FATHER
of the
AGE of REALITY
|
|
FATHER |
|
|
|
CHAPTER
SIX Undergraduate Universities Memories |
|
|
|
|
|
|
Undergraduate |
|
UNDERGRADUATE UNIVERSITIES YEAR ONE (1960-1961): Like so many of the other graduates of Miami Senior High, class of 60, I had my freshman year at the University of Florida. Orientation was almost too much for one to consider, the biggest part of which was all of the testing for the purpose of placement. While I was in high school I had to make a choice between chemistry and physics and since the elements of chemistry always seemed to have been a mystery to me, I chose physics. When I was tested for placement purposes, for some strange reason I had scored rather high in chemistry. I was registered to be taking the third course of chemistry even though I've never had any chemistry courses in high school. Like so many of the other males in the early 60s in the freshman class there was a natural tendency to place male students on an engineering track. We were all in this theoretical race with Russia and wanted to produce as many scientists as is possible. I remember trying to convince the teacher of my 103 chemistry class, that I did not belong in his course as I never even had the first course of any form of chemistry while in high school. Having placed some degree of faith in these entrance exams, I was convinced by the teacher to remain in the course. As fate would have it, I did so poorly on the first test that the teacher finally excused me from his class. The only other course I remembered having taken that freshman year was a course in logic. I chose this particular elective because my stepfather, Gilbert Holloway had insisted I take this particular course as he believed that it would go a long way in helping me to achieve an intellectual appreciation for all of the other courses that I may eventually be enrolled in. He was, after all, right in that it helped me to logically perceive whatever the course content might have been for the remainder of my education. As a freshman in any land-grant college during the 60s it was expected that one should or even required to enroll in ROTC. So, I not only enrolled in ROTC as expected, I also joined the Honor Guard. The enrollment in ROTC came with its own set of busy paperwork. I can remember asking the military professor if I would be presenting some kind of difficulty by registering as an Conscientious Objector, as I had no objection to service, but that, because of my own set of ethics and morals, I do not believe it to be my right to take anybody's life for whatever reason. I can remember him finding it rather strange that a Conscientious Objector would also enroll in the Honor Guard. I told him that I had absolutely no objection to serving my country; it's just that I did not like the idea of having to kill another human being. My feelings were based upon my beliefs which just happened to ran in concert with those of the 10 Commandments, “Thy shall not kill.” I had elected not to live in the dorms that freshman year, mostly because my sister, who had graduated from University of Florida, had lived in a boarding house that was still there and being run by the same lady. In the same block that was just adjacent to and on the northeast corner of the University was another boarding house that actually served meals, and since the boarding house I had chosen did not serve any meals, I got most of my regular meals at this other place. I remember the meals being real home-cooked and very much to my Southern liking. Also in the same block was the Presbyterian Student Center that I passed every day either on the way to eat or to go to classes. Even though I did not always go to their services, I hung out there for a great deal of my free time. It was at the Presbyterian Student Center, that I had made friends with a sophomore man, Curtis Edewaard. His home was in Fort Lauderdale and since I had a car, I remember driving him home on several breaks from school and holiday occasions. I believe I can honestly say that Curtis became my very best friend. And it was sometime towards the end of that school year, that his overly righteous Christian family had offered to adopt me. With their mostly narrow set of Christian values and morals, they were apparently confident that there was no way that I had a good home life considering that my mother had been divorced twice and married three times. I appreciated their sincere concern for my spiritual well-being, but most assuredly explained to them that my mother and all three of my father's offered me a very positive home life despite their disapproval of my mother's remarrying twice. The Edewaard family had once been selected as the, “Fort Lauderdale Family of the Year.” They had, after all, the good fortune of raising six boys and three girls all of whom went to college. The father was an optometrist and Curtis’ mother was the consummate housewife. The one outstanding feature that I remember about this family had to do with the parents having their children so well disciplined that they could actually be gone for an entire weekend or longer for just themselves. The children were all very organized to take charge of the home and family while the parents had some quality time to be away and only with themselves to worry about. Each of the nine children had their own responsibilities, jobs and assignments; like cooking meals, getting everyone off to school on time and of course they were all responsible for keeping the home a safe place and secure. And you can be assured that every member of that family went to church on Sundays without fail. The University of Florida had a rather active Greek system and like many of the other freshman, I went through rush and eventually pledged Chi Phi fraternity. It turned out not to be the best experience for me and it was sometime before the end of the first semester that I withdrew. My departure as I remember was based upon the actives prank of tossing some of the pledges in trunks of cars and drove them off campus to be hopefully found by their pledge brothers that were made aware of their missing some of their pledge brothers. Despite the fact that pledging in any of the fraternities still involved a great deal of hazing, I guess I just thought myself to being too mature to be playing those kinds of senseless games. I never saw my de-pledging this fraternity as any sort of a loss; in fact it was character building by its very nature.
It was during the first semester of my
freshman year that I thought I had fallen in love with a sophomore girl,
Sandi who was a member the Chi Omega Sorority. Sandi was an A student,
member of the cheerleading squad, as well as very active in her own
church. Sandi had gone home to Tampa, Florida for the Christmas
holidays between semesters. I had actually returned for the second
semester a few days early to be with her and when Sandi did not show up
as we had prearranged, it was one of her sorority sisters that had
explained that their beloved sorority sister had experienced a nervous
breakdown over the holidays and would not be returning to school. I
called her parents and asked them for her new address and immediately
went for a short visit. It is my first experience with any form of a
mental institution and I was quite surprised that I was not able to see
her most simply because I was not part of her immediate family. This
effort at seeing and visiting Sandi at this institution was fortunately
accomplished with only the loss of just one full day’s time of driving
from Gainesville to Tampa and finally back late at night. It appeared
that the second semester witness another round of poem writing and
creativity. So as I did once before I'm going to include the points I
wrote as a witness to my mental, emotional and spiritual frame of mind.
I'm able to do this mostly because I dated all the poems I wrote. I had
also moved my residence to a small efficiency apartment that was the
East campus and adjacent to a small park with a small pond in the
middle. I mention this reality simply because this park had inspired
one of my poems:
THE OLD ONE IN THE PARK
The life has fled the span of time called spring, And winter's come to claim its rightful place. The fall evolved when love was dead and gone, And now
the soul has lost its summer's pace. Searching within to find some distant thought That brings to mind a cheerful time passed by, When life
was young and joy was easily sought. Her solemn peaceful mood and gray white hair. Her smile
somehow reveals a peace of mind And saunters off, slowly, agedly away. She grew and blossomed, then bore with pain and nursed, She loved and
was loved until that autumn day. When all is strange to aging sight She lived a full and fruitful life each day, Then winter came, ending that life with night.
February 18, 1961
THE
RISING SUN Of a glowing, peaceful hue. The time is near the end of night When all the
ground is cast with dew Filling the morn with a joyous sound. The clouds are drifting all about Like flowing bales of pure white down.
Then peaks the bursting sun of day Giving life to everything. It steals
the jewels of night away, And not one glimpse is there to stay: It gives the man who's ever casting, A
guiding light through every day
When all the gifts are passed about From friend to friend and foe to foe, Give me the one that's shown without When Love within begins to flow.
When all mankind is full of fear, And war has come to claim its dead, Let hasty nations stand and hear The words of Truth my Brother said.
When all the world is full of joy, But virtue's lost without a fight, Don't let one man be found too coy To hold to Love and find the light.
When all one finds with men is hate, And nothing's there but mundane things, Don't lose your faith for thought it's late; Try Love, and see the change it brings.
If one is found to be alone, And nothing's seen of other men, Be sure to make your friendship known For lest you lose and fall in sin.
When I have felt the lost of Love, And no one's there to give me rest, I bow my head and look above, And thank my God I have not less.
If all the things I have be lost, Save God and all the Love He sends, I'd pray that I could pay the cost 2/21/61 Of
one true Love and life's true friends.
And all will be just like before. When life is lost, then life is found Without the
mortal being bound. Between the birth and time to die, Its shows the soul is reaching out For unknown
Truths and loss of doubt. And all the mind's in justly thought, We know the soul has found a way To living
through each searching day. And see the Love that lives within; He'd find a source of rightfulness To
hail, and Love all men as friend. Can tell of death or primal pain? There is no one but Him within, And
all He lends is grace from sin. And see the light of Truth descend To lonely man, his wasteful ways, Yet
seeks to give throughout his days? Emotions up, and solemn downs, I'll take them all and bare them out,
And never turn my face about. So open up that inward door, And let that light shine forth to all,
Before that darkness be our fall. A moment comes, a moment goes, It has no place and has no time, It comes and
goes like wind that blows. And never passes the next in line, It's on the
move as though at race. While
moments now are what we have, For now is all we have at hand. The time we share will never stop, And
moments come like seeping sand. MYSELF
The times have been when needs were great, But now
there's been a change of late, But now
I haven't that saintly curse. But
now I've found a fertile field; and still have to this very day. It is the understanding of this freedom that empowers me as no other and gives me the kind of strength needed to openly proclaim the full range of tenets of this very Age of Reality.
The traits you show are dear to me. They're things that silver cannot buy; They're things that only friends can see.
Sometimes I wish I had them all, But God gave me a different set. So you and I
must heed that call; But each I grew and nursed with Love. The worst in me has never stalled, Yet still I sense the Light above.
We each must grow our private way And use the gifts bestowed to us. But never let us go astray Because of greed and ways unjust.
Of all the thoughts that I can tell, Not one alone do I possess. For what I have is yours as well; The Truth alone will I confess.
Of all the things that I call needs, There first comes Love and what it gives, Then mother earth and all her seeds; Then you my friends, for whom Love lives.
June 9, 1961
YEAR TWO (1961-1962): It was in the fall of 61 that I entered a school closer to home, University of Miami (UM). I remember that the tuition was really high for me at that time because the $350.00 per semester was considerable higher than the $50.00 that was the resident tuition at the University of Florida (UF). That $350.00 is nothing compared to the some $15,000.00 expected of students today at the University of Miami. Please keep in mind that had we not ever instituted a Federal income tax, these unconscionable fees charged to today's students would no doubt probably be considerably less. And why is that? History witnessed a considerable drop in personal endowments that were once given to institutions of higher learning prior to the institution of the Federal income tax. I was exposed to this reality as part of my Ph.D. program that was at the University of Oklahoma in the Administration of Higher Education. At the University of Miami that first year I had declared psychology as my major and religion as a minor. The only thing that I had accomplished that was out of the ordinary was once again my becoming involved with the Presbyterian Student Center. It was at this Presbyterian student Center that I became involved with a group of students under the direction of the Director of the Center that call themselves a covenant group. The covenant was a promise to remain together and meet once a week until the end of that semester. I now look back upon that group as being operated very much like a Feast of Agapé in that the individuals and their various needs were the true focus of the group. It also had the air of a group therapy setting. It was in this group that I had met Bruce Goldberg, who became a lifelong friend. The good news: I had asked Bruce to write something about me for this autobiography so that you might have another’s view of me. So, here it is unedited: “My first recollection of Joe Walker was as a 17 year old freshman at the University of Miami. I had just joined a covenant life community and Joe was also a member, except in those days he was known as Ivory Joe Walker. He had quite a presentation both in looks and clothes including a cane and convertible. He was a consummate extravert with quite the social polish for the times. Added to all of this he had that well executed southern draw to his manner of speech. I n those days he spent most of his time partying and chasing girls, the norm at the University. We struck up a friendship early on and Joe pretty much took me under his wing as they say. We became good friends and he was instrumental in my decision to join the Alpha Tau Omega fraternity along with several other members from the same community group, that we originally met at. Our friendship continued to develop and blossomed through my years at the University. As I look back now on those years the common things we had loyalty, respect, integrity, pursuit of fun and adventure allowed us to develop a deep and lasting friendship. The type of friendship that makes you feel more like relatives than friends. It has been almost been 48 years since that meeting, but Joe and I have always found the time off and on to stay in touch and show interest in each others’ life. He has always been a diverse and complicated individual. His life has been full of many opportunities and challenges and he remains one of my dearest friends.” It was during this second year at the University of Miami and I had pledged another fraternity, Phi Delta Theta. And as it was with my first year at the University of Florida, I did not complete the pledging. Because my grades were so low that first year, I paid more attention to my academics than anything else that second year at the University of Miami. Because I was living at home in the manse and home of my parents church, New Age Church or Truth and the situation that my stepfather, Gilbert Holloway was the away often ministering through radio talk shows throughout the country, he asked if I wanted to be ordained so that I could officially take over some of the meetings while he was gone. Of course I said yes and for that reason I did actually conducts several services during that same year of school. That summer that followed, I was once again in Atlanta, Georgia helping my father with the building business. My father had asked me if I was interested in going into the building business and my reply was simply, “only if I had my own construction company.” His answer to that comment was, “All you need to do is to go down and see Charlie Alfred and have him draw up the papers.” Charlie was my father's lawyer and I did in fact go down and create the Lamah Construction Company. I actually built my first house that summer under my new company's name. My father actually bought me a brand-new car that summer, a Buick Skylark convertible and I can still amusingly remember that some of the construction workers called my new car, “a pussy wagon.” YEAR THREE (1962-1963) I had once again pledged another fraternity, Sigma Chi (ΣΧ). One might think that the third time's the charm; not so! It was several of my pledge brothers that had complained to me that they thought I was just too straight and should do more drinking at our parties. So, I had agreed and promised them that I would make an effort and do more drinking during this particular semester. I did indeed start to drink that semester and was what one would easily call as commode hugging drunk at least once a week. I particularly remember one week end when I had attended a Ray Charles concert with my date who was another Chi Omega sorority sister, Faith Gould. I was so drunk at that concert that I could only remember Ray Charles performing only one of his various presentations. A fraternity brother had driven me and my date to her home where she had told me at her front door, “I never want you out with you again!” It may interest you to know that in that particular semester when I drank so much; it just happened to also be my best semester academically. Of course, I would not subscribe that getting drunk every weekend would in any manner, improve one's GPA. It was in the summer of 1993 while I was in Atlanta and helping my father once again in the building business that I had given myself another assignment. I asked around to anyone that had attended any university that had Greek system to giving their opinion as to what was the best national fraternity. Their answers were almost unanimous to either one of two fraternities would be the best; Sigma Alpha Epsilon (ΣΑΕ) or Alpha Tau Omega (ATΩ). They were both at the University of Miami. Since ΣΑΕ was very active on campus and ATΩ not only did not have a house, but was barely active with their overly small number of brothers. So there was no choice to be made; it would be definitely ΣΑΕ. That particular semester I applied for a position as resident advisor in the university dorms. I had received my appointment and for that reason during the start of that fall semester I had to be physically president in the dorms during the same period of time that fraternity rush was taking place. I had informed the brothers of ΣΑΕ that I was interested in pledging their fraternity and they said that there would be no problem; and that all I had to do was wait until formal rush was over, and that I would be pledged during what was called open rushing that followed formal period of rush. Since the only event I had attended during formal rush was the final dinner that was offered to all of their rushees, I had assumed that I would have been a pledge during open rush. There arose a problem; ΣΑΕ, because they had violated some of the formal rush rules, they where prohibited from signing any additional pledges that semester. So that semester I had called another friend of mine, Joy Idolet of the Delta Zeta (ΔΖ) Sorority because I was aware that one of her sorority sisters was actually dating an ATΩ. I remember calling her sorority sister and she told me that I need to call a man, Joaquin Guma who was apparently the President of ATΩ that semester. I called Joaquin and he referred me to their rush chairman, Doc Ridenhour. When I called Doc, he simply told me to meet him in the Dean's office the next day and that he would sign me up. That marriage was made in heaven simply because that particular fraternity had a Creed that turned out to be a guiding light of what I now call the Age of Reality: To bind men together a brotherhood based upon eternal and immutable principles, with a bond as strong as right itself and as lasting as humanity; to know no North, no South, no East, no West, but to know man as man, to teach that true men the world over should stand together and contend for the supremacy of good over evil; to teach, not politics, but morals; to foster, not partisanship, but the recognition of true merit wherever found; to have no narrower limits within which to work together for the elevation of man than the outlines of the world: these were the thoughts and hopes uppermost in the minds of the founders of the Alpha Tao Omega fraternity. Otis A. Glazebrook 1880
I don't believe that I should have had anything else to add to this Creed. There was only one other pledge brother that semester. By the time I had finished my pledgeship successfully I was already asking to be made rush chairman for the following semester in which I had personally rushed a number of prospects resulting in a new pledge class of 18 members, which was a larger number of members than the total number of actives. From the time that I pledged and definitely helped them improve their total membership I can honestly say that I was the reason for a total resurgence and even to the point of the eventually buying an abandoned fraternity house on campus. This success can be attributed to the good reputation of “Ivory Joe,” a nickname given to me by a friend from my high school years, Joseph Fox. YEAR FOUR (1963-1964): It was during the fall of 1963, (October 1963) that I was driving home from school at the University of Miami, when I had the impression that my grandmother was talking to me and telling me that she was, “I'm okay!” It was in the Summer of 64 that I was helping my father in the building business once again and attended Georgia State University for some undergraduate classes. I had met several young men that I thought would make a good start for establishing a chapter of my college fraternity, Alpha Tau Omega. YEAR FIVE (1964-1965): I had decided to remain at the Georgia State University for that academic year, mostly so that I could establish and guide the new fraternity chapter. I had declared as a major, sociology and my major professor was a brilliant woman, Dr. Barbara Pittard, who had received her Ph.D. from Emory University. Her dissertation was on negative effects of the Christian religion on those particular individuals that represented the highly repetitiveness of those recipients that were living under and by means of our social welfare system. We became very close friends because of our mutual interest in some of the fallacies of the Christian religion. That year she was appointed to be in charge of a presidential committee studying the effects of the misdemeanor court system on those individuals that had been arrested for driving under the influence (DUI) of alcohol. She had selected two of her favorite students to server with her on this committee; I was one of those students. The name of the other student was Nancy Sparks, and she was the daughter of a local judge. We had become good friends and I would often be studying with her in her apartment. I had asked her one day how it was that she had such a very nice apartment and only being what apparently appeared to being no more than a non-working student. Her answer was a confession that she was actually working some nights as a prostitute. She explained to me that she was once working her way through school with a rather high-paying government job. This job was so overbearing on her abilities to study that a good friend of hers, who was a prostitute explained to her that she could make more money in one night than she was making with a whole week of hard work. Her friend was working as what is known as a “Call Girl” and had suggested that Nancy do the same thing as he was. So it was on Nancy's first night that her friend had taken her to an upscale bar in one of Atlanta's better hotels. Nancy was indeed very attractive and it wasn't soon before a gentleman approached Nancy and they started a conversation. Nancy had the idea that she would only service those men who were only in Atlanta on business and avoid any local tricks that just might be friends with or at last know her father the judge. So this new trick of hers that she had just talked with asked her, “What should I call you?” Nancy, wanting to avoid using her own name for obvious reasons suggested, “Windy.” Her new trick then asked, “Windy who?” to which Nancy had replied on the go, “Weeks” simply because of the familiar alliteration of the name “Windy Weeks.” So, it was from that night forward that Nancy's working name was to be Windy Weeks. I was not at all judgmental about her profession and fully understood that Nancy also had a regular boyfriend in which the relationship was sort of normal in that he was never treated like one of her professional tricks. It may interest you to know that when Nancy had graduated from Georgia State, she took a job as secretary to the Regent of the New York City Universities, who had previously been one of her tricks while she was a call girl in Atlanta. YEAR SIX (1965-1966): In the Summer of 1966 there were two very significant events; I married Ann Shepherd and graduated from the University of Miami with a Bachelor of Arts (B.A.) in psychology and religion. It was my decision in the late spring of 1966 that I would return to the University of Miami and take whatever courses that were needed to get my degree. As it turned out I was able to complete my degree deficiencies during the two summer sessions that were offered. Upon completion of the first summer session I had returned to Atlanta and at that time I paid a visit to my girlfriend, Ann Shepherd. Ann had been teaching the previous year in Atlanta and was on the summer break. I remember being seated on the floor in front of her when I had asked, “Are you ever going to marry me?” And her answer, to my great surprise, was, “Yes!” When I had asked her, “when?,” she simply replied, “Any time you wish!” She had answered yes to my suggestion that we get married at the end of that week before I was to start my second summer session at the University of Miami. It was on our trip down to Miami that I had learned that her sister was going to be running off and getting married that very same weekend and without her parents being told. This elopement was being kept a secret from their parents and as it turned out, our own marriage was essentially nothing but a diversion from her sister's own then secret marriage. In any case, I did finish that second summer session while Ann and I were living in my folks home on 27th Ave. When that second summer session was completed, we returned to Atlanta where we were to be living with my father. It wasn't long before Ann and I had decided to divorce mostly for the very same reason that we had gotten married in the first place; our marriage was only a diversion from her sister’s marriage. SECOND BACHELORS DEGREE: It wasn't until I was working on my Ph.D. at the University of Oklahoma that I decided to finally take the courses necessary to get my bachelor's degree from Georgia State University and it was in the spring of 1978 while is on spring break from the University of Oklahoma and in Atlanta that I had inquired at Georgia State University as to what courses I needed to complete in order to get my bachelors degree. By the time that I was working on my Ph.D. I had attended some six different universities and thought that my only having two degrees in six attendances wouldn’t read to well for any academic positions that I might have had applied for; finishing my degree at Georgia State seemed to require the least effort. As I was then working on my Ph.D., I had hoped that I could finish these needed courses by correspondence. The first course that I needed was Georgia State Law and History in order to receive a degree from any Georgia State University. It was easy to make that course by correspondence. The second course I needed was an additional English course. So when I had talked with the associate dean of the English department, he explained that that department had no correspondence courses available. He went on to tell me that if I were to sign up for one of his courses, Ancient Literature and spend a week of tutoring directly under his supervision that coming summer, that he would give me the credit that I needed. So I took home the textbook for the course, read it all and returned that summer for my week’s tutoring under his supervision. It was by far one of the true highlights of my academic career. He had asked me at the end of the week if I would write an evaluation of the course, to which I replied yes. Basically what was in my evaluation was the unusually great feeling that I was royalty and had my own private tutor. It was in this particular course that I had learned the likeliness of just how Jesus had most probably studied Greek and there, found his philosophy about the use of love to bring order to what would otherwise be chaos. It was a beautiful discovery that I don't think that I would have ever arrived at on my own, had I not had the usual encounter. There remained only one last obstacle to my getting my bachelors degree and that was the writing of a paper that would be used as evidence of my being literate. This requirement was one that every individual that was to graduate from a college or university in the state of Georgia would be subject to. The writing was done in a group of individuals taking this test and all of us is handed a piece of paper with the instructions; choose a book you had read recently, write down its title and author and right a brief paper on its contents. I can remember writing my paper on one of the books that I had recently read for my Ph.D. program; book entitled Deschooling Society by Ivan Illich. Well, would you believe that I flunked the writing of my paper. I shared my ill fate with that English teacher and he immediately asked him what I had written and the name of the book. He had a good laugh and explained to me that the person who possibly graded the paper had no idea what I was writing about and that he would take care of my problem. I was informed shortly thereafter that I had in fact passed the literacy requirement. So, In August of 1978 I had finally met the two additional requirements and was granted a Bachelor of Arts degree with a major in sociology. That was some 14 or if you years after I first entered the Georgia State University in the summer of 1964 |
