Pictures of Betty Lou and me

The picture with the dark background was in 2000 at the Rio in Las Vegas.









The middle picture was taken in my apartment before I moved from Kansas to Iowa. Patti was the baby in the picture with Betty Lou and
Martie, another teacher. This was early in 1960.






The bottom photo was taken
at the Hoover Museum in
2006 when Betty visited us.

My Friend Betty Lou

Ft. Riley teachers had an in-service day before the first day of school. I met Betty Lou that day. I thought she looked like she might be a phys ed teacher but I was wrong. She made the first move to get acquainted.

We were in separate wings of the building because she taught kindergarten and I taught 4th grade. In fact, my room number was 13. The principal asked if I wanted the number changed and I told them it was fine the way it was.

I taught all the classes except music. I always felt I could teach music easier than teaching art - that was difficult for me.

Betty Lou and I sometimes played piano in her room at lunch time. We quite often ate lunch together. Sometimes several of us would drive over to the PX to have lunch. We also socialized outside of school. We went to movies and concerts at K-State. We saw Louis Armstrong in concert there and really enjoyed it.

Sometimes several teachers and their spouses went boating on a nearby lake and had picnics. Betty was single but was always included in the group.

Betty Lou and I kept in touch over the years. We wrote oftener at the beginning and then it turned into birthday and Christmas cards for many years. We saw each other three or four times over the years.

Betty Lou invited us to visit her in Las Vegas which we did in December 2000. It seemed almost like going back to teach after summer vacation because we picked up where we left off. She visited Don and me about a year later and we visited her once more a year or so later.

She is one of the few people who calls me "Betty" and I never fuss about it. I think I still call her Betty Lou.

Jobs I've Held, Part 1

My first job was as a "soda jerk" at Rexall Drugs in Ness City. Then I was a "soda jerk" at College Drugstore in Manhattan while attending Kansas State. All in all, I worked as a "soda jerk" for five years.

Then I left K-State to teach 4th grade at Ft. Riley Elementary School in September 1955. I had 22 students when the year began but when it ended there were 36 students. I was so glad that I started with a small class because I had never been in a classroom before and I was scared. The first little girl to come in was even more afraid than I - that helped a lot! The reason for the increase was the fact that the "Big Red One" came back to their home base at Ft. Filey from an army base in Germany.

I loved teaching and the first year learned more than the kids did, I am sure. One of the girls was so smart that she could have taught the class. Her name was Blair and she was a great helper. The kids ranged from very bright to those who were very slow at learning. These youngsters had lived all over the world so they were well-traveled and I had been out of the USA except for a trip across the border to shop in Tia Juana!

I taught at Ft. Riley for 4 1/2 years and really enjoyed it. I met a young woman who became a lifelong friend at the first meeting the teachers had before school started. Her name was Betty Lou. More about our friendship in another post.

Growing into a Faithful Christian Part 2

We bought a house in Marion and moved December 1961. One of our neighbors invited Patti, Tony and me to attend church with her and her two girls. Patti was 4 and Tony was 2. So we began attending church regularly.

When Patti was in kindergarten, I helped teach her Sunday School class. The next year the lead teachers moved to a church closer to their home. I inherited the class and taught it with a helper until Patti was a junior in high school.

We attended church services after Sunday School. Patti and Tony grew up sitting in the second pew. They told me if they had to go to church, they wanted to sit so they could see the pastor. Usually no one sat in the first pew so they had a good view of the pastor.

We didn't attend any of the extra services. This was my choice because I didn't want to attend without their dad. I did join the choir in 1977. It was a very small choir when I started singing - so small, in fact, that three of us altos sang tenor for several years because we had no one singing tenor. As the choir grew, we were able to return to singing alto.

Fast forward to 1982. I was single and going through a rough time. One particular gal from work would call me. We'd talk and she'd suggest that I turn to Hebrews and read it. Every time I opened my Bible, it opened to James. So she said I should read James. She encouraged me and helped me a lot by her friendship.

I became more active in church taking many Bible study classes. I continued singing in choir and also began ringing in handbell choir. Both groups were very supportive and I loved the music.

During this time, I discovered that God used me, even in my brokenness, to help other women who found themselves suddenly single. Sometimes what I said to others were the words I needed to hear. I felt very blessed to be used to help others, all the while growing in my faith.

Growing into a Faithful Christian, Part 1

I haven't written about my faith. I grew up going to Sunday School and church. My Dad taught a Sunday School class for young marrieds. I can remember him sitting on the sofa working on his Sunday School lesson with his Bible open on the sofa arm. My Mother didn't attend church. I think, sometime in the early years of living in Ness City, someone criticized her clothes and offended her so she never went back. She did, however, see that I was up and ready to go every Sunday.

A new Free Methodist preacher and his family moved in to the basement church next door to our house when I was in fourth grade. Half of the building was the church and the other half was the family's living quarters. Their daughter, Shirley, was one day older than I. We because fast friends and still are. She invited me to come to their Wednesday evening services.

So I began attending the Wednesday evening services. It was here that Jesus touched my heart the first time. I was like the rocky soil where the seeds fell and couldn't take root. Somehow there was no one to help me learn more.

When I went to Kansas State College, I attended church occasionally - usually when a group of us gals would all go together. I know I missed out on getting acquainted with some neat people because I didn't attend the fellowship meetings on campus.

Fast forward to the early '60s. We were married and living in Cedar Rapids. We checked out several churches but didn't find one we wanted to attend. Both of us grew up attending church. It is so easy to fall away when one doesn't attend church for a while.

There wasn't much "growing into a faithful Christian" during this time.