Fun and Studies as a Junior

Another summer slid by and before I realized, it was time to prepare for college again.  The train ride was getting boring, so I was glad when it pulled into the Cheney station. I preferred coming in this way rather than the way I left last spring.  I had two incompletes on my transcript that showed the change to grades, but no explanation concerning the circumstances.  There wasn’t a space for notation about my mumps even if the folks in the records office had wanted to cite one.  I felt it could be a source for questions by any party reviewing my transcript.

My schedule was beginning to load with courses that would be important for me as a teacher.  I realized the next two years would concrntrate on my major and I was glad to see the Industrial Arts classes sprinkled among the education offerings.  The thought of becoming a shop teacher was growing on me, but not without nervousness.  I noted that “ENGLISH CLEARANCE” had been stamped on my transcript for fall quarter, 1954.  I liked that, as it meant there wouldn’t be any more required English courses for me.  I was looking forward to the Mathematics Fundamentals class.  My five credit Education class was Educational Psychology and was tough for me.  The Sociology class “The Family” was interesting, but required an excessive amount of reading and again I am a confessed slow reader.  My PE course was Golf, a welcome diversion and my Industrial Art class was Architectural Drawing I, which I thoroughly enjoyed.

Dick Edwards and I happened to be passing a photo shoot for the Kinnikinick (college annual) when they asked all juniors to gather to one side and participate in a representative picture.  It was impossible to gather all class members for a picture. I hardly knew other students in this picture except Dick standing beside me and Wayne Avery, standing in the back row on the extreme left.  Wayne was a Montana boy from Stevensville.  Dick and I had on our usual uniform; low maintenance jeans, letterman jacket and white tea shirt.  As I recall Dick suggested I crouch and he stood on tip toes to give the impression he was taller than I.  I measured 6 feet 8 inches, so there apparently were several other tall people shown based on this photo.

I didn’t make a conscious effort to become involved in college activity, but various opportunities seemed to come my way.  My studies, basketball and my job kept me busy.  I was enjoying a second year of swimming pool maintenance as my beat.  I had learned the process and received good reports from the head janitor.

I was asked to serve on the Associated Student Body (A. S. B.) Council to represent student athletics concerns before the council.  Bill Ellis was the senior representative with the same assignment.  This Eastern student governing body had several constitutional amendments pertaining to Homecoming that were ratified by the student body.  Also, an old tradition of exchanging programs with other colleges was reinstated.  This current year, Eastern, under the sponsorship of A.S.B., exchanged talent shows with Whitworth College.

The R.O.T.C. functioned in its second year on the Eastern campus.  A Sponsor Corps, an auxiliary of the local cadet-training unit, made up of females was established this year.  All young men were encouraged to join the cadet training resulting in various benefits and advanced placement upon entering the service.  After my experience in Spokane draft screening which resulted in a 4F classification, I had no interest in getting involved with R.O.T.C. but many of the students did and the program became an integral part of the college.

My roommate group hadn’t change from last year.  We chummed and explored new venues.  Tom had a car and as long as we would keep him in gas money he was ready to go.  Some days we would drive around looking for bottles we could turn in for deposits.  On poor days of hunting we made enough to pay for the gas used in the search.  Occasionally we would discovered a drinking party site and made expenses plus on bottle deposits.

We liked going to grange dances on weekends.  The local grange wasn’t far from the campus, nestled in the scrubby pine trees that grew in the area.  The crowd was a cross section of college kids and local residents.  The music was good and I got up nerve to dance.  I think it was being among strangers that made it seem less embarrassing if you were turned down occasionally.  It helped me feel more confident about dancing at the college on Wednesday mixer nights.

*Taken from "Which Road Should I Follow?, Volume 1, Growing up in the country", an autobiography by Edwin K. Hill.