Biographical Notes reCharles A. (Chuck) StonePage 2 of 4 Pages, of Chapter 11,SCHOOL DAZE |
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| As the fall semester came due, I signed up for my introductory courses. My goal was to get teaching certificates in areas of study that were always my favorite hobbies, Art and Industrial Arts. I began my pursuit of a double major in education. Transitioning from our patterns of the past year, a number of changes began to evolve. I developed a plan to remodel our two car garage into a photo lab and wood working shop, with a special furnace installed in the garage. The car would sit out in the snow. Nell looked at our bank account and decided she needed to go out and get a job. She had already begun to network in the neighborhood and when one of her friends got the news she called a lady lawyer in town, a member of the primary law firm in Flag, Mangum, Wall and Stoops. Nell got a call from Joyce Mangum that next day, who asked her to please come down for an interview. Nell sat down for a chat with Joyce and they hit it right off. Nell said she hadn’t been in the business world for many years and didn’t know if she could even recall her shorthand writing abilities. They appreciated her maturity and life experience and invited her to try out as a secretary-receptionist as a trial on a half-day basis. By the time she had arrived home, they had already called and asked her to make that full time. Nell went to work the next day. She thrived on the work and got on well with all of the staff. Over time, she became Joyce’s personal secretary, office receptionist, repairer of copy machines, and resolver of many challenges they had never gotten around to deal with, up to that time. Her work filled her days, lifted her self esteem and energized her in many ways. As I got started in school, I arranged my schedules so as to leave school no later than 3:00 p.m., on weekdays, so I could prepare supper for the family. Our division of studies and labor worked well. My health was holding up, I was really enjoying being back in school, and I enjoyed each day, immensely. Searching for a Methodist Church, we discovered a new church being formed in the area of West Flagstaff, an easy drive from our home. The church was meeting in a school gym and had a storeroom in the building where they could keep their stuff in between Sunday services. We immediately liked the minister and church membership and signed on. Soon Nell was singing in the choir and had taken on the responsibility for the church library. She found herself striving to set up and take down a lending library for every service. |
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| I soon made her a roll-around library cart in our new garage shop and all she had to do was wheel it out for the service and wheel it back. Thus began a warm nurturing church relationship for Nell and myself. Sometimes for a break, the Pastor, Bill Denlinger, would come over to the house and work in our photo lab. He was an ardent hiker and photo enthusiast. A number of the friends we developed in that church were teachers in local schools or NAU. We participated in a group in the church that were doing serious planning to construct a new Methodist Church in Flagstaff. My family settled into a wonderful, much less stressful routine than we had enjoyed in a long time. During the latter half of the winter, I had one of my nocturnal bouts of sudden illness which often made me pass out. This invariably happened in the middle of the night and the place was typically the bathroom. I had a number of scars on my forehead from floor tile, bent over heat vent handles, etc. They sent me to the VA Hospital in Prescott for a two week vacation, but I proved too healthy for them to make any miracles happen. I was soon back in school and happy to be there. My home shop was adequately fitted out so I could begin to take in various kinds of woodcraft and photo-related work. I was soon mounting and framing pictures, using framing material cut from scratch in my shop. After building some extra cabinetry in our home, I began to take on contracts to design and build cabinets and built-in furniture for others. The variety of things that began to come out of my shop became increasingly varied and soon included decorative mural sized, photo collages and other services that had not been readily available in the community, at that time. Be assured, I was not getting rich in this process, but I was paying for the material and supporting the maintenance of the shop and getting school credits for some of the projects. Our son took on a few after- school jobs and finally found the one he really enjoyed which was being an assistant manager at a Taco Belle. He got us hooked on Mexican food, an addiction we have never really recovered from. We had traded in our Ford sedan for a Ford station wagon which had a large rear deck that would let us load lumber and plywood sheets for transport from the lumber yard to home. Sandie was up to her elbows, studying art with an emphasis on pottery. I found myself, as a mid-life adult, perfectly in tune with my teachers and younger students. I learned that teachers really enjoy older students, as they added a dimension to any class that is very healthy. One sad note is that I saw students, sometimes sitting on the floor in class, obviously well into the drug culture and not tuned into the academic environment at all. This was a most painful time for many military families and our Nation as a whole. The Viet Nam issue was moving toward its conclusion with major confusion as to what was and was not being accomplished. As I developed my collage mural technique, from scratch, (no instruction available on this), I was asked by the local Air Force Recruiters to help them decorate their offices. Photos of the results of this effort are contained in this story. Soon after, having met the nephew of WW I fighter pilot and Medal Of Honor winner, Frank Luke, with the help of the USAF History Museum at Wright-Patt, I worked up a collage of Frank’s WW I military history. A photo of that product is displayed on these pages. The State of Arizona accepted it as a gift for display in their Capitol building. They said it would serve as a teaching device to go with the statue of Frank Luke located on the Capitol grounds. Our son, David, was in the senior class at his high school. He was tutoring his father and another adult student friend of ours, to help us limp through technical math. We both passed these courses, with his consistent help and advice. When Dave graduated from high school, he registered for the fall semester at NAU. He did well in his courses and obviously had a natural knack for math and electronics. As he got into his second semester, his Draft # was one that put him on the early call-up list. He said good-bye to his teachers and enlisted in the USAF. He was soon in electronics training at Lowery with a later assignment to a remote radar site in Alaska. |
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An art print framed using
three combined types of carpenter moldings, antiquing paint and artist’s modeling paste. |
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Below: Photo collage, same size, created from my military history negative file collection. This mural was loaned to the recruiting office, pending our eventual planned departure from Flagstaff. |
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End of Page 2 of 4 Pages, Chapter 11 — Go to Page 3 Click below to select a destination Go to Page 1 — 2 — 3 — 4, this Chapter Chapters 1 — 2 — 3 — 4 — 5 — 6 — 7 — 8 — 9 — 10 |
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