Lessons Learned

If you carry my childhood through the high school level, all of the lessons I learned through childhood were taught to me by my sisters.  And my sisters tended to me to a great extent.  When we were going to church on Sunday morning and we were waiting for the street car, they would give me a spit bath when I hadn’t washed properly.  They took out their handkerchiefs and cleaned my ears and one thing and another.  My childhood was truly governed by what my sisters thought that I ought to be doing or how I should behave.

School

I started school in Kindergarten at one address and finished it at another and then spent the rest of my junior high school and high school, all in Minneapolis.  For the most part, I was living at one residence all of my life up through high school.  What stands out about school in general, from grade school all the way through high school, was the pattern that I set.  In grade school, I was an exceptional student.  I always achieved the best grades in every category, reading, writing, penmanship, music, anything.  In middle school, it was the same.  Exceptional student.  I was selected with one other fellow to interview the governor of Minnesota who at that time was Governor Luther Youngdal.  In high school, my community of friends in the neighborhood expanded and I started being with guys who were not good students.  They were a different kind of people.  The first semester in high school, we all ate in the lunch room and when we had the first grading period we all met in the lunch room and compared grades.  I said, “How’d you do?” “Well”, one said, “I got 3 D’s and an F”.  The next said, “And I got 3 F’s and a D”.  And the next, “I got all F’s.”  And they said what did you get?  And I said, “I got 3 A’s and a B.”  And I was destroyed by that! I really felt bad.  And so in my high school years, I guess it’s sort of a cop out, but I let myself be influenced by my peers.  I snuck out of high school by the skin of my teeth.  The only thing I did consistently well was mathematics.  Every mathematics course that I ever took, I always did very well.  But in everything else in high school, I always copped out.  I’m very disappointed with how I ended up in high school.

Teachers

This is not particularly positive.  More than one teacher in high school was disappointed in me.  I guess my problem was that I always had a smart mouth and my mouth usually got me into trouble.  We had a history teacher who was a wonderful guy.  I just loved him.  He played the mandolin and drums, and one thing or another, but he had a terrible temper.  He blew his stack often and then felt sorry for it afterwards.  He was always very apologetic.  Sometimes his temper would lead him to be physically abusive to the kids.  But everyone loved him.  One day, he had had this temper tantrum and he was apologizing to the class and he said, “Now kids, I want to say that, really, we’re all in the same boat.”  And then (me and my smart mouth) I said, " you know, you ought to sit down in the boat.”  He came roaring down the aisle and grabbed me out of my chair and threw me down on the floor and banged my head on the floor.  And then he put me back in my chair and walked back up to his desk.  My mouth went off again, and as he was walking back up to his desk, I made another comment.  I don’t remember what that comment was but I’m sure it was stupid.  He turned around and did the same thing again.  This time I had blood coming out of my nose.  The class ended and as I was walking out the door, he said to me, “John, you’re not gonna go and talk to Mr. Wilson (the principal at the time), are you?” I said, “No.”  If I’d have done that, it’d been worse.  My parents would have killed me.

There were positive teachers too.  There were teachers who could recognize personalities like I had and who could somehow or another deal with that.  I always had respect for them.  I had a World History teacher who was the assistant coach for the University of Minnesota basketball team.  I don’t know how they did it, so much time for kids.  Because I’ve taught school, the religious kind related to church, and I know what it is to deal with people who are rebellious.  I had teachers who put up with me, and they were very good at it.

Sports

When I was young there weren’t any organized sports like little league, so we always just played sports in the neighborhood, usually in the street.  When I was in high school I played baseball and football.  Sports were always big for me.  When we played organized sports in high school, I played outfield for baseball and I played on the line for football.  I was a hundred and forty pounds and I played on the offensive line!  They didn’t have 250-pound seniors in high school in those days.

College

I attended college…..several!  I didn’t do any college work until I came out of the Navy.  After I graduated from high school in 1950, I worked for a year.  After that I joined the Navy.  I spent 4 years in the Navy and came out in 1955.  I then went back to Minneapolis for about 1 year.

Almost all of my college experience consisted of extended day programs.  In Minneapolis I was taking 8 units in addition to working.  The reason for the 8 units was that I was a GI and with the GI Bill, if you took as many as 8 units, you were qualified for half benefit, which at that time was $80 per month.  $80 a month was a lot of money then. 

When I came out to California, I continued in the extension programs for 15 years.  I went to San Jose State and the University of California.  Wherever there was an extension class available I took it.  Primarily mathematics and technical subjects.  And I continued that for a long, long time.  I think I’ve taken every mathematics course that exists for undergraduates, though I never did complete a bachelor’s degree.