Small College Advantages - Part D 1955-1956

This is the last of a series of five postings. If you haven’t read the previous four, please do so now before reading this story.

D. Senior Year 1955-1956

The summer of 1955 up to July 22nd was spent working full time (wasn’t I already doing that?) at the book store. I took my earned vacation and drove back to Kansas City to be married. I left on a Friday night after work and drove continuously until I could no longer see straight. Stopped in Kansas for a three hour nap and continued on to Kansas City. It’s a wonder I got there at all. But we do crazy things sometimes and this I can chalk up to one of those.

Dick & Ann Moore - Married July 22, 1955 in Kansas City, Missouri

After the wedding, we spent our honeymoon driving back to California by way of Colorado. When we arrived back home in Pasadena, we began our life in a duplex at the corner of Carmelo and White. This was owned by one of the teachers at the college and Ann’s traveling sponsor/speaker the previous summer. The duplex was furnished and water paid. It had a kitchen (small), living room, bedroom, and bath. No garage. But it was home to us and we loved it. Paid $45 a month which was a lot considering I made $200 gross a month.

Dick Moore standing at the door of our duplex on Carmelo in Pasadena, CA.

Ann Moore at our front door of the duplex 1956

Ann had a job lined up to work for an insurance company office to help support as I continued to work at the book store. Well, she actually worked for one half a day! Came home very sick and was unable to return to work. Seems that she was pregnant with Ricky and for the next 3 months was too sick to do much of anything. So our married life is off and running at a much slower pace than we had planned. We thought I would be making $200 a month at the book store and she would be making $200 a month at the insurance agency. Now that is cut in half and an addition to the family was going to make an appearance within a few months.

I was in my senior year of college and taking 16 units to complete my studies for graduation. With a very sick wife and a baby coming, my thought went to supporting my family instead of finishing college. Ann’s parents, Robert and Mildred Edwards, came to our aid and told me they would pay the last year’s tuition if I would work and support the family. So that is how I was able to make it financially through my last year of college. We will be forever grateful to them for helping us get through this difficult year.

To me, college was my passport to the future and I needed to complete that if I was ever going to accomplish anything in this life. With taking a full load of studies and working full time as well, this left little time to be a part of the college community. I was not in sports or any clubs. I was living off campus and had little time to socialize outside of our home.

Dave Cole had a part time job of music minister at Central Church of the Nazarene in Pasadena. He got three other guys and a piano player forming a church quartet that sang every Sunday evening. I was the bass and Dave was the first tenor. Each of the guys (except Dave) were paid $5 a week for that one song. Dave got more since he was in charge of the entire music program. The $5 came in very handy and we enjoyed singing together.

My yearbook that year had no signatures or comments written by other school attendees. Apparently I didn’t have time to stick around after I got the book. Since I lived off campus and was married with a child here at the time the book was available, I had things to do that didn’t include finding people to sign my book. I regret that I didn’t get any but that’s life.

My sister, Faye, was a freshman this year at PNC. She appeared in three pictures in the yearbook other than her class picture for activities she was in. She was at the school only one year, my senior year. She attended Whittier College but didn’t graduate. Ann appeared in one of the pictures of the crowd at a basketball game. I was sitting next to her but wasn’t in the picture. Ann was wearing maternity clothes. I just had my senior class picture in the book. At this point I was ready to move on.

Richard Robert Moore born in Pasadena, California. Picture taken in hospital.

On April 10, 1956, our family grew by one with the addition of Richard Robert Moore. This was two months before my graduation. I attended the Senior Retreat in Big Bear as my last social contact with the college students before graduation.
Graduation Day picture of Dick Moore June 1956

Attending and graduating from Pasadena Nazarene College was a highpoint of my life. I met many friends that have become life long friends. Being in the Nazarene church for many years and singing in the Watchmen Gospel Quartet in Nazarene churches, brought me in contact with many of the people I knew at college. Last year I wrote an article about what my freshman year was compared to my granddaughter Emily’s 55 years later. You can read that article here.

Through the years we have attended a number of class reunions held at Point Loma Nazarene University in San Diego. The first one was our 25th. Other reunions were the 30th, 35th, 45th, and the big one - 50th. In November 2006, Dave and Marlene Cole and Dick and Ann Moore attended together the Golden Anniversary of Dick & Dave’s graduation. There were 27 of the 111 in the graduating class of 1956 that attended. It was great to see them again and remember “The Good Old Days” of college. Many of these people had changed so much they didn’t even recognize me!

Here are some pictures from the 50th College Graduation Anniversary held in 2006.

Old Friends - Dick Moore and Dave Cole. Spent four years in college together and a lifetime keeping in touch with each other's families.

Dick Moore, Ross Irwin and Lyle Pritchard. Ross was very active with the college alumni.

Dave Cole, Keith & Sheila Holly. Sheila was still working for the university then.

Dave & Mert Jones. Dave was a member of the Shoremen Quartet from Long Beach for many years. Mert was my first date in my freshman year and a regular at our morning breakfast.

Years ago the alumni sold bricks for the "Alumni Walk" with your name and year of graduation. Here's mine.

Thanks for coming along with me on this memory tour of my college days. Hope you enjoyed reading these postings.

Small College Advantages

First of all, let me tell you that I am not a student -- wasn’t interested in school and unfortunately only did what I needed to do to get through. Southeast High School in Kansas City, Missouri wasn’t very interesting to me. I had moved there in 1949 leaving my small town of Celina, Ohio behind. I wasn’t involved in any activities or sports. Most of the time I had a job and that fulfilled my life. So I wasn’t known on campus by many kids.

To add to that, I wasn’t interested in going to college either. However, Uncle Sam was involved in a conflict in Korea and was drafting guys when they turned 18 years of age. That definitely didn’t interest me. The government would exempt anyone who went to college and maintained a “C” average. I can do that! So I applied to a church related school called Pasadena Nazarene College located in Pasadena, California. I thought going that far away from “home” would make me work harder on my studies. I applied for the draft exemption and left for college in late summer of 1952.

Pasadena Nazarene College probably had 1,200 students in the entire college. We had 200 pictured in our Freshman Class of 1952-1953. Living on campus in the East Dorm helped me get acquainted with guys living there and attending some of the same classes I did. Colleges this size are still available but most of you who attended college did so with a large State University ranging from 8,000 to 20,000 students. Hard to get acquainted with other students and especially with the faculty.

I am going to relate my experiences through the four years in four additional postings writing about what happened in each of the years of college to my graduation in 1956. Of course, this is for my family and college friends. But you can come along on the journey if you like. Might bring back some memories of your college days.

"Same Time, Next Year"

First things first -- today (July 13th) is Ann's birthday! HAPPY BIRTHDAY, ANN!

Eighteen years ago today was a special time we had with our friends, Dave and Marlene Cole. You see, Ann and Marlene were born on the same day -- July 13, 1935. They didn't know each other until they arrived at Pasadena Nazarene College in September 1953. They sang together in a ladies trio/quartet for the college raising money for endowments. The two are like sisters and have been close friends since the day they met.

I wrote a story about that incident 18 years ago and it was published in the company paper at my work in 1990. I was writing a series of articles on "Marriage 101 - How To Keep Your Marriage From Getting Stale!" At that time we had been married for 35 years and now if you would just reverse those numbers you will see that this year we are celebrating our 53rd year together.

Here is the article as written ---

Same Time, Next Year

You probably remember the movie or play of the same title. Well, this story is different, but the outcome was very much the same.

In order to properly set the scene, we have to go back to 1952. That is the year I left Missouri and came west to California to attend Pasadena Nazarene College. (The college has been relocated to Point Loma in San Diego since I attended there.) In my freshman class was a guy from El Paso, Texas, named Dave Cole. We knew each other but didn't become friends until the next year when our respective spouses-to-be came to the college as well.

Marlene Webb and Ann Edwards started with the new freshman class of 1953. This college had singing groups that traveled representing the college to help raise money for its needs. Those traveling in one of the groups would have their tuition, room and board paid the following semester. Ann and Marlene traveled together in a ladies trio/quartet over the next two years and became close friends. Dave also traveled in a male quartet and became acquainted with Marlene. I knew Ann since we both came from Kansas City living 1 1/2 blocks from each other. We attended the same high school and church.

Well, in June 1955, Dave and Marlene were married. In July of the same year Ann and I were married. We have been close friends these last 35 years (ed note- now 53) and seeing each other when possible. The Coles live in Yuba City where he is superintendent of schools, and distance doesn't allow frequent contact, but when we are together we don't miss a beat.

An interesting fact is that Marlene and Ann were born on the same day. This year they celebrated their "55th". Earlier this year, the Coles were in Orange County on school business, and Dave called me at work. Our schedules didn't allow us to get together, but we discussed the upcoming birthdays and wanted to do something for them without their knowledge. We came up with the following plan.

Dave called for reservations at the Blue Dolphin Inn on the beach at Cambria, which is 18 miles north of Morro Bay on Highway 1. He told Marlene that they were going away for that weekend. No further details would be given. I sent Ann a "formal" invitation printed on my word processor at home which read:

In honor of your 55th birthday, July 13, 1990, you are invited to a delightful three-day two-night trip by car. Please clear your calendar July 13th, 14th, and 15th. You will love it! No further details will be given until July 13th. Happy Birthday! Love, Dick.

From the time she got it until we left, questions, questions, questions. She pumped the kids who didn't know anything. "Will it be cold or warm"? What do I pack? How long will it take to get there? Have we been there before? I learned to be very evasive in my answers.

On the day we left, I gave her a birthday card. She knew beyond any doubt that the card would divulge where she was going for the weekend. But not even a clue! She had some destinations in mind but started eliminating them as we drove. The traffic through LA slowed us up, so we were behind schedule.

We neared San Luis Obispo, and I told her that it had been a long time since we had been in Morro Bay so we should drive over there. All we did there was to take some video pictures and drive on. Now she was really confused. Up the road a ways we saw a sign about Cambria. Several years ago we stayed at a motel there called Cambria Shores. She said, "Do you remember the little town of Cambria?" I said let's drive through the town and see it again. At the end of town I had to either drive on north on Highway 1 or cross the highway to the frontage road where the motels are located. We drove across. I turned in four motels later at the Blue Dolphin Inn. "Is this where we are staying?" I said, "Yes, but that's only half the story". Now she was really confused! I asked her to stay in the car while I checked in.

Dave and Marlene were in the tearoom, and he saw us drive in. They went for a walk and headed for our car. I heard a scream and saw the two gals flying towards each other. We laughed that entire weekend.

The Inn had an agreement with a local restaurant called Stratos to come and pick you up in a limousine. I made reservations for 7:00 p.m. and another surprise for the gals. We were driven to dinner in a white stretch Cadillac limo, were made over by the restaurant personnel, and enjoyed a leisurely dinner and a limo ride back to the Inn. What a birthday party! It was something they will never forget.

Limo ride for the Moores and the Coles

Our table for 3 hours at Stratos with the Birthday Girls

The rest of the weekend was spent seeing the area and just being together. Since we used to sing together, we ended our visit Sunday morning on a log by the beach singing for a while. As we parted, both couples said "Same Time Next Year." This will be an annual event.

******************************

We did get together the next year at the same place and did somewhat the same things we did the year before. Different restaurant since Stratos was out of business. The following years we went to different places for our birthday weekend. This went on for a number of years but our schedules sometimes had us missing a year or two. The last time we were together was in November 2006 when we attended the 50th Reunion of our (Dick & Dave) graduation class of 1956 which was held at Point Loma Nazarene University in San Diego. Great times, great memories, great friends.