Our story by Bobby Floyd Fate 1

Before I start reminiscing about the return to college, there are a few disastrous events that did happen in Daytona Beach before we left that affected us very much. There was a help wanted ad in in a local Newspaper for a part time evening desk clerk at the motel where I had worked and I was considering taking the job but Jocelyne said NO. The young man about my age that did take the job was murdered one evening about a month later after taking the position; he was shot in the back of the head while at the switch board; all of $30 was taken from the cash register and they never found out who did it. The other was: the owner /my friend/ex-boss of the motel sold it and walked away with a huge profit; decided to travel the summer months with his wife and three young boys. While in Western Canada, he and his oldest son (about 13) were standing on the top edge of a high cliff looking at the scenery and the side of the cliff gave away and they fell a long way down. The son landed on top of the father and lived but with a lot of serious injuries ; but the father died on the spot……

When attending this four year military college in 1960-62, my parents paid everything, I was not ready then to take advantage of what they were doing for me but now it was a different story. Two years of college with no degree meant very little in the real world as I wandered across the country (Texas, Nebraska & Wyoming) taking the numerous unskilled jobs that were available to me. Because every physically able male over 18 had a military commitment, most all companies, did not want to talk with you until you had fulfilled this commitment. There were many ways to avoid the draft in the 60’s especially when the Vietnam Conflict started. The First law was if you were married you did not have to serve. A huge increase in marriages occurred so the government changed it to, if you were married with a child you did not have to serve. A whole lot of babies were born from 1964 through the early 1970’s to avoid military service. People that stayed in school were deferred; had employment that the government deemed essential; joined the Peace Corp, moved to Canada (125,000), etc. The only advantage of being drafted was you had only two years of active duty service but the army decided where and what you did. If you volunteered full time for any branch of service you had a longer commitment of active duty but you generally had some choices of jobs or places of deployment. Men who signed up for the Reserves and National guards served 6 months active duty state side with 5 & ½ years of one weekend a month plus two weeks of training every year. The lottery to be drafted was started in Dec 1969 continued until about 1973 and then the US went to all volunteer military.

Before arriving in Dahlonega in the summer of 1969 my mother had found us a temporary place that was down town above an ice cream store on the old town square. We did find another place a week later that Mrs. Edward’s owned that was directly across the street from the administration building at the School. It was an old restored 19 century home that had been divided into the 3 apartments and we were upstairs with a large kitchen, bath room and bedroom and we lived there for another two months with our miniature poodle.

After paying the month’s rent, the funds to pay the tuition for the first quarter were very short. We put a for –sale- sign on my boat and the first person that looked at it wanted to try it on Lake Lanier which was not far away. . Sometimes the motor was hard to start but this day, we got lucky again, it started like a new motor and we sold him the boat for $350.00. The thirtyish something pleasant man that bought it had just gotten out of prison a few days before for moonshining. It’s really not that bad if you consider where we were in the Blue Ridge Mountains of Georgia. At the time this area was known for being the capital of moonshining in GA besides being the site of the first major gold rush in the USA after taking all the Cherokee Indians lands and sending them out to Oklahoma. It’s also near the end of the Appalachian Trail.

We paid my quarterly tuition and I still remember having to take a mandatory English literature class and it was definitely not my cup of tea. No matter how many hours studying, it was not sinking in my thick head. If it were not for Jocelyne helping me I would not have passed this course. She had taken this type of class while in her French college and she knew this stuff as good as my professor.

The first to get a part time job was my wife and she worked about 20 hours a week in the language lab for minimum wage. This was a perfect job for her because she spoke perfect French, ok English, fair Spanish and some German.

Before we go any further, I must say something about my wife: She was a 100 percent behind me returning to school and after being married for a little over a year I learned that she had this uncanny ability to remember everyone’s telephone numbers and birthdays (even today); she also, had an ear for music and languages, she could hear a song and practice for an hour or so and play it on the piano just by hearing it. When she was not working, she lived in English crossword books and reading (for Christmas presents one year at college all she got from me was a big stack of crossword books).

Sometimes in life one gets lucky. The college had almost finished building a huge student center with a large reception lounge, chapel, one apartment, two additional bedrooms for guests, offices, study rooms, TV lounge, large canteen, information booth, conference room, bowling alley, movie theater, 6 large bathrooms, auditorium and a pool hall to name some. The person in charge of it all, Mr. Reed, a retired Warrant Officer in his early forties who had his feet frozen in Korea and still had a lot problems with them, offered me a job because I was older, a vet and we were now friends. No money involved but instead: a free new luxurious furnished apartment with one bedroom, dishwasher, large fancy bathroom, carpet and velvet sofa and chair, and large dining room table. This is all I had to do: unlock all the entrance doors by 6:00 am and lock them all after 11:00 pm seven days a week; hire and maintain the students work schedule for the Information Desk that was open most hours that the Center was; check on the students for any misbehaving like making out; entertain any guests speakers or dignitaries, etc. that the school might have before or after their talk and check to make sure they were ok with their bedrooms.

By the time the second month started, things started looking up: GI Bill was paying me $125.00 a month, the same they paid in the early 50’s and 6 months after my graduation it jumped to $350.00 and today it’s in the thousands a month plus rent money. Jocelyne was bringing in the needed grocery money with her part time employment and I was finally learning how to study as my test grades started improving a little. We had settled into our new apartment that was next to the two bedrooms for the dignitaries but one had to go through the beautiful very large lounge area to the only door to our apartment.

My intention was to take some courses that would help me get into law school but after my first class in Psychology things changed. My professor, Dr. Coon, who was only 6 years older than me, had been a high school football coach for a couple of years before going back to the University of Georgia to get his PhD, convinced me to major in Psychology. He and I became very good friends over the next two years.

My favorite of all subjects was Experimental Psychology. My three month experiment on the effects of caffeine on learning, using lab rats, was A plus work and the accolades for this professional research were many. This was really the field (Experimental Psychology) that I wanted to pursue upon graduation but later on found out that it would require me getting my PhD to make a decent living from it. Another subject that was very easy or natural for me, but not so for many other students, was Sociology (all A’s)

Next, the head of the Psychology Department, Dr. Jackson, offered me a great opportunity to start and run the new experimental Psychology lab. The school bought an old small one story home very close to the campus and asked that I fix it up inside with cages/ lab rats and maintain the lab. The pay was minimum wage but could work all the hours that were needed and with the help of two other psychology majors as my assistants (Jack Mayer & Mike Shipp) we provided an excellent lab for the students.. Some of us worked as many as 14 hour days on the week-ends and holidays. I trained my favorite rat called BABY to go through a complicated maze first, get into an elevator. The elevator would be released due to her weight, get out and go to the jumping stand (about 5’ off the ground) and jump over a foot and half away through the closed door with a black circle that would flop down. There were two doors; one with a solid black circle and one with a solid white circle and the circles were changed left or right often. She would then climb a ladder, walk a narrow ledge about 2’ long, climb a perch that was about a foot high and get her reward (food). Overall height to the food was about 7’. Baby could do all of this in 33 seconds. We brought her to many 101 Psychology classes where she would show off her skills in this presentation. She loved to get into Jocelyne’s lovely long hair on her head and wander around in it and on her shoulders. Baby was given to my favorite professor’s young son as a pet after graduation.

Jocelyne was ever so good at being a hostess to the schools dignitaries. She dressed and talked the part of a hostess. She served some tea and refreshments in our apartment on many occasions as we entertained them. We were host to two Governors, one Senator, many authors, etc.

We had many a study session with other students in our apartment and Jocelyne would provide meals or refreshments. No alcohol was allowed on campus. One of the main reasons that we had study session was to learn from each other but also, some of my class notes were unreadable.

One thing that was done often was for me to go fishing and catch our dinner meal. There was a trout stream only a couple of miles from the school and if there were a couple of hours between classes off, I went fishing for rainbow trout and always came back with some.

The few times that we were able to get off on the week-ends, we went camping and or fishing with other students.

By my senior year, Dean’s list was the norm for me. In fact, the last quarter I finally made all A’s. Even though my grades were good, the two things that even today are problems for me are: my writing and spelling skills that are deficient. Thank goodness for multiple choice questions and the Bell Curve that some of my Professors used. In May of 1971 I received my Bachelor of Science degree in Psychology with minors in Sociology & Biology. The person that presented me with my sheep skin/diploma and shook my hand was the then Governor of the State of Georgia ---- Jimmy Carter.

Except for my mother paying $50 deposit on our first apartment we paid for everything with the aid of the GI Bill, me working two part time jobs and Jocelyne one. We took zero student loans out and owed no money to anyone when I finally graduated at the age of almost 29.

We had considered staying on campus after graduation in some sort of position because both of us loved the area, being around students and the teachers was a joy, but our hopes were nixed because a new President of the College was being brought in with his cronies. Nearly all my contacts were being replaced including my boss at the Student Center.

1. Jocelyne and I were taking a casual walk back to our apartment for lunch when she asked me: “what does a ball bearing do?” Curiosity got the best of me and I asked her: why do you want to know this? She explained to me that after lunch she had to go to one of the classes and tell the students that Mr. Simpson was not going to be there because he had to be a “ball bearing” at a friend’s funeral. I shouldn’t have, but could not help it when I smiled. She had never read or heard the words pall-bearer before but the words ball-bearing were close. Thank God, the situation was remedied before she said it in class. Can you imagine the students’ reaction?

2. One Saturday Jocelyne and I spent the day fishing in a small lake on a side road up in the mountains going to Blairsville, GA. After catching our limit we returned to campus but had forgotten that the school was having a reception in the lounge of the Student Center for US Senator Herman Talmadge that evening, all in formal attire. Remember, the only door to our apartment was inside the student center. Somehow we needed reach the other side of the Student Lounge area to get to our apartment door without being noticed or drawing any attention from the large crowd. We were dressed in our worst clothes, me with a white T-shirt and shorts; Jocelyne had decided this day to wear “my” old light yellow Bermuda shorts that went almost to her ankles. Jocelyne’s hair was a mess, not much make-up on and both of our clothes were covered with dirt, slime from the fish and especially worm goo that accentuated the colors even more. We figured our best chance was to hug the wall as I carried the small chest full of trout while Jocelyne who was almost glued to my back (very, very close behind me with the fishing rods). You guessed it! About half way around the wall to our apartment, Senator Talmadge spotted us and made a bee line to us with part of the crowd following him. He just wanted to see the fish that we had caught, so I opened the cooler to show him and now everyone else too. Gee, I wish I had of photo of Jocelyne’s face and her attire this evening as she was introduced to the US Senator.

3. Dr. Oliver, who was from England, spoke three languages fluently, studied to be a minister, married three times at this time, my French teacher, Jocelyne’s boss, head of language department came to our apartment (when we lived at Mrs. Edward’s) with his then wife and enjoyed a dinner meal with us as we consumed three bottles of wine one evening and we all became friends for the remainder of stay at college.

4. After the end of the first summer session Dr. Oliver offered us his brand new diesel Mercedes to drive to Quebec for vacation to visit Jocelyne’s parents/sister if we would just drop him off at Kennedy Airport in NY and pick him back up a week or so later. When returning from our visit in Canada, I had lost or misplaced my driver’s license and here we were in this crowded, traffic congested, high speed, New York City in a borrowed expensive car and I was more than just a tad bit nervous when a two ton flat-bed truck pulled alongside of us and two scruffy looking African American men yelled to me: “get the hell back to GA.” By the time we had arrived at Kennedy Airport, I was a nervous wreck and was so looking forward to Dr. Oliver taking the wheel and getting us out of town. But it wasn’t to be because Dr. Oliver could barely walk when he got off the airplane. He was drunk!!!!

5. Sometimes as part of our job at the student center, we also had to prepare for receptions in the large student lounge in front of our apartment. We had done this for the then present Governor of Georgia, Lester Maddox and someone had provided a birthday cake for him with his famous word that he said often: “Phooey” put on it. The Governor tried three times to say Jocelyne’s name but could not when I introduced her to him. I never understood how he got to be Governor. He was an arch segregationist and the Rev. Martin Luther King said the results of the vote made him “ashamed to be a Georgian” It was my understanding that the governor did not graduate for high school and his claim to fame was selling axe handles in his gift shop at his famous restaurants in Atlanta. Welcome to Georgia in the 60’s. If you don’t know his reasoning for selling the axe handle then ask someone of the time period. I’m too ashamed to say.

6. Very sad but true: Jocelyne and I had befriended a freshman; an 18 year old who liked to be called Blue who I think was the first one of African American descent to attend this college. The first quarter, while he was downtown (a couple of 100 yards away from the campus one night), by himself, he was pulled into an alley and beaten by some men of the area just because of his skin color. He stayed for only two quarters in this college before he transferred out. This was 1969 and there was not only prejudices in the Deep South that still existed in a lot of places but there was true hatred of some minorities. This is a subject that I’ve tried to understand; why this happens since I was a teenager growing up in Marietta, GA in the 50’s where everything was segregated: water fountains, movie theaters, bus station, buses, schools, sports, restaurants, swimming pools, etc.

7. There was still a lot of moonshining going on in the area but the Sheriff was clamping down on some of them. The Sheriff’s double-wide trailer, about a mile from campus, was blown up with dynamite one night but he and his family were not at home at this time.

8. Our VW bug was just about finished because it was not really made to pull a boat hundreds of miles like we had, we needed another auto. My father-in-law who had been a bank manager for long time, went into real-estate sales and did very well for many, many years, gave us $2000.00 to purchase another automobile. We compared prices at a lot of dealerships and finally found the first year made: a red, stick shift, 1970 Ford Maverick that we both loved and paid cash $1800.00 in Cummings, GA for it.

9. It was time for Jocelyne to get her driver’s license so we found a secondary paved road with little or no traffic to practice on to learn how to drive a stick shift and she did very well except when the car was at dead stop on a hill. Coordinating the clutch and gas was a real problem for her so we found a mountain with a straight away for about a mile going up for her to practice on. The car would jerk then go dead every time she tried, it seemed. Then along came a state trooper (the only automobile we had seen this day on this road) who got out his car, came over to me and asked me what the trouble was? My response, “I’m teaching my wife to drive”. He smiled/chuckled, turned around and walked away then yelled back: “GOOD LUCK”.

10. Jocelyne hates me telling part of this story but I’m going to do it anyway. We went camping/trout fishing with a young couple Charlie Olinger and Liddy Black from college next to a stream up in the mountains near to the side of a dirt road with no one else around us. We had caught a bunch of rainbow trout, wrapped them in tin-foil with butter and cook them on the open fire and believe me when I say they were delicious. The four of us only had one tent, the army pup tent with no door, so the girls were in the tent and we men were outside at the girl’s feet in our sleeping bags. As we were lying there talking in the dark, I decide to run my hand up my wife leg and all of a sudden, with the sound of urgency, I heard Liddy’s voice: BOBBY! BOBBY! My hand turned loose of the leg ever so fast. And then the girls started laughing hard. You see it was Jocelyne leg all along and she had put Liddy up this joke. I’ve always heard that pay back can be hell. The next morning early, it was my turn to pay my bride back. There was no restroom facilities where we were and when the city girl who had never camped primitive style said what do I do? I said: there is a big oak tree up the hill, which was about 4’ around, and go behind it. So off she went. I told our friends watch this. When Jocelyne was totally out of sight behind the big oak, I yelled “We can see you” waited a few seconds and yelled again “we can still see you.” I guess now you know what happened. Then, I yelled even louder “you’ve gone too far.”

11. The lizard story: We decided to go bass fishing and for bait we needed some spring lizards (salamanders) that they sold at bait stores for $4.50 a dozen but to save money decided to go to the mountain creeks up near Murphy, NC and wade the creeks to get my own that cost nothing. I collected about four dozen, put them in a cooler with a little ice and kept them in our apartment until we were ready to go fishing. One Saturday morning Jocelyne was really being lazy and would not get out of bed. My solution, pull the covers back and let her share the bed with four very live, active, spring lizards. I had never seen my lovely wife move so fast. Did I ever tell you my wife has a temper? As I ran from her swinging fist, I held her back by my long arms stretched out with my hand on top of her forehead. I was laughing so hard that I lost my concentration and all of a sudden my hand slipped from her forehead and she connected; knocked the air out of my sails as she landed a good one to the side of my chin with her right hook. I know most of you women are thinking that I deserved it-------- and you are probably right. ----- Pay back can be Hell.

One of the best days of my life was when I got “my piece of paper” because it was long time in coming, and no one could take this away from me.

We had a wonderful party for my graduation in our apartment in the Student Center where Jocelyne’s parents came from Canada, my mother and sister; many of my professors and their wives, plus other friends (students) were in attendance.

Her parents wanted us to move closer to Quebec, Canada and both Jocelyne and I were open to a new adventure, so, why not. We moved in with her parents as I checked with McGill University (the Harvard of Canada) about their doctoral program. My interview went well but they were looking for A plus students for the 3 year doctoral program but they did like my research on the effects of caffeine on learning. Next, I went to the University of Vermont that did not have a three year accelerated program but would accept me in their master program and then maybe the Doctoral program afterward.

I really was not that upset about not continuing my education because: my two year GI bill was used up, we were nearly broke and it was time to look for employment.

Because Quebec was only 10 percent English and 90 percent French, I was, at the time, not even considering looking for work there because of my inability to speak French, but instead concentrated on Vermont or New York State. We moved to her parents’ beautiful retreat log home on a lake near the border of US to start my search for employment in the states.

My first test for a job was in Burlington Vermont for a social worker’s job did not go as expected. Of the eight or so people taking the test for this job, I was the only one without a Master’s degree. All the other people were willing to take this $7,500 a year job just to be close to the snow skiing resorts. My next offer after taking the State exam was to be a New York State trooper. The pay was good ($17,000 a year) because they gave me credit (more money) for having a four year degree and more points for being a vet. I wasn’t totally thrilled of the prospects of doing this kind of work even though the pay was good, but Jocelyne again said she did not want me to take it because of the danger involved, shift work and not being home on the week-ends.

Because we were living in Canada at her parent cottage and was not having any luck finding work in the states, decided to try Canada. Got my Quebec driver’s license and my immigration green card (landed immigrant) which meant that one could do everything a Canadian could do, except to vote.

There were a few small towns in the area we were living at the lake that were mainly English speaking so I searched for work there but to no avail. After being in Quebec for about two months, a friend of Jocelyne’s family, Jimmy Petts and I were out fishing for small mouth bass on the lake at the cottage and he asked if I would be interested in working for Bell Canada as a manager trainee in this huge warehouse in Montreal where he was a 2^nd level manager. About 100 people were employed there. I jumped all over this opportunity; we found an apartment in Beloeil where her parents/sister and a lot of relatives lived and started my new job.

Within a month or so Jocelyne went back to the job that she had once had as a Service Representative in downtown Montreal with Bell Canada. I was making about $16,000 a year and she a little less but now we were trying to settle into a new life.

My job was good but it was not what I wanted to do for the rest of my life. I had been there over a year when I quit it to take a job paying $6,500 but first had to learn to speak French and promise to take some advanced courses at York University in Toronto in this new field, to get it. Needless to say, my father-in-law was furious that I quit my job with an excellent future for such low paying one with no security.