IT WAS A GOOD SCHOOL YEAR chapter 67

IT WAS A GOOD SCHOOL YEAR chapter 67

For the life of me I cannot remember what class officers did. I think we lead prayer meeting? Maybe! I was one and I remember planning something with Betty, but 50 years is a long way to stretch back. I remember more about Student Council. Mel was Student Body president and in those meetings I learned that I like red licorice. It seems like we ate those red sticks at almost every meeting.

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“This has been the year of the Suggestion Box. What has made the difference? Id the Suggest Box new? Is it larger? Is it painted bright orange? Is ours a revolutionary student body? No, the reason for the year of the Suggest Box is a Student Council, which acted on the suggestions. As each Council member chewed his stick of licorice, notes placed in the Suggestion Box were read and actively considered. The Suggestion Box is not new; it has been in the hall beside the girls’ mailboxes for years, but this year suggestions submitted received action.

“Suggestions were not the only matters the Council acted on. It had been several years since CBC h ad a sweater it could call its own. This year, our Student Council placed orders for a white sweater with gold and blue arm stripes and designed a new CBC crest especially for them.

“We will not forget the morning a sign was placed before the Chapel door: ‘If you must talk, whisper a prayer.’ The Calendar listed it as a Student Council Chapel. Little did we know that this would be a Chapel period, which drew us very close to the One who was hanged on a cross for us.

“Our officers have made a permanent impression on the student life of Canadian Bible College. We recognize the benefits we have received because our representatives formed a Council, which was not afraid to work.” Marg, yearbook editor

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I posted a photo of me painting a banner for Youth Conference the previous year. I stand corrected. That banner was for YC this school year. I get so confused. I know I got quit involved in art projects: posters, banners, and signs. I even enjoyed having the high school kids in the room. I knew what was going on this year and I didn’t have a clue last year.

Only upperclassmen served on the Youth Conference planning committee. I couldn’t be there but got as involved as possible. I loved the way the committee functioned. The committee planned with Miss A and they lead subcommittees. We were learning by doing. I don’t remember the committee where I worked, but I dug deep to do all I could. It is my understanding that the Youth Conference concept was Miss A’s idea. It wasn’t many years before the CBC Youth Conference was attracting future students so the Youth Conference idea spread to most colleges in Western Canada and some in the USA.  I don’t know how it was at other schools, but at CBC the students ran the program.

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“The Youth Conference Master Planning Committee will meet January 12 at 9:00 p.m.

“We would like the student body to help us brainstorm. We are finding it difficult to get team names, which will tie in with the Youth Conference theme.

“There4 will be a meeting of all Youth Conference Group leaders in Classroom A at 4:00 p.m. today.

“Will all those assisting wit visual aids please meet in classroom B right after dinner.

“The North American Prayer Band will be praying for Youth Conference today.

“All banners and name tags must be into the Registrati0on Committee by noon Saturday,

“ Mr. Johnstone needs help hauling mattresses from the RCMP barracks for Youth Conference.

“If anyone has suggestions for mixers for the initiation party for Youth Conference, please hand them to Miss A.

“A list of gratis responsibilities for the week f Youth Conference will be posted on the bulletin board today. Please check it to see what you are to do.

“Skit rehearsals will be held all evening in the dining hall.”

“For weeks before Youth Conference, dinner announcements are almost entirely taken up with Youth Conference. Everything takes second place to Youth Conference. Assignments pile up. Rooms become untidy. Halls are hectic. Banners must be designed. Names take must be made. Bible Studies are planned. Tours are arranged. Sports are scheduled. The school is cleaned. Extra mattresses are moved into each dormitory room. Classrooms are converted into dormitories. Collapsible tables and folding benches replace dining room tables. Group meeting places are determined. General chaos prevails.

“All this is part of preparation for the annual Youth Conference held on the campus of Canadian Bible College during Easter Vacation. Young people of High School age come from all over Western Canada. For many delegates, it is their first visit to the college. For others, it is their most important visit for; here many young people have a contact with the Lord Jesus Christ, which leads them to look at the cross before deciding what they will do after High School.

“Youth Conference is hand work and at times we wonder if it is worth the effort, but these doubts are short lived when we see young people meet out Saviour, the Christ of the cross.” Marg. Yearbook editor

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I think it was this year that some guys soaked Roy’s mattress with a lavender perfume. My room was half a dorm away and you could smell the scent of his room from the end of the dorm to the middle. He couldn’t go anywhere for the rest of his time at CBC without everyone knowing he was coming before you ever saw him. The smell would not go away. Maybe that’s why he didn’t finish the school year. I missed him. He was a lot of fun.

The closer we got to the end of the school year, the more passionate my roommate became for ministry. He wanted to quit school and get out there and start preaching. Two more years of school didn’t make sense to him. He did finish school and returned to his home area. I lost track of him but heard he did start a church. I hope it went well. I never heard. I think I heard that he ultimately went back to farming. He taught me much about passion. I wanted him to return to school. He was a terrific guy..

Garth was also a very good friend. We hung out a lot. I got to know his parents very well and his sister Karen. Great family. Made me feel like I belonged.  His mom was a nurse at the big Sears distribution center in Regina. I asked about the most unusual situation she had ever encountered. She had been called to a women’s restroom to see if she could help a woman who was in a stall screaming. Virginia was over weight and slightly slow. When the nurse finally got her to open the stall door, she found Virginia pointing in the toilet and screaming. There was a baby in the toilet. She rescued the baby and got him stabilized and then took care of Virginia. Virginia didn’t know she was pregnant. I guess it is more common that I thought, at least today, but I didn’t know how any woman could not know she was pregnant.

Garth and I were on the same wavelength; He kept me from taking the law of the school too seriously. We laughed about almost every thing. You could not tell it by this picture, but life was good. I saw Garth after graduation in Vancouver a few times. We write and then it drifted off. When I returned to CBC to teach, I looked up the family. His mother told me had passed away. I was very sad.

THE ENTERTIANERS chapter 66

       Shortly after the Halloween Party I asked Franklin if he wanted to do a skit with me. We really hit is off as friends and comedians. At times it was like we could read one another’s minds. Ideas flowed. Writing was easy and quick. One concept blended right into the next and a pattern was set. Scripts were rarely written word for word. It was idea upon idea with a basic concept and plenty of adlibbing.  Then, we did do a lot wordless skits with several were based on the Three Stooges. Franklin and I were the consistent characters and Dean was normally the third, but I have this on photo when Al is with us. Strangely, it is the only photo I have of any skit. If anyone has any others, I would love copies. We often had help. Bruce was our sound effects guy and Mel played the piano to create the effect of a silent movie.

This skit has the whipped cream pie and you can see splatter in the back.

We also used water and one bucket had confetti to throw on the people. 

Our collarless shirts just had the collars turned inside.

Franklin, myself, and Al.

We did a lot with props, very messy props. We loved cream pies (whipped cream only – they splatter better) and water gags. We did this thing with what appeared to be a bucket of water. One would chase the other and throw it out over the audience. They ducked, they screamed, they laughed. Somewhere along the way, we would cry over our failure, problems, or whatever. That single act got great laughs and ended up being a regular part of almost every skit. All we had to do was make the face as though we were going to cry and the laugher began. It seems silly as I write it now, but it always worked

One skit we did at youth conference was the Egyptian Mummy with Miss A as the mummy.  We made a cardboard esophagus with a bowed front door so we could stuff a pile of things behind Miss A. It was rolled into place on a dolly. We built shelves in it and hangers from the roof so that we could tuck things and hang things and hopefully the audience would wonder where on earth we were getting all this stuff. 

We borrowed camping furniture--stools etc. from Mrs. Martin.  Things were very old and rotten, and as we each sat on the stools they began to rip giving us conniptions wondering how we would face Mrs. Martin. Not to be off set by an unseen development, we improvised. During pauses we spoke to each other under our breath--Franklin said, "Dean your stool is ripping---just remain in a seated position and take your weight off the stool."  We all sat there for a good length of time looking as though we were sitting on the stools, but actually sitting in mid air with strained and exhausted legs.

 In another skit we were dressed like old timers with our hair parted and plastered down in the middle. We used Butch Wax to get the hair to stay where it belonged. It was like adding concrete to our heads. We had to wash our hair over and over and over to get that stuff out. This was done in the dinning room. I came alone the wall from the kitchen and Franklin came along the wall from the girl's dorm side hallway. When we got to the corner we would each stick the tips of our fingers around the edge of the wall, so we each could tell when the other was there.  We then counted after the last person's fingers appeared as we slowly came forward, looked around the corner at the exact same time, stared at each other and were frightened. People thought it was a riot and wondered how we did it. I have just revealed a trade secret of a once wanna be stunt man. 

We also were asked to arrange the farewell chapel for the departure of Miss Shattuck Rev. Willoughy----and Mr. Morden

 Marg played Miss Shattuck who did a take-off her telling the story about her driving a car when it slid on the ice.  She used a book, and demonstrated in mid air how the car slid.  The whole thing was in the form of a trial--judge, prosecutor etc. 

We had Mr. Willoughy standing in the center of the stage, and proclaiming him guilty of more things than I can remember. He was to be hanged. The chapel screen was lowered to within reaching distance and had a noose hidden, attached and lying on top of the support board. When the screen was then jerked up suddenly the noose dropped to slightly above Rev. Willoughby’s face. Mr. Willoughby made a big production of going "gulp!!!"  It brought the house down. 

We did a skit in the lounge of the Ad Bldg. It was a whipped cream pie venture. We put some paper on the wall because Mr. Johnstone was very fussy about the buildings.  It was a precaution in case any cream flew through the air and hit the wall. Well the cream did fly, and it soaked right through the newspaper and there were large oil marks on the wall. We almost died because we didn't know how we would face Mr. Johnstone.  The next morning Franklin went straight to his office to confess.  He did so along with appropriate embarrassed mannerisms and a bowed head, Mr. Johnstone said, "Franklin!  These walls were made for the enjoyment of the students and things like that happen---its OK!"  Go figure?

At a youth conference we did a skit to get back at Rev. Willoughby who was the speaker, and Gordon Fowler who was the MC. They stayed in the lower floor room of the men’s dorm just off the ping-pong room. We snuck in and stole their toothbrushes. In the skit we addressed something we had that was just terrible.  We brought it out of a paper bag, all the while shielding it from the audience. We looked strangely at the brushes, shuddered, faked a near vomit, and then revealed the toothbrush---we identified the owners and said,  "I always wondered where the yellow went----!!!!!"  

Our skits were so funny and so well liked that people started laughing the minute they knew we were going to do a skit.  We didn't have to be worried, they laughed like crazy at everything we said or did. I always wanted Roy at each performance. He had a loud guffaw and his presence was like priming the pump. It we weren’t connecting, his laughter would bring the crowd along anyway.

That’s the way Franklin remembers it. And I’m glad he did. I remembered as he reminded me and the stories are all familiar. I really needed his memory on this. I only remember that we did skits.

SATURDAY NIGHTS chapter 65

Every Saturday night in the last hour (maybe half hour) before curfew there was a school wide social. A variety of things happened. At times it seemed to be a talent show. There was music, skits, and a lot of sitting around talking while eating cinnamon toast and drinking hot chocolate. The event was usually held in the student lounge located just outside the chapel.

Glen, Al, Murray, Roy, Don (my roommate), Harold, Eugene

There were times we met for hot chocolate after hockey games. Personally, I had never heard of hockey or seen a hockey game until I got to CBC. I went to my first game this year, I felt obligated as my roommate played. The team was good. I admit I was surprised that these nice, kind and sometimes sweet Christian boys could turn into such nasty, ruthless, killing machines when they put on a uniform and took a stick onto the ice. They knew how to use that weapon. And I thought football could be violent. It looked like ballet in comparison. In time I really got into the game. Della’s mother was an avid fan and she was sweet and gentle Christian lady sitting in front of her TV asking them to kill their opponent. Makes me laugh now.

The social committee sponsored some banquets through the years. I don’t remember them all, but there was definitely a Christmas banquet. I think this year it was held in a church fellowship hall, but at times restaurants were rented. There was also a banquet the juniors put on for the seniors. I didn’t qualify this year.

Somewhere along the way, Franklin and I became somewhat regular entertainers. We did a lot of Saturday night skits, and seemed to do them for plenty of other events. We promoted things, advertized things and said farewell through skits. For some reason, the ideas rolled out and we easily wrote together. Admittedly we stole a lot of material from the Three Stooges. This was a big part of the year for me, so that will be the next chapter.

1.     Norm getting something to eat. The normal Saturday night snack was cinnamon toast and hot chocolate.

2.     Ken and a skit about jumping off a building.

3.     Ron S. Don, Ron G. Nelson and I think the same skit about jumping off a building.

4.     Most likely a social night with a group sitting and eating.

5.     Shopping at Tuck Shop. Don’t know if Della is working this shift. She worked afternoons and we met and ate red licorice at the night session.

6.     Looks like more hot chocolate.

7.     A banquet. I worked on the backdrop (sorry, it is was artistic, I seemed to have had my hand in it that year). Don’t know the first guy in the left, but next is Mel (Student Body President), Dr. Martin, Mrs. Bartel, Mr. Morden, Mrs. Rose, Rev. Orthner.

8.     Mike looks like he was inspecting the dishes. Someone needed to. Dishes were cleaned with bleach and coffee tasted like bleach. The horrors of plastic.

9.     Nelson and Brandon washing dishes.

10.  Rev. Willoughby and Rev. Downey washing dishes.

HALLOWEEN chapter 64

I loved being involved with planning the Halloween party. My first experience at helping to plan anything of any size was also a Halloween Party. This event would never have happened without my first roommate Doug. He was no longer a student and I can’t remember whether he attended on not. He should have.

The big job was cleaning the barn so it would be useable for the barn party. Several groups worked over many days scraping, shoveling, sweeping and getting the mess out. As I recall there were plenty of hay bales there. We stacked them around the sides for seating, broke some up and spread the straw on the floor to cover what we couldn’t scrap off. Once cleaned and lighted the barn with the assistance of a generator, we moved inside to create a tunnel of horror maze people had to walk through to get upstairs. It was the best we could do for a haunted house.

There were tunnels to walk through, tunnels to crawl through, squishy things hands pressed against, threads that tickled the face, dark stairs to climb and things I can’t remember. Probably we had someone grabbing ankles at they climbed the stairs.

The Tuck Shop girl and I were talking much more. We were both working with the social committee getting the party together which meant we saw each other more. I worked on constructing the tunnel and she was hanging thread. There was always a crew around working on something.

(She would never forgive me for posting this photo, but it's the only one I have of her at Tuck Shop and that's how we met.)

1.            The Halloween band. They played great hoedown music and we could tap and clap, but not dance. Shucks!

2.            Don’t know about the nose deal with Ron G. and Ray.

3.            One of the many skits with Vi and Mel.

4.            Vi is letting Mel have it over something.

5.            Clyde and Steve in some blackface skit. That could not happen today. I can’t remember the idea behind it, but at the end we rolled toward the center where a blanket covered a hole to the main floor and dropped through it.

6.            The party poster. It looks like my work, but how would I know. That was 50 years ago.

7.            The quartet: Jim, Dean, Gene and Ron S..

8.            Betty and Gene singing with Jim playing.

9.            Linda in her own skit. It not mistaken she was acting as Mr. Johnstone driving somewhere.

10.         Bob and Miss. A. She was always game for s skit and always funny.

As always corrections or additions to this information are always appreciated.

The beauty of all the skits was that everyone wrote their own scripts and that always added to the humor. Lots of spontaneity.

To this event I escorted Della on out first official date. It was definitely one to remember. We went together and came back together. While there we both had a lot to do to keep the party moving and we barely even saw one another. We should have known that it would become the story of our loves, but we were young, naive, and deeply in like. Thus began many dates of short talks and red licorice. We couldn’t have long talks. That was against the rules. It might have been better to remain friends.

MY FRESHMAN YEAR chapter 63

My freshman year was a tad different than most freshmen.                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                  `I already knew most of the upperclassmen. I felt at home immediately. That is, as much at home as one can feel in a used lumber built dorm.

I decided to get involved in more than academics. I volunteered to work on the yearbook and loved the opportunity to work on the layout with Eric. The entire crew was so much fun. We got work done, but laughter prevailed. Garth was becoming a very good friend. He was another local boy and I began to get many invites to his home for those great home cooked meals. Marg was the editor who at times had to get control of the laughter with her whip to get us back on track. She was a terrific leader and she could spell. That has always been a problem for me and it even shows up in this blog. Sorry!

One of the things we wanted was to deviate from the small selection of standard covers. We wanted something personal. So we selected a cover with a bid more printing space for the name to include a small graphic. The guidelines for how graphics could be done were restrictive and both Eric and I chafed under the rules. We wanted more freedom, but did the best we could with what was allowed. There seemed to always be a page each year jammed with candid shoots, but only one. This is ours.

Student council is elected each fall, except for the freshmen officers. I even wondered this at the time, why are all class presidents guys and all vice presidents girls? Maybe it is still the same. I was elected president, most likely because more upper classmen knew me. Betty (a married student) became vice president. From what I understand it was the first time both class officers were Americans. Not only did Betty and I work together, she and her husband lived in the room directly below Don and I. We could hear just about everything. Betty was a giggler. One of the most smiling and genuinely happy people I have known. We could hear her laughing often. We could hear some of their little quarrels and we could hear other things. If I came into the room and Don was giggling, it was usually because our downstairs neighbors were doing other things.

Don and I had a great deal of fun. Appliances were forbidden in the dorm rooms and we often wanted a late night snack. Of course we had the over the counter snacks everyone had, but we really wanted to cook. It took some creativity, but we learned to fry an egg on the bottom of an iron. First, wedge the handle between the bed frame and a board. Set the iron on its highest setting, and then place a thin aluminum pie pan on the bottom of the iron. Finally crack an egg in the pan and twenty minutes later you could have a fried egg sandwich. I know it took a long time, but we were trying to learn patience. This helped.

After becoming an elected officer I had the opportunity to work with the already appointed activities committee. They were looking for a barn in which to hold a Halloween party, Doug was the man. I got hold of him and he took me to check out a few options. We found one not being used and the farmer agreed to make it available. All we had to do was clean the garbage out, scrape out the do-do, and find a way to light it. Doug helped out there as well. He found a generator and set it up. I told you he was an electrical genius.

Before the cleaning and the Halloween party came about, I had had many talks with the Tuck Shop girl. I knew she did not want the relationship she was trying to escape. Milk was something that we had to buy extra at meals and he would send he one to her quite often. She would send them back and he continued to persist. At one point he felt like if she just went out with someone else she might see that he was the one for her. I volunteered for the assignment. However, I did tell him that if she showed any interest, I planned to pursue the relationship. She and I were talking together quite often by this time. Since she was the junior class vice president we both served on Student Council. As it turned out, we were both helping with the social committee. So I asked her to the Halloween party as our first official date.

BACK TO CANADA chapter 62

I had been praying long about where the money would come from to return to Regina. I did what I did as a kid. I went looking for scrap metal to sell. I knew it wouldn’t be much, but it helped. I visited Kinney shoes to see my old friends and got a few days work for the back to school rush. I was able to take that job because my original plans for returning had been canceled.

I had been exchanging letters with an Ontario girl though the summer. I returned home from camp to a “Dear Clyde” letter. It was over. There was no one else, but it was not going to work out between us so I should not bother driving out to Ontario to bring her back to school. This was my first experience as the dumpee. I think I was suppose to feel terrible, but it gave me more time at home and a greater chance to get some money together. I also pulled out my yearbook just to see if there might be someone returning that I might be interested in dating. There was. The only question was whether that same guy was still pursuing her and how she now felt about him.

Doing the last month at home I saw Al and his family several times. We talked once again about the strange way Al and I ended up in Canada. When I went, I felt like I was the tag along, but God was at work.

The information about the college came to their house addressed to Al’s younger sister, Becky. No one ever knew why it came or how their address had been tagged. Al looked it over and decided he would like to spend a semester at a Bible School and Canada sounded interesting. It was only a couple of weeks before he was scheduled to leave when I attached myself to the deal. None of it seemed weird at the time, but we began to put meaning to it all.

As Al had planned, he was not returning to Canada. So why was I going it alone? I had changed drastically. For the first time in my life I was able to launch out on my own. I didn’t know why the pull, but I just felt like I should go back for another year. His parents saw the hand of God. Al’s primary purpose in going was to get me there. I would not have gone alone to any Bible College and certainly not to Canada. It was beginning to appear that God wanted me there and blessed me with this family in my life to get my off my rear and moving toward his will. They also blessed me with some money. They had collected some money from a few friends to help me on my way.

My dad was the one who blew me away. I had decided I would leave my car at home and leave it here for when I returned. But he said, he would make the payments and I was to take the car to Canada. He believed I would be graduating from the school. I wasn’t even sure of that. He was so proud that one of his seven kids was heading to a Bible college that he was going to do all he could make that possible.

I left with enough for the school year, a car to drive, enough for gas and survival money. It was going to be a good year.

With the Ontario drive canceled and me working right up until the Saturday before schools began, I contacted my friend Roy in Winnipeg and made arrangements to collect him on the way to Regina. Winnipeg is due north of Omaha. I arrived at Roy’s apartment while he was out. His roommate met me and Roy arrived a few minutes later. He came in with a few cuts on his hands and face. They were minor but there were several. He had been at the bank getting money he needed when instead of walking through the full glass door he walked through the plate glass window and it all came crashing down around him. It was a miracle he was not seriously hurt. He didn’t even need Band-Aids.

Be were both booked on the first floor of the dorm. Roy was at the end of the hall near Forth Avenue and I was right across from the restroom. My new roommate was already there. Don was a farm boy from Alberta. We connected immediately. But I was also interested in seeing who returned so wandered the halls to check out the rooms. It was good to see old friends. I looked for Franklin. We began getting to know one another on choir tour when I took a carload on a little day excursion to "Silver Star Mountain" or some similar type name near Vernon BC, to see the snow.

The first day Tuck Shop was open I had to see if the same girl was working there. She was. I was glad. Was the boyfriends still around? He was.

GOING HOME chapter 61

Everyone told me I should swing by Wascana before going home. That is the man made lake in front of the Saskatchewan Parliament. Wow! Beautiful. School should have begun in spring and concluded in fall when Regina shines its brightest. Of course, no one would have never studied as they would have wanted to be outside all the time. If not there in winter, what would have happened to the hockey team?

While I was anxious to get home, the shortest route, but not necessarily the fastest, was through the Black Hills. I had to see the heads of the presidents carved on the mountain. It is magnificent. The years and skill are astounding. Naturally I took some time to see some other sites in the area. I visited Rockerville, So. Dakota, one of the first placer mining camps in the area. It would have looked like a ghost town if not for all the souvenir stores.

I got home on a Saturday and could hardly wait to see my friends on Sunday and hang out with them that evening. We went out to eat after church and I was trying to hang on to the end. I did not feel well. I ate very little and threw it up when I got home.  During the night I was in excruciating pain. It was so bad mom called the doctor who came right over (yes, our doctor made house calls). He took one look at me curled up in a knot on the bed, touched just below my stomach and made a call to the hospital. I was rushed in a couple of hours later, processed and had surgery for a nearly ruptured appendix by 7:00 a.m. That was Monday morning. I was due to begin work that very day. I had mom call and tell them what happened.

I lost my job. My recovery time was scheduled to talk longer than they could wait for. I was heart broken and had no idea how I was going to earn enough to return to school.

My friends came to visit me in the hospital and torment me just to delay the healing. Every laugh felt like another rip to my incision. As I lay there I was trying to figure out what I would do. No bending. Selling shoes included hundreds of deep knee bends a day. Doc said that would be too much strain. I was trying to learn to trust God. This was about to be my first big test.

After I was out a few days, I was over to visit Al. While there his mom and dad encouraged me being a counselor at Rivercrest Bible Camp near Fremont, Nebraska. I knew nothing about being a camp counselor. I had only gone to one as a little kid and I didn’t like it.  Al’s parents were quite involved in the camp, maybe even on the board. They didn’t put great pressure on me, but they certainly were extolling the virtues of Rivercrest.

What else was I going to do? Walking was still somewhat painful but I could get around. I knew it would be awhile before I could chase any kids around. I wasn’t going to be playing any baseball or running any races. Besides, they assured me that God would provide. I knew that was possible, but didn’t know how it worked. In the end I went because I didn’t want to be sitting around the house.

It ended as a good experience. I had some trouble getting the guys to settle down at night but one the other guy counselor said he had no trouble. All he did was get them in bed and then pray around the world for everyone he know and every missionary and every country until they fell asleep. I loved it. It worked perfectly. There were some who tried to sneak out at night, not to meet girls – they were too young, but simply because it was the thing to do. No one got by me. I pulled my bed out just enough so that the door could not be opened without hitting my bed.

The camp was typically flat land Nebraska, but it sat on (I believe), the Platte River which was a cool place to look for snakes, frogs and all kinds of bugs. My guys loved that. I just wish I knew more about snakes. They made me nervous. But I had some little kid who considered himself an expert on Nebraska snakes and seemed to know the poisonous ones from the non-poisonous ones. There were none he would not handle.

I met a very unique guy at camp who was doing chalk art for the kids. He wasn’t much older than me, but he had set out going from one small town to another conducting Vacation Bible Schools. He did no advance planning and made no advance contacts. He would simply go into a small place, find a church or open family, explain that he would love to hold a VBS if they would be willing to have him. All he asked in return was a place to sleep and a home to feed him. He got a small offering for gas at times and all his needs were met. He had no concern for numbers and did it because the places he went could not likely do it for themselves. He amazed me. He would get a crowds of 15-25 simply by setting out his sign Announcing “VBS Tuesday to Fridays.” He could change the days to whatever time frame available.

He told a story of kicking around the Ozarks in the back hills the previous summer. He pulled into a small place with no church, but met a family that liked what he wanted to do and put him up for the night. They lived in a one-room cabin with blankets hanging on ropes to create rooms. The family all moved behind one blanket to give him the privacy of his own corner. Plumbing was down the path out back.

They fixed squirrel stew one night. It was served in the pot in which it was cooked. Each one had a bowl that they dipped in the pot to get their serving. When he took his bowl out, he had gotten the skull. He had no idea what to do. He picked off what little meat there was and ate the rest. When the meal was over he was asked if he liked the meal. He told them he did. “Why, then, didn’t you eat the skull? It’s the best part.” He explained that he ate all the meat he could find. “But you are suppose to crack the skull and eat the brain. Next time he would know.

He asked if I would like to go do 2-3 VBS’s with him after camp. That sounded interesting and I wanted to see what he was doing with his art. He was a very good chalk artist and I wanted to learn more about that art. One of our stops was in the hometown of Al’s mom. Can’t remember the name of the pace.

Between camps and VBS I did not get back to Omaha until August. Now my work was cut out to get enough money to return to school. I still had some left, but it wasn’t enough. Then there were car payments.