Orthodontic School

Some of the good teachers that I liked were Dr. Dougherty and Dr. Tanaka. There was one that really gave me a bad time. He was Dr. Wight, who happened to be a Mormon. He tried to get me kicked out of school because I called him on a lie. He started telling lies about me not being there and Dr. Tanaka pulled out the charts that showed I was there treating patients. Dr. Tanaka told me not to pay any attention to him, that nobody liked him when he was a student there. I really appreciated his support.

I was elected student class president when I was gone one day. Taylor Hicks was in the Air Force as a dentist before he came to Orthodontic School. His dad and brothers were dentists in Prescott, Arizona. His wife, Marsha, was a dental hygenist. Jerry Probaskas had been an Army dentist in Vietnam and before that he was a professional football player for the Houston Oilers. He and his wife went to Albequerque, New Mexico to practice. Jim Clark was super intelligent and loved the outdoors. He married a girl named Vicky while we were in school. He went to Boulder, Colorado. Dick Keerty stayed in Souther California and died young of a rare blood disesase. Ed Schaffer and his wife went to Colorado to practice. Don Orloff was a small guy who loved to ride his Harley and sail boats. His wife was named Susie. John King Wong and his wfe stayed in the LA area. He was allergic to alcohol and someone slipped him a drink once and his face went beet red. Earl Burke had  bad time with Dr. Wight also and had to sue the school to get his MS. Duane and Jerry Cuser were from Oregon and he practices in Ontario, Oregon.

Sickness

I got tonsilitis and was totally sick. Cathy had to stay home from school to take care of me. I passed out in the bathroom. I got plurisey twice. The first time I was standing in the clinic and I felt like someone had stabbed me in the back. I had to stay sitting up. The second time I had a really bad case of the Asian flu at Christmas time. Our whole family got it. We were so sick that even through R Adams sent us money for Christmas, we were too sick to go shopping. Finally a day or so before Christmas, Kaye and I left the kids with Cathy and went shopping. We had to hang on the counters and learn on the walls, but we finally got the kids some Christmas presents. We sure appreciated that money. After that I got plurisy really bad for two or three months. It was terrible and during that time I had to write my thesis.

Mammoth-Skiing

The first Christmas we were in Ortho School we left the kids with Marge and we went skiing at Mammoth, California with our classmates. We had a good time. Jim Clarke and Vicky had just gotten married and she was always cold. It was the first time we had gone skiing for a long time.

Football Games

We had student body tickets for the USC football games. We watched OJ Simpson play. At one time we decided to save money by parking on the street instead of in the parking lot. It was getting dark when we got out of the game. We walked all around where we had parked our blue Ford station wagon. We couldn't find it. It was the black part of town. We really didn't have hardly any money ($4). We made a police report and they weren't very sympathetic. Cathy was at home babysitting the kids. We didn't have enough money to get back to Granada Hills. We called Kaye's cousin, Stana. She and Don drove all the way from Huntington Beach which was a long way to the South of USC (Watts) and picked us up and drove us up to Granada Hills. and then they had to go back to Huntington Beach. It was a tremendous long round trip for them, but we couldn't have got home without their help. We really appreciated their help. While we were in school, we went to a lot of games, including the Rose Bowl Game. President Nixon was helicoptered into the game. It was a great experience. After the Rose Bowl Parade, they parked the floats in a park and we took the kids to see them. They were really beautiful.

Christmas Party

One of the Christmases while we were in Granda Hills, we had a party at our house. Many of our students were there. It was the only party that I remember we had while we were in Ortho School.

Chicago Trip

Our last year a big orthodontic supply company paid for all of our class to fly to Chicago to see their equipment. The salesman took us into an old gangster speak easy that had been turned into a nice restaurant and bar. You could throw your empty peanut shells on the floor. John King Wong was throwing shells over his shoulder and hitting the girl sitting behind him. She got mad and dumped a whole big bowl of peanuts over his head. We were there two days. I enjoyed the trip.

Fishing Trip with Dan Galba

Dan Galba was a friend of mine from Dental School who was practicing in San Diego. His friend was an obstetrician who had a big fishing boat. He was going to take Dan and I out albacore fishing. I met with Dan at 6:00pm and we went to his friend's home. We were going to leave on the boat that evening and then we would be out ready to fish early in the morning. By the time we got the obstetrician on the boat we had to carry him on the boat because he was so drunk. He had a cpatian that ran the boat for him. Real early in the morning, we were called out of our bunks because we were into the albacore. We caught a bunch of albacore that weighed about 22 pounds each. One of Danny's other friends who was a commercial fisherman was with us. Danny hooked a little shark and was going to bring it on board and the captain yelled at him that if you bring that shark on board, I'll throw you overboard. The commercial fisherman yelled up at the captain, "Quit acting like a little baby or I'll throw you overboard." The captain shut up and pouted all the way home.

Going to the Beach

It was quite a drive from the San Fernando Valley to the beach, but when we could we would take the kids to Redondo Beach and Zuma Beach. Once when we were at Zuma Beach a man drowned and they had him up on the sand and were trying to revive him but he was dead. Zuma Beach was our favorite place to go. One day on the way to the beach, Greg stuck a small crayon up his nose. He snarfed it up into the canal that went out of the back of his nose. We had to take him to the emergency room. They couldn't see it. They said it probably went into his stomach and would come on out.

Disneyland

Whenever someone would come to visit us, we would take them to Disneyland. We got to go there several times. The kids loved it. Stana and her family went with us to Knotts Berry Farm. That was fun, too. We used to do things with Stana and Don and their family when we could. We moved to Granada Hills because Stana and Dan lived in Canoga Park and Kaye wanted to be near her cousin. They were always close. Then Stana moved to Huntington Beach about six months after we moved there. Kaye was disappointed.

My Thesis

The last year of orthodontic school I had to write a thesis in order to get my Masters Degree in Orthodontics. I wrote my thesis on the missing X chromosome in girls and how it effected their facial bone growth. I had to do a lot of statistics with the facts I found from the case histories of all the patients that I got. It was really interesting. I was very interested in genetics after that. It was a really hard time for me. I had pluresy during that time. It had to be typed in this special form which had to be perfect since when it is finished it would go into the Library of Congress. Since Kaye and I didn't type well I had to have John King Wong's wife type it for me at so much per hour. We had a deadline to get it in by. I turned it in 3 or 4 times and each time they would change a word or two and each time the whole thing had to be re-typed. I finally got it signed off and I had to run all across campus to get it turned in by 5:00 pm the day it was due. I was so glad to have it finished. It is now sitting in the Library of Congress.

Graduation

Graduation from Orthodontic School was a big deal. Lots of the students had family coming from many other states. We looked like turkeys with all of our hoods and colors. I teased Kaye and told her I was going to law school next. All of the dental school graduates were in one building. We sat there patiently while all the people got their diplomas and we in the Orthodontic School hadn't been called up to get our diplomas. When the Dean said, "that's it." everybody got up and started to mill around. I went up there and told the Dean he hadn't given us our diplomas. He said, "That's too bad," they just handed out our diplomas with no ceremony as everyone was leaving. Lots of the guys and their families were really disappointed. It didn't really bother me, but it was not how we expected it to end.