Spring 2024 7 decided to walk down to the Whiteside Theatre to see the new Steve McQueen movie, Bullitt. We liked the movie so much, we stayed for a second showing. When we left the theater for the walk back, it was not the same as the trip down! —BILL WILLIAMS, ’74 “The Big Snow,” brought back pleasant memories. A girlfriend became snowed in while visiting me. We took walks at night when the campus was fairly quiet, and the snow sparkled and crunched under our feet. I remember it was amazing how long it stayed looking pure white and unblemished by auto traffic. Classes were canceled because the parking lots could not be cleared and the professors (forget about the students) had no place to park their cars. I was a senior living in a room on the second floor of a big old house on Ninth Street near the end of campus. On one of the snow days, my landlord and I took her Afghan hound for a walk. The dog got loose of the leash and went bounding back and forth across the lower campus. I went after the dog, yelling her name. Almost immediately, a number of men living in McNary Hall leaned out the windows yelling the dog’s name, mocking me and laughing all the while. All I wanted to do was catch the dog, which I finally did by throwing myself on top of her as she sprinted by. My friend and I still have a laugh over the incident now and then. —OLIVIA L. SMITH, ’69 I was surprised to see myself in the photo [in “The Big Snow”], walking from our rental home to campus with books and my trusty umbrella. I was taking and teaching some classes at the time, I but do not recall the reason for my walk in a snow event. I thought you would enjoy the background to the image. Currently, I am well retired from a career with the University of California, located in Riverside. OSU was good preparation for that career. —VIC GIBEAULT, PH.D. ’71 Skydiving Alumni After high school, I enlisted in the Air Force and was sent to Indiana U. to become a Russian linguist. I spent time in Pakistan and Turkey, and then finished at the National Security Agency in the D.C. area. I moved to Oregon with my wife, Billie, in 1969 and began working in Philomath-area sawmills. I began attending OSU, graduating in 1972 with a degree in English lit. There was a skydiving club, and my wife and I took lessons. Our first competition was a collegiate meet at Star, Idaho.When we quit jumping,I had logged 150 jumps, and my wife had logged 75. Our most wonderful experience was jumping into a Grateful Dead concert in 1972 [a benefit for the Springfield Creamery, owned by author Ken Kesey’s brother]. I also jumped into the Albany Timber Carnival and the Children’s Farm Home school along Hwy. 20. —R. MICHAEL MOORE, ’72 The Cherry on Top It was very interesting reading the Stater’s Spring 2023 food issue as it relates to the maraschino cherry. My company, International Tank & Pipe Co., manufactures the wood stave tanks that brine and store the cherries. Our company has been in business since 1904. I thought you might like to know that the maraschino cherry’s history continues to have an OSU presence to this day. —MICHAEL E. BYE, ’64 Send letters and comments by email to stater@osualum.com or by mail to Oregon Stater, OSU Alumni Association, 204 CH2M HILL Alumni Center, Corvallis, OR 97331. We edit for clarity, brevity and factual accuracy. Please limit letters to 225 words or less. WE TOOK WALKS AT NIGHT WHEN THE CAMPUS WAS FAIRLY QUIET, AND THE SNOW SPARKLED AND CRUNCHED UNDER OUR FEET. JEANNA BUSH; OSU SPECIAL COLLECTIONS AND ARCHIVES ڿ Jeanna Bush, ’99, sent this photo of her son, 8-yearold Henry Jarrell, waiting at a bus stop. “My child is what you would call a major Beaver Believer,” she said, “This is just how he dresses for school on any given day — it is not a dress-up day!” Though baseball is his love, “he is an all-around Beaver fan.” ۄ Matt Andrews, ’77, didn’t think the In Memoriam photo used for Floyd Bodyfelt, ’63, M.S. ’67, got across the gregarious, longtime OSU professor’s “sparkle.” This one, he believes, does the job better.
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