Arizona and the 60s

Richard writes:  You asked how we decided to move to Tucson.  The short answer is to attend graduate school at the University of Arizona.   The long answer is because ofUS involvement in the Viet Nam War.  I was on active duty with the Army from 1956-1958 and had one year of the GI Bill left after completing my Masters degree in counseling at the University of Wisconsin, Madison, in 1959.  A student who graduated  from Hamilton High School, Sussex, WI, in 1954, Michael Wilson, was sent home in a body bag, probably in 1965. This was a deeply moving experience for me.  I began studying our involvement, what national interest was being served, and the more I learned the more convinced that we should end our involvement and how difficult it is to retract an action once begun.  I decided the only thing I could do personally was to quit paying taxes to support the war.  The socially acceptable way of doing that was to quit having income, and graduate school was a way to have no (or less) taxable income.  I looked at programs that fit my interest which also included experiencing a cultural setting different than Wisconsin, and the usual upper Midwest.  Audrey and I both agreed that we did not want our children to grow up in the ethnocentric communities we did such as Holmen or Freemont, predominantly one ethnic group, one set of occupational opportunities, and one political point of view.  Schools that I considered include the University of Colorado at Boulder, Florida State U at Tallahassee,  and the U of Arizona, Tucson.  By the summer of 1967 I was prepared enough to try a summer school in Tucson to see if we could tolerate the heat.  We used Terry Rolfs apartment on Campbell Ave and a lot of time was spent at the pool in married student housing.   I made application and on a bitterly cold snowy day in February 1969 received a call from U of AZ that I had been accepted and awarded an assistantship.   The assistantship consisted of supervising a residence hall (living in with free housing and utilities and resident tuition).  They said “I suppose you want some time to think it over.”   My reply was ‘yes, about 30 seconds, I’ll be there.’

During my stay in Arizona, GI Bill benefits went from two years to four years, so I had a stipend from the Government, and upon arriving on campus, I was invited to teach the foundation of guidance class, which added cash to the assistantship and reduced the credit load which I was allowed to carry.  So an expected one year of on campus grew to three years.  Both Audrey and I enjoyed our time in Tucson.  We explored the southwest, enjoyed the college life on campus, made use of recreation facilities, collected Indian jewelry, rugs, baskets, and pottery.  And the girls had good school experiences.  Audrey worked intermittently, and you girls were protected by 250 big brothers.  You went on dates with some to the student union for ice cream cones.  Audrey baked a birthday cake for every student who had a birthday during the school year.  This was the era of growing campus protests over our government’s involvement in the Viet Nam war.  Yes, I was expected to be alert to the safety of student, and was out and about when tear gas was used to break up demonstrations.  We never felt at risk, and it was all sort of a game of cops and robbers with helicopters and search lights overhead.