I recently opened several boxes of memorabilia that my Grandma Myrna had accumulated over many years. There are scrapbooks and pictures that go back 90 years. A lot of the paper pages in the scrapbook and the newsprint are very yellow and very fragile.
I came across the Plymouth Review dated June 12, 1958. There was a picture that Myrna had saved showing 14 students that had received scholarships for college. Yep, I was in the picture. Imagine a kid from the City Club receiving a scholarship to UW-Oshkosh. I couldn’t help wondering how this could happen. I finished 78th in a class of 129 scholastically. Nope, it couldn’t be that. As I looked at the picture I couldn’t help think that this was a mistake. There I was. A thorn among roses. A pauper amongst kings. Little Chuckie.
Let’s get real! There were people in the Plymouth Review picture that got full scholarships for 4 years to prestigious Universities. Brilliant minds sharing over $30,000 in scholarship money (that would translate to $400,000 to $500,000 today). I got tuition paid for one year to Oshkosh. It was $90 per semester or $180 for the year. That figures out to .6% of the total. Whooooaaaa!
Truth is I had friends in high places. Vera Carlyle, the school librarian, was my counselor. I think she had some minor scholarships to award and she might have felt sorry for me. Also my dad (who died a year earlier) had been on the School Board for 4 years and everybody in the school system knew him. I remember meeting with Vera (who always seemed very, very old) when she told me about the scholarship. Her advice was to get the hell out of Plymouth. Go someplace where you get the full college experience. It was good advice.
So there I was in the picture of scholarhip recipients. I was the second from the right in the back row.
Vera helped me get into a good situation which I built upon over the years. I’m not sure I would have picked Oshkosh as my college of choice but the scholarship sealed the deal. All I needed for the first year was to pay for books and my living. I earned enough money during the summer to cover the needed expenses. I also had a magic pixie in Plymouth named Shelby that kept sprinkling a few dollars at her future investment.
Each of us is responsible for our own actions. I made the most of the Oshkosh experience. In a very subtle way that tiny scholarship set in motion my scholastic life. Sometimes small things have a big influence on our life. You just never know!
Love,
Dad