During Bill's year at UC Berkeley, to complete his BA in math, we lived in a small apartment very close to campus. During this year I learned to cook, though another of Bill's favorite cooking stories involves the lunches I would pack for him. We were on a very tight budget so sometimes I would buy and cook chicken necks. Guess how much meat you find on chicken necks? Not too satisfying. So we did find other foods like peanut butter and jelly sandwiches.
During this year, I substitute taught for the Berkeley Public Schools. This "happened" to be the first year of integration in these schools and there were often fights between blacks and whites on the playground. I was (am) short and was very young looking then. I was sometimes mistaken as a student. Once I was shoved around by some of the kids there, and another time was stopped by a faculty member who wanted to see my hall pass. But I loved the teaching and at the end of the year was offered one of 20 position openings for the next year. I was told there were 2000 applicants. I declined as we were heading towards Wycliffe, but felt quite honored.
It was a great year full of new and old friends. Bill had planned to room with John Watters that year before we were engaged, but of course that changed. Nevertheless, during that year, we spent many wonderful Sunday afternoons and evenings with John and Kathy discussing interesting philosophers and thinkers, eating fresh baked bread, and watching The Smothers Brothers and Goldie Hawn.
It was also the year of the political riots at UC Berkeley, 1968-1969. The flashpoint was an empty lot that the University had planned eventually to use for building. It was taken over by student radicals and named "People's Park." The University wanted it back and the police accommodated, violently. The result was a wave of riots. We lived on the same street as the park and and one day I came back to find our apartment street barricaded. I had to show my driver’s license to prove I lived there and get though. When I got home I was shocked to find Bill there quite different. He was clean-shaven! His mustache and beard were gone! The police had been rounding up and arresting anyone looking like a hippie and he didn't want to join them in jail.
OK, here's another example that reminds my husband of Anne Shirley (Anne of Green Gables) who said "I make lots of mistakes but I never make the same mistake twice."Out of my experience of this this year in the “integrated” schools I wrote a couple of articles about substitute teaching that got published. Being naive, I submitted to 2 different magazines and got accepted by both. The first journal, Grade Teacher, sent a $10 check which I promptly I cashed (a lot of money back then, especially for us). Then I wrote the other magazine to have them withdraw my submission. They replied by slapping my hand: it's bad manners to submit to two places at once. It was already being prepared for publishing though they had neglected to tell me. I learned my lesson.
After this year, we headed back to Oklahoma for Bill to take his first semester of linguistics and for us to apply to Wycliffe as a couple. We were very grateful when we passed the rigorous application process and were accepted to Wycliffe as Bible translators! We would soon be headed to the jungles of southern Mexico for Jungle Camp.
During this summer I taught Phonology to first year students under the leadership of Dr. Dow Robinson and his wife Lois. Little did I know then what a key role they would play in the rest of my life.
Something else VERY big and important happened during this summer. I became pregnant with our first child who would soon be named Jonathan Milo Leal. We were excited, expectant parents! You’ll hear more about him soon.
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