College story part 4

While at SC I was required to take a few courses in order to graduate. Some I really liked and others, well they were just really tough to get through. I was a History major with a minor in secondary education. I thought I was going to teach. At least that was the plan when I was going to school. I had no idea what I was getting myself in when I decided to minor in secondary education until I took student teaching then I found out that was a dumb idea. A little too late to switch majors or minors in my senior year!

I had some really great History profs while attending SC. None of them are at the college any more. The hardest prof who really made us write essay answers with complete throughness was Dr. Belk. When I first arrived on campus he was my advisor. I took a couple of History class from Dr. White and just barely got by on writing brief answers in my "blue book." By the time I was a "sophomore" until my 5th year senior status I got somewhat better when it came to essay answers. Dr. Belk was an interesting teacher. Often times he would be dressed as the character that we would be studying about. Once he dressed as a Nazi guard and stayed in complete character while we asked him questions and he would answer like that person. It was an unique way of studying History. One time I was in an Intro to Civ. class and a student was on the front row. Asleep. Dr. Belk REALLY didn't like seeing that at all!! He cautioned the class to be quiet and then he dropped a book loudly on the floor. The student woke up startled. Dr. Belk just glared at him! He suggested to that student that he should take No-Doz or go to bed earlier. I was scared! There was no way that I wanted to cross Dr. Belk, ever!!

Dr. Belk was also a Presbyterian pastor in Zenith, KS. He also wrote a book about the "Great Trek of the Russian Mennonites." I can remember one of the student even drawing a cartoon about Dr. Belk for the campus newspaper. I have a scrapbook of some of those cartoons!
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Professor Carls was a History teacher AND he taught French. The year that he was on sabatical I took French 1 from a little old lady. She was MEAN!! She was cranky too. Once she made me cry in class. I didn't like her at all!! So I waited a full year and a semester to take French 2 from Prof. Carls. He was a very nice man. When we would see him on campus we had to say "Bonjour" to him and then he would answer us in French or vice versa. It was fun!
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Dr. Stone was an education professor. I remember taking a class with "Dash" and Stickel. We would always noticed that he was somewhat color blind by the way his tie did not at all match his shirt. We could hardly concentrate on the class because of his wardrobe faux pas.
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Dr. Vogt was another education professor. He would often tell me that "I needed to clean up my act." I still remember that "direction" he gave me. I guess I dressed sloppy back in those days and needed to style my hair differently. I didn't look the part of a teacher. He would crack me up with his accent "magazen." I was like what is that? A magazeen! Oh, yeah, now I get it!
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Dr. Hanna an English professor. He was the most entertaining English teacher that I have ever had. He would call us "sister" this or "brother" this. I learned a lot from him.
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Mrs. Wellman, the music director/teacher. As a part of that competency curriculum, Campus Chorus was a requirement. She made us feel worthy. When she would direct she would look at us and had this big grin on her face. We couldn't help but smile back and therefore, smiling at our audience. It was a pleasure taking this class. She was the best!
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Mr. Hancock, the Botany teacher. I was in need of taking a math or science class as I needed at least 12 hours in that particular subject area in order to fulfill my education requirements. Since there was no way I would take a math class I opted for a science class. It was tough! It was interesting to see the cross matches of the different flowers, etc. I took it as a pass/fail class because I figured I wasn't doing so well in it. Science isn't my thing, no offense. I did date my lab partner, Mike. He was nice, but he was like four years younger than me! He was like around 6'6". Yep, I remember Botany class a little and my lab partner a little more. ;)
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Dr. Renfro, an education prof., registrar and substitute dad. I had great respect for him!! He was LawR dad. I got to know the family quite well. He was the nicest man I ever knew. I could talk to him really well. When we had a dinner as Seniors we (LBD and me) borrowed him. We always called him "Doctor Daddy." One time I remember I really miss Dr. Renfro since he passed away in 1986!

There was a prof (who is still there) and he wouldn't let me graduate! I was missing one class (a religion class of all things) to fulfill my competency curriculum. There were like 4 of us who were in the same boat. However, there was one girl who had the same class missing YET, she was allowed to graduate. It wasn't fair. Dr. Renfro told me this and told me that I should talk to this "prof" that that wasn't right. So I asked him that question. He got flustered and angry.

So when I graduated (plus the other 3) we sat there as the rest of our graduating class stood up. Our degrees were not conferred until August of that year. Everyone else got to move their tassels over and I couldn't even do that! It was unfair!! We who passed the summer class and got our degrees in August didn't have our own special ceremonies. I'll always remember that incident for the rest of my life. Thanks peaches!* (name that I gave him).
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Conclusion...part 5 next.