[Congressional Record Volume 140, Number 33 (Tuesday, March 22, 1994)]
[Senate]
[Page S]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Printing Office [www.gpo.gov]


[Congressional Record: March 22, 1994]
From the Congressional Record Online via GPO Access [wais.access.gpo.gov]

 
             HAPPY BIRTHDAY NO. 200 TO TOWN OF CHAPEL HILL

  Mr. HELMS. Mr. President, for sometime now, residents of Chapel Hill, 
NC, have been singing happy birthday to this remarkable and historic 
home of the University of North Carolina.
  This is its bicentennial, the 200th anniversary of the founding of a 
community which, until fairly recent times, was just a pleasant 
village. It may yet be pleasant but it is no longer a village. It is 
instead a center for many activities that regularly capture nationwide 
attention including--from time to time, but not this year--the Nation's 
No. 1 NCAA basketball championship.
  I was asked some time ago to pen a few comments in recognition of 
this Chapel Hill milestone. I don't normally do this, but in the 
instance of Chapel Hill's bicentennial, I do ask unanimous consent that 
my salute to Chapel Hill and its leaders be printed in the Record at 
the conclusion of my remarks.
  There being no objection, the salute was ordered to be printed in the 
Record, as follows:

                         Salute to Chapel Hill

       A number of North Carolina communities have been around 
     longer than Chapel Hill, which this year celebrates its 200th 
     anniversary, and there are many other North Carolina 
     communities that possess great attractiveness and charm. But 
     there are few, if any, communities with which so many have 
     fallen in love as quickly and as deeply as with the Town of 
     Chapel Hill.
       Well after my life span began, more than seven decades ago, 
     Chapel Hill was still little more than a village consisting 
     of Franklin Street and a few flanking lanes. When I was at 
     Wake Forest College, not many miles away in northern Wake 
     County, the University of North Carolina with its 3,000 
     students of Chapel Hill was a gigantic institution.
       Today, beginning its 201st year, this once-peaceful 
     academic hamlet has becomes a vibrant city whose borders, 
     population and economic activity have expanded manyfold. The 
     distinguished university which the city encloses now enrolls 
     more than 20,000 students and has spread far beyond the 
     original boundaries of Old East, the Old Well and Davie 
     Poplar.
       All progress has its price. Chapel Hill's progress has seen 
     a once-leisurely gait become a quickstep. The once-prevalent 
     atmosphere of calm timelessness has given way in some degree 
     to urgency and haste.
       Nevertheless, Chapel Hill, more than most municipalities in 
     these times, has saved and insulated what was priceless from 
     the past. Whether or not blue is its predominant color, 
     Chapel Hill is entitled to its often proclaimed billing as a 
     significant slice of paradise.
       So Dot Helms and I congratulate the Town of Chapel Hill--
     its government, its leaders, its institutions, its burgeoning 
     businesses, its citizens. Congratulations upon reaching the 
     age of 200.
       And best wishes for the third century that is just now 
     beginning.

                          ____________________