October 18, 2014  Saturday Missie to Airport and Football Games

We took Missie to Sky Harbor Airport and said our goodbyes.  We had a wonderful and special time being with her on this trip.  Thank you, Michelle and Missie for being with us and being part of our national park trip experience!

It was time for lunch and we decided to go back to ASU which is not too far from Sky Harbor Airport.  We went to what used to be the old, downtown part of Tempe.  Now, virtually none of the buildings exist that were here when we were here.  It's all sky-rise buildings with restaurants on the street, sports bars, hair salons, etc.  Hair salons!  I hadn't had a haircut since we were in South Dakota.  Both of my hairs were far too long and I looked like a scare crow.  So I got my ears lowered and we went to lunch at a sports bar.

The crowds were beginning to build as ASU was playing a big game, Stanford, at 7:00pm.  We were only a few blocks from Sun Devil Stadium so the streets were beginning to fill with fans dressed in the normal game day regalia.  By the way, the guy who wrote about why we dress up with our team's regalia is a psychologist at ASU.  His name is Robert Cialdini and I was one of his first grad students. The name of the article is "Basking in Reflected Glory."  Cialdini spent his career studying why we are influenced by others and his book, Influence: The Psychology of Persuasion, is well known and has been published in 26 languages  If you want to know how Billy Graham got all those people to come down to the front to make their commitment, read the book.

Our waitress: Basking in Reflected Glory

We had a great time listening to the students starting to get riled up about the upcoming game.  We thought about going but found out this game was sold out at the beginning of the season.  Last year, Stanford beat ASU for the PAC 12 Championship.  We went back to Cream Puff and watched the games.  ASU won and Bama rolled over A&M.

Tomorrow we are going to see my old professor and a friend of our from our grad school days.

October 19, 2014  Sunday  Visiting Day

Its amazing how little incidents change your life.  When I was finishing up my Master's degree at Alabama I had decided to just stay there and get my Ph.D.  As a master's student, I was assigned to work for one of the Alabama professors, Dr. Robert F. Gwinner.  I graded papers for him and would help him monitor tests and would get research papers for him from the library.  He had some large classes and he would always remind me, make sure when you pass out the test papers count them out by row.  Sure enough, some of the football players would always take two tests and I would have to wait for them to confess before passing out any more tests.  Pete Jillaba(sp?) an Alabama running back, would always try this but he was honest and would cough up the extra test upon prodding. Then I would move to the next row.

One day Dr. Gwinner told me he was leaving Alabama.  He had been offered the Department Chairman job at Arizona State and he said "Why don't you come out there and get your Ph.D. It's not good to have all three degrees from the same school."  I told him I would talk to Libbo.  That conversation was short.  She liked the idea of something new.  Our parents weren't so hot on the idea. In those days, going to Arizona from Alabama was akin to moving to Mars.  But, we did it and we are so glad we did.

I've kept up with Bob Gwinner over the years.  He and his family visited us when we lived in Baton Rouge when I was at LSU.  He came through in a big A-class (bus type) motor home and they stayed at our house for a few days.  They were taking their two children to DisneyWorld...from Arizona to Orlando.  That was a pretty big deal.   But, now, my ASU grapevine was telling me that Bob was not in good health but no one knew about him or his wife Rose.  I had to pay them a visit while in Phoenix.

I found Bob to be doing OK.  He has Parkinson's disease and was diagnosed in 2005.  He is sharp and cracked jokes and we had a great visit.  But the disease makes it very difficult for him to walk and his voice is weak.  We visited him and Rose for three hours and went out to lunch.  Rose is an angel and a delight.  She had shared with us that it was Bob's birthday so we brought him a cake.

Bob and Rose Gwinner

Bob Gwinner was a very important person in our lives.  He was fair, honest and a damn good college professor.  Libbo and I will always be grateful our paths crossed with Bob and Rose.

Happy 79th Bob!

I must add that Bob always loved Libbo.  One time, as I was preparing to fly off for a job interview, he told me "Take Libbo with you."  I knew exactly what he was thinking.  "They may think you are mediocre but they will love Libbo."  

Through email I have kept up with some people I went to school with at ASU.  One was Gary Ray. Gary was about a year ahead of me in the PhD program and one of those I observed carefully going through the program to tell me what to expect next.  Gary was a good one to watch.  He finished!  His first job was at LSU but he didn't like academics.  He left and moved back to his native Kansas and became an investor.  He must have been a good one.  He retired about 15 years ago and moved back to the nice climate of Arizona.  He now lives in Tempe.  

We had a great visit with Gary.  I knew Gary was an athlete in college.  He was a baseball player as an undergrad.  What I didn't know was that he was an All-State running back in High School on an undefeated football team.  Lib and I looked at some newspaper articles we found in a book at Gary's house.  He was quite a star!

We reminisced about the old days at ASU and LSU and tried to remember who was where now.  We even got into politics and found we share some of the same beliefs about where our country is headed.  (Gary was always a smart boy!)  It was a fun visit and we hope to cross paths again soon.  

I have to say Gary is the reason I have a Facebook account.  When we were in school we went to Gary's home for dinner.  He and his wife, Mary Ellen, had the cutest little two year old daughter. Their little Sheltie would grab the daughter by her diapers and would shake her and drag her around the floor.  She laughed so hard I thought she was going to run out of air.  She loved it and the Sheltie loved it to.  So, one day I asked Gary "Send me a photo of your daughter."  He told me he had plenty of photos of her on his Facebook page.  When I told him I didn't have a Facebook account he told me I was going to have to open one if I wanted to see his daughter.  So, now I have a Facebook account. His daughters are beautiful women!

Old School Chums

Lib and Gary Ray

We left Gary's house in Tempe and braved the Phoenix Interstates to get back to Cream Puff.  We got in a rare Phoenix thunderstorm on the way back but made it home before the hard rains came.  

It was an emotional day for us and we were tired.  Tomorrow, we hit the road.  Not sure where we are headed, we get out the Atlas and "strateegerize" (a la George W. ).  We can't decide if we want to go north through Albuquerque and Santa Fe or just take I-10 straight across, the fastest way home.  I want to go I-10, through Las Cruces, New Mexico, and see if we can connect with my first Ph.D. student when I taught at Ole Miss.  Off to bed, we have a long day manana!  Las Cruces, here we come!

Signing off!