I attended Florida Christian College in Temple Terrace (Tampa), Florida for the last 4 months of 1968. It was called Florida Bible Institute originally. Later it was called just Florida College and now it is called Florida College Academy. When I was there it was a 2-year college. It is now a 4-year college.

 

I don't have a whole lot of exciting things to say about my college time, but there are a few items worth mentioning.

 

Some of my Classmates were from Alabama. According to them, Governor George Wallace and the Alabama National Guard could have won the Vietnam war in 24 hours. Considering what happened, I'm not so sure that they weren't right.

 

Flying back home on Thanksgiving vacation, we had just left the airport at Birmingham and were still in Alabama air space. I saw the seat belt light come on. I didn't know what was going on, but I buckled up. I'm glad I did, because about two minutes later, the plane started jumping up and down like a bucking bronco. I held tight to the armrests of my seat and started asking JESUS to forgive me of sins that hadn't even been invented yet. It was scary, but after a short time, things settled back down again as we flew into calmer air. The stewardesses were all cool and calm. It didn't phase them a bit. I was shaking so much, if you'd have put a glass of milk with a scoop of ice cream in my hands, I could have produced a milkshake in about 5 seconds flat. What I went through gave new meaning to the term, "Shaken, not stirred."  I know they say it was just air turbulence. Maybe so, but I still think it was the ghost of General Robert E. Lee shaking the plane because of us Yankees on board.

 

Coming back from Thanksgiving vacation with my two buddies, who were also from Kansas City, we had to land at Miami because Tampa was fogged in. We had our choice of taking planes that if Tampa was still fogged in, we would go either to Chicago or Houston. We chose the one that would land in Houston, because Chicago is pretty cold in the winter and we didn't want to get stuck there. From what I understand, the plane that we didn't take, was hijacked to Cuba.

 

I remember one time when the stewardess (They had some pretty cute ones, too!) asked us something like where we were going. I jokingly said we were going to Tampa if we didn't get hijacked. The remark got a few laughs. But, later I found out that some Government officicals were checking up on me. I didn't know this at the time, but you aren't even supposed to joke about hijacking. The FAA and FBI took hijackings very seriously. From then on, I told no more jokes.

 

We did go through a hurricane when I was down there. Or actually, I should say the the hurricane went through us. There was a lot of rain and wind, but it had already weakened and wasn't a real severe threat. Some o the guys ran across the street just to say that they had been in a hurricane. I can think of a lot easier accomplishments.

 

About the biggest thing I accomplished in college was that me and two other guys decided to form a crime-fighting team like "Batman & Robin". We were the "Christian Crusaders". I was "Deacon Dashner", another guy was "Cardinal St. Louis" and the third one was "Bishop Travis", which was his real name in reverse. We planned to swing down on ropes while yelling, "JESUS Saves!" and hit criminals on the head with wooden crosses. We disbanded in December of 1968 because of Christmas break. I know what we did sounded stupid, but consider this:  Ever since we broke up, the crime rate has continually risen in this country.

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ELECTRONIC INSTITUTE  1976-1977:

 

I attended Electronics Institute which was in the old All-Star Bowling Lanes building (I bowled there when I was 13) across from the Katz, now Skaggs Drug Store. I received a diploma in Electronics.

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