unwatchable
movies that lurked on the Video
Station's shelves. Anything with
Sylvester Stallone. Most of his
movies were under action/
adventure and should be
avoided at all costs. The “Ka
rate Kid" series should also be
avoided because of unwatch
able lame behavior of the actors
involved.
When it comes to musicals,
“Grease 2" as well as Michael
Jacksons' “Moonwalker/' should
be pushed off the shelf.
And under the category sci
fi/horror, VideoStation should
kill Arnold Schwarzenegger
movies because there is no dia
logue besides grunts and groans.
Movies are not a bad idea for
Spring Break — but investigate
a travel loan before you have to
resort to videos. Becausea week
can be a long time.
Richardson is broadcasting
English major and Daily Nebras
kan arts and entertainment senior re
porter.
I
—
The University of Nebraska-Lincoln
Cornhusker Marching Band
FLAG LINE |
AUDITIONS |;
April 2, 3 and 4,1991 Uj
7:00 p.m. to 9:00 p.m. (/ j
I Schulte Field House
»
Use entrance off of Avery Avenue
Auditions are open to academically eligible UNL;
students and incoming freshmen. No previous;
experience required. Dress for movement and wear j
tennis shoes. Equipment will be provided. For more j
information call 472-2505.
I
The University of Nebraska-Lincoln does not discriminate in its academic, t
admissions, or employment programs and abides by all federal regulations
pertaining to same.
—1 ' ■ ■■ — i ". i n«
