February 4, 2016 (Thursday)
Recent blogs have focused on my student days, remembering some spiritual emphases on the campus and naming some of my Bible professors. I graduated in 1953, and since that time the campus has been greatly enlarged.
One of our activities was Friday Night Missions, when groups of us students would go to many locations throughout the city and minister to poor children. Those were the days before affordable public housing, and there were numerous areas of town where the needs were great. The group that I was in counted about ten people, if my memory is not betraying me. We told Bible stories, sang lots of choruses, and told the kids about Jesus. I remember one little black boy in our mission who, when asked what the Bible story was about, would repeat what the teacher had said, word for word, just has he/she had presented it. It was like a miracle. It happened every Friday. Did we have a spiritual impact upon their lives? I suppose we will have to wait until we get to Heaven to find out. Afterwards, we went back to the campus for testimonies, prayer and singing with all the other mission groups. That was always very inspirational.
Waco was an interesting place. The headquarters of the Beverage, Dr. Pepper, was in Waco. All over the country at fountains in many cities, the waitress could be heard ordering a “Waco,” which meant “Dr. Pepper.” I believe there is a museum about all that in Waco now.
We enjoyed going to Cameron Park, a 400-acre city park that is the envy of many cities in all the states. It has two rivers running through it, the Bosque and the Brazos, and is the site of a high cliff called “Lover’s Leap,” complete with an Indian legend. I was there (picture on left). I went to many picnics in that park, and had good times playing softball, etc. with friends. Wanda is seen in the park in the picture on the right.
For some reason, I went on a field trip to the local glass plant, and found it to be quite interesting. They made bottles for many well-known products, such as Coca-Cola. There would always be an excess of glass left over from a run, and they made insulators for electric power lines with that material. Consequently many insulators, which today are collectors items, are made of very expensive glass.
Another field trip, I suppose it must have been for a Psychology class, took us to the mental ward of Veteran’s hospital, where we watched as patients described their thoughts and feelings to the doctors. At some point–I don’t think it was during those student years–a commander of one of seven B-29’s that went together for the bombing of Hiroshima was a patient in that ward. Much has been written about him.
Did you ever say to somebody, “Let’s go somewhere and get a hamburger?” Well, there was a chain of hamburger joints in Waco with that name: “Somewhere.” My buddies and I went there many times. My roommate, Zeke Alford and I are at “Somewhere” in this picture.
I enjoyed malted milk beverages from a place on the Waco Traffic Circle known as “Health Camp.” I liked to go there to get a coffee malt. Those kind are not served everywhere. It was a new idea to me.
I ate many meals at Baylor Drug, Fifth and Speight, no longer there. Here it was:
Twenty-five cents purchased a great grilled cheese sandwich. If I tired of that, I tried Mexican food across the street on 5th. I ate sometimes at the Student Center cafeteria. One day I was surprised there when Pat Neff, former president of Baylor and Governor of Texas, sat down with me for lunch. He was an impressive human being; I was petrified.
Waco is now known for the David Koresh tragedy and, more recently, the Bikers shootout. To me, that’s very sad, because Waco is a wonderful place to live. Bad things happen everywhere, but that doesn’t make those places undesirable. I loved Waco as a student, and then, six years later, when I pastored in Kosse, about 40 miles away, it became “town” when we “went to town” to do serious shopping.
I’ve always loved Waco. Take a look at the visitors guide (click here). Who knows? You may want to visit one of these days.