THE “NEW” CAMPUS chapter 191

Norma Bailey

      When I was a CBC student the hallway from the administration basement to the girls dorm had an apartment on the left and offices on the right. Miss Johnston lived in the apartment. The apartment has been converted to offices and the faculty lounge. Actually the lounge was used for all kinds of meetings. I used to a meet with the Youth Conference Planning committee.

The rest of the space was offices related mostly to Christian education. There were four decent sized offices with space for a small secretarial pool in the front. I was surprised how big the offices were (12x12). Most of my offices in churches were smaller.

In the first year, Bob Rose was in the first office Norma Bailey was next, and then my office was third. I may be wrong, but I don’t believe anyone was in the fourth office. Bob was the chairman of the department. The parties were generally in Norma’s office or in the common area.

There was a new music classroom building and gymnasium. As I recall, the dining room was still under construction. Who knows, maybe the gym was still under construction as well, but it was completed before the year was out.

Bob Rose

The old library was now a classroom. So was the old chapel. It was strange to see it tiered and turned sideways. It was the only space that would hold the freshmen. It just felt weird, but I came to love the space and the dynamic I experienced with freshmen. It also became the primary rehearsal space for the Portrait Players.

If it is true that the dining room was not completed, students were still eating in the pit with the “Tuck Shop” where it was when I left school. When the new dining room opened, the Tuck Shop was relocated to the old dish room and kitchen. Across from Tuck was a very nice bookstore. The rest of the space was turned over to a student lounge. Mailboxes had been moved downstairs to the new lounge,

The school had grown and the expanded space was appropriate. They wanted a chapel, but the money did not stretch that far at that time. Parts of the school were new other parts remodeled. To me it still seemed like the same ‘ole school. The old dorms were still there and they stunk even worse than when I lived in one. I have gone on line to look at the old campus from Google earth. It looks like they are still standing. How can that be? They were near death when I lived in one.

This was my hair length when
I began Biola. Talbot had no
hair length rule so I grew it back.
I'm wearing my $6 sports coat
from my shoe salesman days.

I had the opportunity to walk the entire campus before students arrived. They were still installing desks in the rooms. I had to take another look. I walked over by the desk with the draws not yet inserted. There was an electrical outlet located at the standard height from the floor right where it appeared the drawer would open. I had the sense that once all the electrical gadgets were plugged into a plug expander, one would have to unplug everything just to open the drawer. Maybe that wasn’t a problem. I never heard anyone complain about it. With my limited background in architecture, I wondered why it wasn’t above the desk? That’s where I would have wanted it. Yes, I blame the architect.

Former students of mine were on staff: Ray Matheson was now dean of men, Mel Bowker was in the music department, Richard Reichert was director of athletics, Bob Rose was the chairman of our department, Dorothy Taylor was assistant to the president, Velma Warnock was an assistant cook. In addition were a number of staff and faculty still at the school or ones who have returned. It sort of felt like home.

ADJUSTING chapter 189

One of the Rambo twins, Dave Rambo,
Me with my son Rodney on my shoulders
at a preschool picnic 1974.

There were times I wandered around the school like any new student. I was in awe. Awe that I was there. It was hard to forget my own experience as a CBC student. I was in awe that I was ever asked. I knew the school had changed and loved the fact that I had something to do it with. However, the pain was not yet gone. I was in awe that the school was growing and changing. I was in awe that the college culture was changing. I know there are always students who want more freedom, but it was like a day on the beach in instead of prison. I loved what I was seeing.

The other side of the coin was the fears. I was fearful of dealing with the issues at my house. I shared the painting problem with my house in some of my classes and 10-12 guys volunteered to come paint the place. I honestly didn’t say it to secure help, but was glad it came forward. There was about four feet of space between the house on the east and three feet on the west. Our house sat right on the property line to the west so any painting could only be reached by planting a ladder on the neighbor’s property. 

The high peaks of our house were on the east and west sides, easily three stories high. I had no idea how we would get a ladder in there to reach those points. I borrowed some ladders from maintenance, the boys came and the house was painted in a day. Neither Della nor I could watch the guys climbing to the top of the peaks. Nothing about it looked safe. Even worse was Dave Collins on the roof leaning over to paint the fascia boards and the eves. He was crazy, but got the job done.

Don Graham and his wife became good friends and besides helping with the painting he came back and built a closet in out bedrooms. There were none. I have no skills in construction and he was excellent. He, more than anyone else, helped get our home settled in that first year. He was God’s gift to us.

Della made sure there were snacks and drinks for all our volunteers. She was always the most gifted hostess. She also tried to keep Rhonda off the ladders. She was a climber and wanted to go up and see what was going on. I’m sure she would have gone to the top if we had let her.

As the weather got colder we took out a loan to have the house rewired. Having seen some of the garbage coming out of the walls, we did feel safer when the work was done. The foyer looked the worse so we wallpapered over the plaster and, if I so say so myself - and I do, we made those crooked walls look straight. Miracle.

I was afraid of messing up in class. I relaxed before the end of the year, but those early weeks were tense. There were a number of former youth group members from Saskatoon and Vancouver but I had very few of them in classes. The guys were all in pastoral studies and so I missed the opportunity to have most in classes. The sad part of that was I had I have very little connection to those kids I really loved. All others were strangers. I felt like I was on trial every day and I was trying to read the judgments in their faces.

I felt incompetent compared to my peers. All were experienced teachers and highly admired. Could I ever join their ranks as a knowledgeable and skilled professional? In that first year I often brought a sack lunch and ate in the faculty lounge with several others. I loved Bob Willoughby being there. He made me feel accepted and comfortable, and he had been my highly admired professor. We laughed every day. He talked with the faculty and staff like he did with the students. When he thought he might say something the high muckity-mucks might disapprove he would turn his head from side to side and say, “Shut the door.” I always laughed. The door was always shut.

Time heals all wounds. After a few weeks of classes under my belt I finally began to feel like I belonged. Once adjusted, I loved being there. It was where God had called me and it was a joy. Yes, I had my problems. You will read about them as we go along.

Thanksgiving

Give thanks with a grateful heart!

WHAT I LEARNED TEACHING chapter 188

My urge prayer was always that God would lead me to teach something important. I had already been away from CBC nine years and watched the culture and youth change. Not much, but it had changed, youth executive committees with presidents, etc. were no longer. There was another subtle shift, but full time youth leaders were beginning to step in and take most of the leadership. I wanted to prepare students to deal with change, and hopefully convince them there were to rain up their replacement.

 I always had three goals at the top of my agenda, 1) People are more important than programs, and 2) Be creative with the help and guidance of God. Teaching “how to” can be fun, but may not work as the world turns. 3) Teach leaders to prepare future leaders

In my Intro to CE class I used the prominent text of the day by the LeBar sisters. I agreed with their foundational focus ”The primary focus of Christian education is people not programs. I warned student at the first exam that I would have one question that no one should miss. I wrote it on the board leaving blanks for the two most important words. “The purpose of Christian education is ————— not —————. “ I then filled in the blanks: “people not programs.” I promised it would be on the exam exactly as I wrote it. If they got nothing else right, I wanted them to get this one right. I was always surprised how many missed it. After the first year, I commented in future years about the number who would miss it and amazingly the same percentage missed it every year. Oh well. It’s those kind of things that make teachers want to bang their heads against the wall. How can that happen?

It’s a little premature to discuss what I learned as a Bible college teacher, but all of this was learned half way through the first year. 1) Freshmen know more than seniors. 2) Very few knew that there were two spellings for the word “there” and they didn’t know the there was any difference. “Their” was rarely used. “There” was used for every meaning. Then again, English is a strange language. 3) Far too many students ramble in papers and say nothing and I hated rambling. 3) Far too many spent time telling me what they wanted to do or were going to so and never got around to doing it. Attempting to explain what you were going to do instead of doing it automating dropped a grade. Do it twice in the same paper and you would get dinged another grade. Never saying anything was an “F.” Students get ticked at teachers. Well, teachers get ticked at students. 4) Students that are excited about learning are great fun. 5) The stats about grades corresponding to the location of seat chosen are generally correct. Student choosing to sit near the front get better grades.

I used to see Dr. Dahms in the library searching for plagiarism. I could never bring myself to spend that much time looking for a cheater. Instead, if I suspected plagiarism, I wrote a comment at the bottom and gave the student an “F.” I didn’t use it often, but no one every came into challenge it when I did. “This section appears to be plagiarized. If I am wrong, bring your paper in and we will discuss it.” No one ever came to talk about it. If you are going to steal from a real writer, it had better look and sound like your style. Duh! Honestly, I have no idea what other faculty did. I just did it and probably was hated for it.

It doesn’t take long as a teacher before you get over wanting everyone to like you. You even give up wanting to be friends with them all. When that happens you have a sense of loss, but you do what you gotta do and let the chips fall where they may,

SCHOOL STARTS chapter 187

Like I have said before, I am a very nervous person, but one who does not show those nerves easily. You would think I would remember all the classes I taught and which semester they were taught. I don’t. I dumped those files long ago.

As I write about my days teaching at Canadian Bible College, I know I will mix up years, classes and when certain students attended. None of this is intentional. I was at Canadian Bible College six years and in my mind, all the students I knew were there at the same time. I blame it all on Garry Tollefson. He was with me in Portrait Players five years (four at CBC and one at CTC) and he knew all the Portrait Players, and they knew him. At times that caused me think they all there at the same time. They weren’t.

I was not hired to direct or work with Portrait Players. I knew a drama group had been started the year before and that they had toured. It was student organized and student run. I expected it would continue to be student run. Eugene Neudorf had graduated, but Judy Linnen was still around. I intended to be supportive, but that was it.

I was hired to organize and direct youth conference. I was looking forward to that. At the time it was still an extra circular activity, but by the following year I had managed to move it to a two semester to a credit class. Giving leadership in that program was hard work and very time consuming for all the students. There was a lot to learn in just the process, let alone the creativity — loved that part.

I recall that the first class I walked into was “Introduction to Christian Education.” The first year of teaching is a challenge for any new teacher. I had never taught before and had no idea how I was going to fill sixteen hours a week with 55 minutes of stuff. I had a week to prepare a forty-minute sermon and struggled with that. The most helpful advice I got from my mentor, Norm Wakefield, was to remember that every assignment I handed out would came back to me in multiplied form. When teaching several classes he said, “Do not make all the assignments from all classes due on the same day or you will collapse under the weight of grading papers. Plan in such a way as you can get assignments back within seven days. Remember spacing”

That was what I did. I staggered assignments from class to class. No two classes had written papers due back at the same time. I planned for time to read every paper. Now, if only all the students could write, I would have enjoyed it more.

I was nervous on day one, class one and decided I would just introduce myself to the class and try to get to know them a bit. Naturally the first task is learning names and I lived in fear of my struggle to pronounce some strange names, at least strange to me. Some names were a terrible challenge.  One of the toughest was the Chinese name “Ng.” When I saw that I really didn’t know what to do. There were no vowels. How do you pronounce a name without vowels? The student tried to explain it to me in class and I still could not understand. I asked him to see me after class. He did and worked with me a few minutes. I got it when I finally figured out it was just a sound. At least, that is how I grasp the concept.

I then went over the syllabus. I hated teachers who wanted to trick me in exams by asking the most obscure, insignificant facts they could find just so those questions would be missed buy most. I really wanted to test fundamental knowledge. The things I believed were basic and important would be covered. I hoped they would see it the same way. If everyone got an “A” so be it. Of course, that never happened.

I somehow got through the first day and went home with a loaded briefcase to prepare for the next day. That seemed to happen almost every night for the first year. Della wasn’t so sure that me being a teacher was going to be the best thing for our Marriage. Frankly, neither was I. I seemed to have little time for the family.

WHERE WILL WE LIVE chapter 186

Returning to Regina was certainly different than my first visit nine years earlier. It was beautiful. The city was green and warm. No snow. As a student you rarely got to see how beautiful Regina could be. You come when fall is beginning and winter drops in fast and you leave as the snow is melting and it generally looks dirty.

We needed to turn in the U-Hall ASAP. We were going to drop it off in Montana to save a pile of money. We were already at our return due date and neither of us had any place to live or store our things.

The college offered the use of the basement of the administration building for us to store of things. To me, that was the old dining room. Della didn’t want to do it, as she was concerned about everything we owned being on display for all to see. I saw her point but other options would cost more than we had.

Bill called the morning we were to return the truck and asked if we could hold on one more day. They had a lead on an apartment and hoped to sign a lease that day. So we waited. That afternoon we moved he and his wife into their new apartment. That evening we unloaded the Walker possessions into the college showroom. The next day we drove to Montana.

We spend one more night with the Roses and then Dave Rambo had found a place we could house sit for three weeks. While not excited about house sitting with two preschool kids, we took it and earnestly began our own house search the next day.

We secured the assistance of Pat Richards (fellow student from our days at CBC) as our realtor. We met, talked about our needs and finances. She expressed doubts that anything would be available that we could afford, but said she would see what she could do. We only had $500.

She came back a couple of days latter and said she might have a house. The couple were leaving town in the next week and still had not sold their place. Pat was willing to relinquish her commission and broker a private sale to bring the cost of the house down. There were problems with the house and we would have to take it as is.

We met with Roger Moyer, departing music faculty member at CBC, who made us a deal we could swing. Pat assured us we could not do better anywhere and it may be our only option. We needed $1500 down payment so I called my father to see if they could help. He sent us the extra $1000 needed. Next was a mortgage. That was difficult. After a couple of inspections, The Royal Bank came through with contingencies: 1) the house must be rewired within six months. 2) The house must be painted within six months. It was August. Who knew how soon snow would come.

I had no idea how we would accomplish either one, but we agreed. All we could do was pray.

The deal was finalized before the faculty and staff meetings a week before school began. We secured from some early arriving students to help us move our things and attempted to get settled before school started.

Everything was so hectic that I had to leave some things to Della to do on her own. One of those was getting Rodney registered for kindergarten. It wasn’t a big deal since she was familiar with getting around Regina. She was comfortable moving here. She got him signed up at Connaught Elementary School, just five blocks from our place at 3813 Victoria right across the street from lawn bowling. Did you know that bagpipes preceded every Saturday lawn bowling tournament at 8:00 a.m.? I really appreciated the early morning wake up calls. Felt like I  must be in the RCMP. Groan.

We were semi settled in time for me to figure out what on earth I was doing. Both Dt. Wakefield and Dr. Bynum had a great deal of input on my course outlines — thankfully. I knew all my courses ahead of time, but had one twist that week. Did I have any interest in drama? I guess the powers that be remembered I had written and directed a play as a student, acted in dozens of skits and they may have also found out I wrote a missions play while at University Drive in Saskatoon. Obviously, I had an interest.

BACK TO CANADA chapter 185

It wasn’t until we were making plans to move to Regina that we realized there had been a mistake on the visas of my family. We crossed the border into the United States on September 4, 1972. We were told the visa was good for two years. Not true. The departure date on the visa was August 4.We had to be out of the good old USA by August 4, 1974. That wasn’t a huge problem, as we needed to be in at Canadian Bible College the middle of August. We just had less time than we had hoped for. We set our departure for August 1.

It was going to work out fine. My friend Bill Higgen’s had accepted a position at Hillsdale Alliance Church in Regina and we decided to travel together. He had to be in Regina by the fifteenth of August. Timing could not have been better. We wanted to allow four days for the 28-hour trip 1759-mile drive.

We waited until just after dark on July 31 to begin our trip north. Neither the Higgen’s nor us had air-conditioned cars and we would have to drive through the Nevada desert the first week of August. Well, we didn’t have too, but it was the shortest distance. We decided if we crossed the desert during the night, it would be cooler. Wrong.

We had packed both family goods into one U-Hall truck and left a part of the world we had grown to love. It was hard to leave our friends, but exciting to begin a new adventure.

It was an ordeal getting out of the greater Los Angeles area and onto I-15 to get over the mountains toward Las Vegas. The heat began to be unbearable as soon as we crossed the mountains. We had plenty of water for the car and to drink (if you like warm water). It was late (or early) when we pulled into Las Vegas to fill up with gas. The kids were restless but sleeping. The stop woke them up and they were dripping wet from sweat. I asked the attendant the temperature and he said 120 degrees. I had never been in heat like that before.

We did not stay in Las Vegas. We could see the lights from the by-pass, but that was a close as we got. We filled up with water and pushed on. We passed through the northwest corner of Arizona. The sign told us we were passing the backside of the Grand Canyon. There went another tourist destination we passed up. All we wanted to do was get out of the heat.

My Dodge completely died in southern Utah. It had over heated, but adding water did not help. Bill was driving the U=Hall and towing their car. Neither of us was particularly mechanically inclined, but it certainly sounded like the battery had gave up as well. We unhooked Bill’s car and brought it around to try and jumpstart the Dodge. Bill hooked it up but reversed the cables and burned out his battery (we learned later). Now we had two broken down cars.

Digging out the map we figured we were about 15 miles south of Cedar City. It didn’t appear to be the smallest spot on the road. We decided that Della and the kids would crowd into the truck cab with Bill and Jan get our families out of the heat. I would remain with the Dodge and Bill would send a tow truck.

Bill left our families at a motel near the station sending the tow truck and came back with the drive to get me. It was hooked up and towed to Cedar City. Bill got a new battery but my car had more serious problems. I can’t remember what the problem was, but know they didn’t have the part. It would order the part in the morning and it would be the next day before they could get it delivered. That meant we would not be on the road again until the third of August.

While disappointed, the thought of grabbing some sleep in an air-conditioned motel was very appealing. I crashed and slept most of the day. Remarkably so did the kids. They slept until early afternoon and Della got up with them, got them fed and took them to the pool. They thought that was great.

The Higgen’s met us for supper where we commiserated about our dilemma and had a very relaxing meal. We were back at the pool after supper. The temperature here was in the low 100’s –p much cooler. We were still in the desert and quite a distance yet from Salt Lake City.

My car was repaired by 10:00 and we were off after praying there would be no more delays. Two days later and one more night in a motel we pulled into Regina. There were no more delays and it taught me never to self diagnose any vehicle and never drive through the desert again. When crossing the border the guard said you couldn’t have cut your return to Canada any closer, could you?

It was late when we arrived, but the church had a place for Bill and Jan for the night and we were back with Grandma and Grandpa Rose, then the deans at Canadian Bible College.

Both families we now in the city were we would live indefinitely. We would begin house hunting the next day.