In September. 1961, I went away to college; not very far away as it turns out, unless you are a farm boy who had never been farther than Washington, D.C. in his life. Those 90 or so miles from Walton, my home, my friends and my family might have just as well been half-way around the world! I did however, settle into college life academically and took learning seriously. I never missed a class or was never even late to a class until my Senior year, but that's another story! I remember my 8:00 A.M. Animal Science class was in Morrison Hall which was exactly one mile from University Dorm #1 where I lived in room 1326. Oh, and it was straight up Library Slope, past Jenny McGraw tower, up Tower Road, past the Ag Quad and Dairy Science buildings. I was eventually able to walk it in 12 minutes in all kinds of weather. No, I didn't have a car, or bicycle and bus service was not as available as it is today; I double- timed it! I did not put on any weight during my freshman year due in no small part to all of the walking that I gladly did! I did get home a couple of times a month on the average. I didn't date, wasn't interest in fraternities, just studied, did a lot of running on my own and played regularly in pickup basketball games in the Teagle Hall gym. A guy named Don Byington, from Downsville was there a lot. I always tried to play on his team. Don was one of the guys from Downsville who regularly kicked Walton's butt in basketball. Don was a good friend of my brother Tom who was also a student at Cornell. I didn't see a lot of Tom, he lived in a rooming house on Stewart Avenue. As I have said before, we weren't real close to each other until later in life.
The academics at Cornell were rigorous. You had to learn to prioritize your study time so that you didn't fall too far behind in any course. I made the mistake of thinking that I didn't need to spend a lot of time on Biology since I had scored a 99 on my High Schools Biology regents exam. The whole thing kind of snowballed and I ended up having to get a 75 on my bio final in order to pass. I got a 76 and passed by one point. I never let that happen to me again! In my eight undergrad semesters, I made dean's list three times and was 5th in my class during one semester. I ended up graduating 61st out of about 400 College of Agriculture students. I worked at the Mann Library for two years and used my down time to study back in the "stacks."
During my Senior year I roomed with three Vetrinarian students at 13 Railroad Ave. in Freeville. I finally had my first car, a 1960 Chevy with automatic on the column! I really enjoyed my Senior year, less pressure to keep my GPA up and now I had "wheels" and more freedom! I finally decided to major in Agriculture Education and was lucky enough to receive a Ford Foundation Grant and be accepted to Grad School. I did my student teaching at Cherry Valley and Phelps and in 1966 I accepted my first teaching job at Windsor Central School.
I'm going to jump ahead at this point. As many of my family and friends know, I became increasingly dependent on alcohol over the years and on June 1, 1994, I quit cold- turkey! No rehab, no medications, I just made up my mind to quit and I did; stubborn I guess! My drinking started during my Sophomore year and was just weekend binging to start with, but eventually escalated to a six- pack plus a day in a couple of years. I feel blessed that my life has been as successful as it has despite my alcohol addiction!
Back to Cornell: in 1966 I married a girl named Evelyn Yarnes Smith. Her family is from Walton. It was not a good marriage in any way. She had liver damage from a botched operation and I guess that I felt sorry for her at first and wasn't strong enough to walk away. I don't know how I survived my year at Windsor, my home life was hell! I did well enough teaching, I had a co-teacher named Jerry Quimby who helped me through a lot rough days. Toward the end of the year I heard that Stan Burton, long time Ag teacher at Downsville, was leaving. I applied for, and was given the job. My tenure at Downsville was a disaster. I was drinking heavily, trying to hold it together at home while trying to do a good job teaching. I cared but I couldn't pull it off. I was absent a lot, did not teach well, and ran a sloppy FFA program. In February I was told by my Principal, Mr. Gerald Hutton, that I wouldn't be coming back. At this point there were some things going on in my life that I am so ashamed of that I can't share them in this forum! It was all of my own doing, and I have no one to blame but myself. As long as I was teaching I had a draft deferrment; remember this was during Vietnam. As soon as I lost my deferrment, it was just a matter of time before my number came up; that day was September 9, 1968, and my life was changed forever....
I want to add a few things to my discussion of my life during the years 1961- 1968. I took two years of ROTC at Cornell, but at the end of my second year I decided to opt out instead of accepting a commission as an Officer. During my year at Downsville I lived in a trailer on my brother Tom's property in Walton. I of course was a lousy tenant, hardly ever paid rent, had lots of parties and generally created havoc and hardship for everyone around me. My brother Tom showed the patience of Job and let a lot things go. It was at this point that I started to appreciate my brother more. In the months before my being drafted, my marriage was on the rocks, I was financially destroyed and I continued to drink and party heavily. I needed to get off of this merry go round. Uncle Sam came to my rescue...
No comments:
Post a Comment