New Hope Creek Whisperer: Notes from a 1974 Stream Study

On a December morning in 1974, UNC zoologist Seth Reice waded into New Hope Creek with questions about life in its waters. Equipped with rubber boots, a flow-meter, and a $32,200 grant (~$200,000 equivalent today), he studied how water speed and sediment shaped the tiny communities thriving between the rocks. While today's creek monitoring might involve digital sensors, Reice read the stream's stories firsthand - from rapid-dwelling mayflies to pool-loving crayfish, each creature telling tales of adaptation and survival.

When Computers Met Integration in Durham Schools

Despite the Supreme Court's 1954 Brown v. Board of Education ruling that declared segregated schools unconstitutional, Durham maintained its dual system for another 16 years. Only after a 1968 NAACP lawsuit did federal courts finally compel Durham to fully integrate its schools in 1970. The city's resistance to change reflected a broader pattern across the South, where many communities actively delayed implementing the Brown decision's mandate.

20 years after Brown v. Board of Education, Durham school officials debated using computers to help plan school attendance zones that would meet federal integration requirements while minimizing how far students had to travel. This new technology promised to analyze complex patterns of student assignment more efficiently than drawing maps by hand. But at $9,000 (about $54,000 in today's dollars), the computer system sparked debate between forward-thinking advocates and skeptics who questioned its worth.

1974 Menswear Puns

Van Straaten’s in Northgate Mall wasn’t afraid of using some wordplay to draw attention to their layered looks.