A letter arrived for me from
Eastern Washington College. It was from
Red Reese, the letter I had been expecting.
When I talked with him last spring he indicated he wanted me to come
early and he would find me work on campus.
His letter suggested I come on campus the first of September. The football players would have their first
work out on September 12th and he had lined up temporary work for me
until my regular work, a janitor’s beat in the field house, started. I replied that I would be arriving on campus
as suggested. The summer was rushing
past too fast.
I did some work on mom’s
water system that provided running water at the kitchen sink with much less
chance of problems or high maintenance, and
I started organizing things I needed to take with me. It was frustrating to guess at what I would need, not knowing for sure what I’d be doing.
There were last minute things to do around the ranch and then it was
September. The goodbyes were hard, but
filled with love and support. I was
going to miss my family.
The train ride
gave me a chance to review the events of the past summer. The rhythm of the wheels on the rails also
reminded me of that first trip to Cheney and the new world exposed to me
there. It became hard to isolate my
feelings about the abbreviated summer from the expectation of this very moment,
my ride into the future.
It was still daylight when I
arrived at the Cheney depot. After gathering
my bags I trudged up the hill past Red’s house and into Sutton Hall. I found the hall manager and got my room assignment. It was a four man dorm with a study area in
the center and sleeping quarters on either side equipped with two man
bunks. The other three fellows would be
coming in soon as they were football hopefuls.
My next stop was at EWC’s
Showalter Hall where the administration offices were housed as well as some
classrooms, labs and the college auditorium.
I had been told to see Marion Surbeck, the director of student
employment for information about my temporary job. Mr. Surbeck was helpful and explained the job
in detail. One of the resident
facilities, Hudson Hall had been resurfaced with a shingle material during the
summer and the job had been finished, but scrap material had to be picked up
and hauled to the dump. I would have one
other student helping me and a truck and tools would be at our disposal. “You can drive a truck? Mr. Surbeck
asked. I assured him I had considerable
experience on my grandfather’s ranch in Montana. The job started the next day and what seemed
to me to be a mountain of paperwork needed processing before I could work for
the college. As I worked on the pages of
required information Mr. Surbeck explained how this job and the other work I
would do for the college would be credited to my account. Tuition, books, room and board would all be drawn
from this account. He said the
reimbursement was calculated to cover all these expenses with a small margin
for unforeseen costs. He showed me a map
of the college where the truck and tools could be picked up. When all forms were filled I received copies
of every thing and a card that identified me as a EWC student. Also, important was the meal ticket issued in
my name.
Hudson hall was military type
barracks as seen here photographed during the following winter. The new siding cleaned up the look of the
outside of the building, but inside it had tired plywood walls and smell of an
old building. In earlier history, Hudson
was established as a dormitory for both men and women. Currently it was used to house veterans and
married couples.
The vehicle we were to use
was a big Reo dump truck. It had a
two-speed rear axel and other controls not found on our old Chevy truck. The fellow in the shop where we picked up the
truck gave us a five minute lesson on how to shift and operate the dump
controls. The student who helped me had
no desire to drive the truck, so I was chosen to drive. We gathered our tools and put them in the truck. My moment of truth had come. I climbed up in the truck cab and it felt and
looked as if I was setting on top of the world.
After a little experimentation I got it in gear and we rolled out onto
the street.
Siding scraps were everywhere. I can’t imagine how the workers got scraps
scattered all over the lawn, unless they were playing Frisbee with the bigger
pieces. Our job was to load it in the
truck and haul it away, so we began. It
took several days to pick up every scrap and load it in the truck. Each evening we took our load to the
dump. We crossed the railroad tracks and
headed west past the depot for a mile on a bumpy dirt road. Dumping our load was done by following the
instructions listed next to the controls.
We finished the cleanup job
and were assigned to a crew moving furniture around campus. In a sizable enterprise such as a college
there always seems to be furniture on the move.
Mr. Surbeck was pleased with our work and shifted me to my regular beat
in the field house. He had me contact
the regular janitor for instructions and then a tour of my assigned area
followed. Mr. Surbeck indicated it looked clean now and
my responsibility was to keep it looking this way. He noted when the football work-outs started
in a day or two there would be plenty of work to do, so the best use of my time
now was to meet with the janitor and become familiar with the tools and
chemicals used.
Two of my three roommates had moved in as football
practice approached. They were both from
small towns on the coast of Washington.
I got a kick out of the names of the towns, Mosey Rock and Silver Creek. These towns were in a logging area and Les Greer,
a freshman from Mosey Rock looked like he would make a fine football player
after throwing logs around all his life.
The other room mate, Tom Plant from Silver Creek was a sophomore
transferring in from a two year college on the coast. Both of these fellows and I became good
friends and we spent many hours together in college and after graduation.
In this picture taken outside Sutton Hall,
some of my friends got together for a Sunday afternoon photo shoot. Tom plant is squatting in front with me on his left while Les Greer is standing
on the right behind Tom. Standing behind
me is George Kalb, our fourth room mate.
He and a number of other students transferred to Eastern when North
Idaho College closed at the end of last year.
George was a sophomore. The other
fellow standing between George and Les was just a friend that got in on the
photo. Les made the football team at the guard position, but Tom did not
survive the cut. In those days the
Eastern athletic teams were known as the “Savages”. This mascot changed after I graduated, a
victim of political correctness. The
teams are now known as the “Eagles.”
*Taken from "Which Road Should I Follow?, Volume 1, Growing up in the country", an autobiography by Edwin K. Hill.
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