Watching the young people at Katelin’s graduation made me think of the mortar board I bought in December 1954. The seniors were instructed to reserve gowns and to purchase their caps to be ready for graduation in June. Seems awful early but we needed them for our pictures in the El Rodeo, our high school yearbook.

Well, I followed instructions, for once, and had my picture taken with full cap and gown as you can see. But I was not to wear that particular cap and gown except in that practice. In June 1955, when my class was graduating, I was stationed aboard the USS Holmes County (LST 836) in San Diego harbor preparing for my first trip to Japan with a stop in Hawaii.

My freshman year in high school was great and I managed straight A’s taking advanced subjects. Then I sort of went off the deep end. I kept up my music, sort of, playing in the pep band, marching band, concert band and orchestra. But most of my other subjects suffered. Out of 12 possible course credits my sophomore year, I was awarded 5.

The next 2 years did not improve. I was having a hard time in school and with life in general ending up in serious trouble with the juvenile authorities.

Graduation looked bleak to me. I had taken courses in summer school to make up some of my earlier misses and only lacked a required semester in English to matriculate. But it was not to be.

In January 1955 I went to the post office, where all of the military recruiting offices were located to enlist in the Air Force. Walking down the hall I noticed the Naval recruiting office and thought, well why not give it a try. (I was not terribly goal driven at this stage of life.)

One reason for joining the military at that time, in addition to escaping from a bad situation, was that the GI Bill was ending January 31, 1955, and if I enlisted before then I would be eligible for educational benefits.

While in the Navy, I tested for and qualified for my high school GED certificate and passed the 1 and 2 year college equivalency exams.

Upon discharge, I was accepted at So Oregon State College (now Southern Oregon University) in Ashland, OR and the University of Oregon, Eugene, OR. After working for about 18 months at Weyerhaeuser Timber Co to get some funds together I decided instead to enroll at the University of California, Berkeley.  It seems odd, but the tuition and fees at Cal were cheaper that in the resident fees in Oregon.

None of that materialized. I went to Oakland, California and stayed with my aunt Doris, her husband Ray Stowe and my cousins, Bill and Sandra and started job hunting. My intention was to get a part time job and go to school during the day. When the part time job market fizzled, I went to work full time for Shell Chemical Co., San Francisco, where I met and eventually married my wonderful wife, Dorie.

While with Shell, we were transferred to different localities and I would enroll in the local college to continue my education. I ended up studying at Oakland City College, Berkeley, Long Beach State College, Portland State College, Portland Community College, Marylhurst University and the University of Portland. And some correspondence course thrown in.

During final exams at Marylurst in May 1984, I put in a day of work, sat for a final exam in the evening and then Dorie and I drove to Rexburg, Idaho, to attend Diana’s graduation from Ricks College (now BYU-Idaho). It was wonderful seeing her graduate with a college degree and I still didn’t have mine.

While I was in school Diana was a very important part of my educational process. There were many papers to write and they all seemed to be many pages long. I did not type much at all and this was before the computer.

We had an old electric typewriter that Diana pounded away on for me, re-doing some pages several times.

The payoff came in June 1984, two weeks after Diana graduated when she was in the audiance and yelled “Yay, Dad!”, when I walked down the aisle to receive my diploma.

It was a long road to an education and it is not yet finished as I continue to study and learn as much as I can in this life. I would recommend to all young people that they take an easier path.

Our granddaughter, Katelin Marie Johnstun, graduated from St. Helens High School yesterday. What a mile stone this is in a young person’s life. Most people will not appreciate just how major a step this is until later in life.

Katelin stepped on a nail earlier in the day and as she marched in the processional it was obvious that her foot was hurting from the injury. But she was there!

As she came into view in front of the reviewing stand I glanced at her mother, Diana Johnstun, and saw her eyes glistening with tears. It is a big moment in life when we see our children getting ready to leave the nest and face the world more alone in life than they could ever imagine.

She plans to attend college this Fall. I am not sure what she will be studying and I do not know whether or not she knows yet for sure. She has a job now as an assistant in a care facility so she may follow that path. (She is working a 12 hours shift there today, sore foot or not.) She has a real love for animals and could end up in a veterinary arena of some kind. Photography is also an interest, so a career as an animal or wildlife photographer?

This is all speculation and dreams on my part. I have no idea what her life goals are.

Katelin is the 3rd of our 6 grandchildren to graduate high school so we are half way there. She has had a rocky road the past couple years so it was really great to see her hang in and reach out for the diploma cover.

I was impressed with all of the graduates. The boys seem so much more mature and the young women so much more poised than when I was that age. I think our future is in good hands.

The only sour note for me was one of the valedictorian speakers said that going forth they must not be rigid like an old large tree but be flexible like a reed. They need to bend with the wind and compromise.

In my mind, this is one thing that is wrong in the world today. Too many people are seeking compromise rather than sticking up for their beliefs and principles. This was especially driven home to me this past week as Dorie and I began watching the award-winning television series “The World At War”.

Neville Chamberlain epitomized a “flexible reed”. Had he and the French had more back-bone, we might never have had a Second World War. We need to be teaching more about history and the dangers of compromise in our schools.

‘Nuff of the soap box. I’ll write more about my own education and the importance of graduating in a future post.

Katelin, we love you and are proud of you! Congratulations!

When I was in the 5th grade, there was a boy in our class named Claude. He was the biggest guy in school and a good ball player but mentally slow and from a really poor family. As I recall Claude equaled the the state high school shot put record when he was still in grade school. Anyway, Claude could really hit a baseball and everyone wanted him to play but he did not have a glove and had no way to get one.

Well, I decided that a few of us could chip in what we had and buy him a glove. I felt Jack would come up with the rest. The glove we settled on was about $20.00, several days pay at that time, and one of my friends and I went to Jack’s Place and told him our idea and asked if he would help us buy the glove.

He was not an easy touch and questioned us about why we needed the money and why he should help buy a ball glove for someone he didn’t even know. He wanted to make sure we put in all of the money we had so we were also contributing. In the end he agreed to make up the difference even though we could only come up with a of couple dollars ourselves.

Jack did not like to see anyone picked on or bullied. He never started an argument or fight but did not hesitate to jump in and try to stop one. One day when we were walking down the street in town we came upon two children. A girl about 8 or 9 years old was yelling at a smaller boy striking him and telling him to get home. Jack told her to stop that immediately.

She said the boy was her brother and that her mother had told her to find him and get him home. Jack told her that was no excuse to beat up on him, that he was much smaller than she was and she shouldn’t be doing that.

Funny how some of the things you learn in your youth stick with you. I don’t know why I remember these instances but they must have been important in making me who I am.

Jack was not a refined type of guy. He always wore a suit, tie and hat but he did not seem at all polished. Looking back, I think he was very introspective and uncomfortable around people because he was not sure of acceptance.

In the late 1930′s and through the second world war, he was a partner in the Pastime tavern, pool hall and gaming room in Klamath Falls. Oregon was “dry” during those years and you could not buy hard liquor by the drink. So Jack boot-legged liquor from Doris, California, just a few miles away. He then rented rooms in the Willard Hotel and ran poker games there supplying players with liquor.

This activity was known by the chief of police (Orville Hamilton), mayor and politicians up in the Oregon State capitol. Some were patrons and others were just happy to take payoffs to look the other way. Until Oregon repealed the ban on liquor by the shot sales, we had bottles of all kinds of booze in closets, under beds, in the attic and elsewhere.

Jack had been married before and as a good catholic could not get a divorce recognized by the church so was not in good standing after he married my mother. According to the church, he was living in sin. But the priests were always happy to accept his donations along with a little shot from his bottle supply.

I never did understand that.

After selling his partnership in the Pastime, Jack bought his own tavern, Jack’s Place, and ran card games there. It was right next to the armory and a good location for all of the activities held there. He never made a lot of money on the bar but he was an excellent card player.

All of the forgoing is really just to set the stage. You might think Jack tended to be hard to get along with but he wasn’t. He was honest and tried his best to treat everyone fair.

I was with him one day when he parked across from the Pastime and left me in the car for awhile. When he came out, he gave me some money and laughed about what he had just done. When he went in the Pastime, he saw several “house men” (people employed by the business) cleaning up on an unsuspecting player.

Jack asked the fellow how much he had lost. He then took a hand in the game and proceeded to teach the house men how to play. After he had won a little more than the man had lost, he gave him the money plus a little and told him he had been set up by the other players. He suggested he not play anymore unless he was sure who he was playing with.

He could have kept the winnings. He was entitled to them but he felt sorry for the player who he said had a family and really could not afford to lose the money.

- To be continued in part 2 -

So often we learn to strike out at or put down the ideas and people we come in contact with for no real reason at all. We just do it. There is a song from South Pacific that contains the lyrics “you’ve got to be taught to hate and fear”.

How true.

I was fortunate in that I had some early training that was just the opposite and helped my learn to accept other people and other situations as they are.  We do not need to change everyone into a clone of who we are or reject anyone who is not like us.

We all have our individual roles and places in life and are all unique. That is the way God made us. We need to learn more to accept and not condemn.  Help and not hinder or harm.

Jack taught me an early lesson in not harming that which did not harm you.

He was a sheppard in his early years and was herding sheep along the Oregon California border. One sunny afternoon he he laid down to take a nap and rest a bit.

When he awoke sometime later he found a rattle snake curled up with him also enjoying a sunny nap. Jack laid there for a long time not moving. Finally, the snake crawled off a ways and Jack got up and moved away to give the snake plenty of room to leave.

He always kept a weapon to protect the sheep from from coyotes and could easily have killed that snake but he didn’t. He let it crawl off unharmed.

When I asked why he did that, he said,”The snake could have bit me anytime when I was asleep and didn’t. If it didn’t hurt me, why should I hurt it?”

There is a lesson there for all of us.