ARIZONA STATE TEACHERS COLLEGE
Arizona State Teachers College, now known as Northern Arizona University, was about the size of an average high school when I registered there in 1931. I do not know the exact size but I will guess it was not over five hundred students. I came on campus with over two years of boarding school under my belt so I was quite sophisticated and when they assigned me to the stone cabins south of the campus I arbitrarily moved to Taylor Hall where I found Ray Cordes without a room mate. I moved in and we became good friends. In fact I became well acquainted with Ray's entire family and spent a number of short vacations as a guest in their home. They had a store and post office on the Black Canyon Road south of Mayer. I found that the main source of income for them was the sale of dynamite to mines in the general area. They also sold hay and grain to ranchers.
On the campus, Ray and I were active in the Hiking Club. This was a group that spent almost every Saturday hiking the trails around Flagstaff. Once a year, in May, we went on the "Long Hike" to Havasupai, Betatakin or Rainbow Bridge. This hike lasted a week and only those who had hiked two hundred miles during the year were eligible to go. We carried food, clothing and blankets on our backs and camped out at our destination. This was routine for some of us but was a unique experience for those from a city. The average number on a "Long Hike" was thirty five.
The Hiking Club, under the guidance of Robert Powers faculty sponsor, and with the approval of the U. S. Forest Service, took over a log cabin near Walnut Canyon. The cabin roof was in good shape and we repaired the walls and floors and constructed a fireplace in one corner of the large main room. A perfect sandstone "A" was built into the face of the chimney above the mantle. The "A" of course, was the symbol for Arizona State. Years later after I retired and moved to Arizona I found the remains of the old cabin and there was the "A" perfectly preserved. With the help of the Alumni Association the "A" was moved intact to the north entrance to the campus now known as Northern Arizona University where the current enrollment is some fifteen thousand.
Back to the campus. Since Arizona State was a teachers college and since Aunt Ivel was so idolized, I never considered doing anything other than teaching. I selected education as my major study with minors in social science, english and mathematics. My only academic problem was with mathematics. I got good grades in algebra the first year but the second year was a disaster. The professor was very impatient with all students and especially with those of us who did not learn quickly. I agonized through the first semester and with some tutoring from fellow students I managed to get a passing grade. The second semester was trigonometry which was a snap but I never came close to understanding algebra.
The math professor became ill a short time later and was sent to a mental institution. I think his problem may have stemmed from trying to teach me.
The 1930s was marked and shaped by the great economic
