Ray and college

I found out about this after I married Ray. When he was a senior in High School he wanted to go to college but his parents were not very wealthy and it looked impossible. While I always knew I would go where my parents went--Washburn. When Ray was a senior at Topeka High a representative from Washburn came to talk to the seniors about attending. Washburn was a Congregational college started by the church. They have many in the US. I'm not sure but think they started Yale or Harvard or both. The year before I went Washburn, it was about to close and my mother walked the streets with petitions to get Topeka to buy the school so it would not disappear. However it was not municipal yet when Ray was ready. They offered scholarships to students if they were willing to work on the grounds crew. Ray signed up and was put to work redoing the men's gym. I went to summer camp that year at Washburn and walked through the gym many times to the swimming pool but did not pay any attention that he was waxing the floor. He worked there until it was done and then was sent to wash windows. When he was on a ladder washing a second story window he fell and broke both wrists. He rode the bus home and his mother took him to have them set. It is not easy to do things with two broken wrists. He got a job with the US Post Office riding with someone on a rural route. I don't see how he was help but maybe company. After his wrists mended he went back to the grounds crew. He was able to attend Washburn and I guess in my class although I do not remember him. I remember him first as joining my church's youth group that was run by a history professor, Dr. Bright, from the college. The next story I will tell you is how we started dating.

Tests

I have never been good with direct questions. In school all tests are direct questions. When I was in college I had one teacher who believed that you did not have to have all knowledge in your brain if you knew enough to go look for the answers. In his class I did very well on tests because the textbook lay there for me to use if I needed it. I never needed. It only the knowledge that I could if I wanted to. I'm sorry he only taught one class. My husband said he learned early not to ask me a direct question as I always went blank. I guess that was why when I went to court in an automobile accident I could not remember my name but knew my address.

Shawnee Mission Hospital

Today on the way to church we passed Shawnee Mission Hospital. This is my version of how it came to be. It is huge. When we moved to Kansas City if you were very ill or having a baby you went to Kansas City, Kansas to Providence Hospital. Our family doctor, Dr. Lawrence Leigh, very much wanted a hospital in Johnson County. First Ray got a bill in legislature so we could vote for on. It did not pass. Then he tried a different angle. He talked to Miller Nichols of the J C Nichol's Company and there was a luncheon. I remember that Dr. Leigh had just had all his teeth removed. The other doctor, Dr. Smith, was there and Miller Nichols. Miller Nichols told them he would give them the land but he did not want it in Overland Park. The Doctors talked to the city councils of Merriam and Overland Park and they traded some land so the hospital was in Merriam. I think the Merriam land was near Shawnee Mission North High School. That is why there is more than one high school in Overland Park. Then Nichols gave them the land. We sold bricks to build it. Somewhere I have a brick, I think in what is now the maternity ward. They got the Seventh Day Adventists to agree to run it. They did not approve of meat so if you wanted your patient to have meat you had to write a prescription. The operating room was underground. During the first years, the emergency room was constantly moving. Now it is huge and the operating room is on, I think, the 7th floor or whatever the top floor is. There was a grade school on the grounds and a cemetery. They are still there but the grade school is for therapy now or a gym. I think the Seven Day Adventists still run it

Pool table in our basement

When I was growing up in Topeka we acquired a pool table in our basement. It was a very good one and when I was tall enough I learned to play. I was too short when we first got it. I do not know why we had one or where it came from. It was not a new one but in good condition. Later when I was in college and a USO hostess at the Topeka YMCA, you had to attend so many weekly festivities in order to attend the monthly dances at the Municipal Auditorium. I could play pool and could defeat the cavalry soldiers from FT. Riley. It was easier than dancing with them in their heavy boots. Helen was a hostess with me also but I don't know if she sused her pool ability or not.

New dinner glasses for Christmas

I like to write about things when I was growing up and then if I get it wrong no one but my sister Helen knows it and she is too polite to tell me. One Christmas Helen and I decided to pool our baby sitting money together and buy our parents a gift. My parents belonged to a bridge club and it always included dinner before they started playing. There were twelve members. My mother did not like to waste money on dishes and glasses so Helen and I decided to buy our parents a set of 12 glasses. I guess that is a set. I rode the bus downtown. You could pick a bus up a block from our house as the bus line went from town on Huntoon. To go to town you had to go to 12th Street or over to College Blvd and ride the electric bus. I went to Crosbys and found a set. I paid for them and then got on the bus and lugged them home. They were heavy. Our parents were very surprised and seemed to like our gift. Our mother uaed them for years and Helen thinks there is still one left. Helen and I had great pride at their next Bridge party.

The hole in the attic

In the house I grew up in was an attic. The floor of the attic was wide where you got though the trap door at the east end but there was just rafters that you walked on at the west end. I don't know what my sister was looking for but one day she went up in the attic and walked to the west end on the narrow boards. Are those called rafters? When she was over my brother Allan's room she slipped and her leg came through the ceiling. There was much excitement getting her out without making the hole larger and then my mother plastered the ceiling. I don't know if it has been replastered by a professional but while I was growing up it was a reminder to be careful if you went west in the attic.

Double dating with your teacher

When I was in Junior High I had a homeroom teacher named Zita McKinley. She also taught Latin. She was very pretty and wore a black dress every Friday. They said she was mourning a past lover. I don't think that was true. She looked good in black and just wore it. I did not do well in either Latin or conduct in homeroom so we were not soul mates but endured each other as you do with homeroom. Later when Ray and I were going together or maybe we were married (I'm not sure) but he was covering the legislature for the Topeka Daily Capital. He told me one night that one of the lobbyists wanted to go out dancing with a new woman he had met and he did not know the places in Topeka on a weeknight. Ray told him there was one out, I think, by Lake Shawnee called Walt's Inn. I might have the name wrong but not the location. When he picked us up I was surprised that I was double dating with my ninth grade teacher. That is why I think I was married as she would have recognized my maiden name. Have you ever double dated with your junior high teacher?