OCC's 1964 Freshman bonfire and my Jeep

I transferred to OCC from Fort Worth Christian in 1964. That Fall OCC still had, as a Homecoming Activity, something known as the 'Freshman Bonfire'. All types of wood and other flammable objects were brought together, on the North side of the Learning Center. It was a good opportunity for people to get rid of all kinds of combustible objects...including wood. Guys risked their lives, stacking telephone poles, old furniture, cross-ties and other objects, in their attempt to build the biggest of allbonfires.

The bonfire was guarded a good bit of the time -- for good reason. More about that later...

A little background info:
I transferred in as a junior, and I had a vehicle..of sorts. It was an old jeep, made of parts of a Willys jeep and a Ford jeep. It looked like the old proverbial 'camel put together by committee'. It looked awful. It had no sides, so it was strictly an open-air vehicle. It also had no paint, except in places where I had not sanded and primed the metal. A lot of the metal was rusted. It was not a pretty thing, but it WAS fairly dependable. The carburetor was not made for the vehicle, so the air cleaner and filter would not fit under the hood. I had to improvise an air filter out of a pair of pantyhose, held on top of the carburetor with a hose clamp to try to keep dust and dirt out of the carburetor. It was a fun vehicle, though, and both boys and girls liked riding around town in my little jeep! The jeep was so unattractive it was cute! 

When I took girls out for dates in the fall, winter and spring, I had to bring blankets to wrap them up so they wouldn't freeze! Now, back to the bonfire! One day, when the bonfire-to-be was left unguarded, some guys and I took my jeep and raided the bonfire materials before they were erected. We hooked a cable around the telephone poles that were going to be the corners of the bonfire. Having secured the cable to the jeep, we took off! To the west of the campus, before the days of sewer service for the campus, there was this thing that the uninformed called a 'pond.'  A more accurate but ominous description would have nailed it perfectly -- a 'sewage lagoon'. We drove around the earthen embankments that surrounded the lagoon, dragging the telephone poles behind the jeep. We couln't believe our good fortune!  We had stolen the freshman bonfire telephone pole supports and had gotten away without getting caught!

As I whipped around the top of the retaining wall, the telephone poles followed dutifully behind the jeep, rolling and rolling, twisting the cable and mowing down the grass and weeds.  The guys who were with me unhooked the cable and with great effort we threw the telephone poles into the lagoon.  It was not a pretty sight. The telephone poles floated like basking sea lions in the sewage. We were elated! We couldn't quit laughing! We went back to campus and by now, at the site of the bonfire-to-be there was outrage among the freshmen over the disappearance of their coveted telephone poles. Without the telephone poles, there would be no grand bonfire! Eventually we were found out (maybe because we were all rolling on the ground, red-faced from laughing).

The freshmen had no way to get the telephone poles back to campus. We decided that the prank had been fun but that we had to help them out, so back to the lagoon we all went. The freshmen, brave souls that they were, waded out into the lagoon to secure their telephone poles. At the time, I thought that they exhibited unbelievable valor! There was no way that any of us upperclassmen would have waded into that lake of sludge and floating 'cookies.' We secured the other end of the cable to the jeep again and headed off for campus, going south on Eastern and then uphill on Memorial Road. The telephone poles were on pavement this time, and dragging on the pavement, they caught fire, and were smoking pretty good by the time we got them back to campus. No harm was done. Nobody got hurt. We all had great fun at the expense of the freshmen. The freshmen had to bathe...and bathe...and bathe (and, who knows--they may have had to burn some clothes). The bonfire happened without further incident. The sad looking little jeep got to have its 15 minutes of fame.

Later that year, the little jeep got to perform again when I took eight OCC girls down to Denison, Texas for the weekend. We didn't all fit in the jeep, and the jeep wouldn't go faster than 45 mph down old highway 77, but we were a funny sight, with legs hanging out on all sides as we went down the highway! We looked like a spider on wheels! Cheryl McKee, a wonderful OCC girl who went on to be Homecoming Queen the next year, provided two of my jeep's legs during that trip! Cheryl lived in Denison, Texas and she hosted the girls' visit. We all had a great weekend, but, on the return trip to OCC, it became bitter cold. I had to drive, so different girls took turns holding their hands over my ears so I wouldn't freeze while driving. We were NOT prepared for cold weather --not at all! By the time we got to Norman, we were in a blinding snowstorm. Some of the guys from campus came to meet us and take the girls back to campus in their cars...cars with windows, heaters and the works. I came back to OCC from Norman, finally having had about enough of the little Jeep. I needed a real car, with windows and doors -- protection from the elements. Dating, in an open-air jeep, was beginning to lose its allure.

In the spring, I succumbed to the flashy sales presentation of the Southwestern Company, of Nashville, Tennessee. They recruited a large number of us to be Bible salesmen. I needed a car, so I sold the little Jeep and bought a 1959 Chevy Impala, via the unbelievable kindness of Ralph Burcham, who, not really even knowing me, co-signed a bank note for me to buy that car. Years later, when I developed a little bit of common sense, I was embarrassed for having put Ralph on the spot to help me out. He could have refused me. No one would have blamed him. I was an idiot for having asked him. Ralph, however, did what he has done all his life --- he went out on a limb to help someone else out. He trusted me to make the payments on that Chevy Impala. I love Ralph and Gladys..for all they are and all they have been to so many, for their entire lives.

The memories of the Homecoming bonfires, the many trips in the Jeep, the wonderful guys and girls I met while at OCC comprise a lot of the best memories of my life.
Many of the friends from those days at OCC are still best friends -- and, over the years, the memories of those friends and the good times we had, grow sweeter by the year!