A friend of mine asked
me why I hated the Tide. I replied that I did not truly hate the University of
Alabama, but the anti-Tide attitude rubbed off on me when I became a part of
Auburn. Then the friend asked, “How did you end up at Auburn University anyway?”
I told him to read my next entry here, thus, the following explanation.
When we got out of the
service, my friend Kenneth and I were employed building 400 by 40 foot chicken
houses. One summer when we were doing this, Kenneth started singing in the “Town
and Gown” choir at a nearby college and one Saturday invited me to come along.
The rehearsal was to be that evening but we got to campus in the early
afternoon. He took me over to the music building and introduced me to the choir
director, who noticed my bass voice and said, “I could sure use your voice in
the college choir. I assume you are here for orientation?” I did not know
orientation was going on, but I expressed an interest and left there that day
signed up for courses for fall semester. So did Kenneth.
We did not know how we
were going to make it financially, but that college had ample opportunities for
working such things out and I later found a flexible-hour job at a builder’s
supply. My step-father was a carpenter, so it helped that I knew all the “pennies”
of nails and all the dimensions of lumber. Kenneth and I roomed together in the
cheapest dorm and, like good military veterans, attended all our classes and
studied a reasonable amount.
I honored my commitment
to sing in the college choir and I am so glad I did, for that is where I met my
wife. She was ahead of me in college since I was a late-bloomer veteran and she
was most assuredly ahead of me in musical skills, but we got along very well.
The choir had the great opportunity to sing as the chorus in the opera “Carmen”
in a nearby metropolitan area, and we did most of our courting on the bus and
in the wings of the theater. It did not take us long to form a bond so strong
that it became a lifelong commitment. We got married spring semester and the
dean of men offered us a job as “dorm parents” in one of the men’s residence
halls. The position gave us a spacious apartment, utilities paid, took care of
both our tuition and fees, gave us a discount on books, one meal a day at the
cafeteria and $50 cash per month. We were sitting pretty.
We kept that going
until my wife graduated a year before I did. When she landed a teaching job in
a nearby community, we quit the dorm business and I went to work in the English
department. My senior year, I took the “Graduate Record Examination” and
started looking for a graduate school. Auburn University offered a fellowship
and assistantship possibilities that made graduate school possible, so……War
Eagle!