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When Cal State Fullerton was just opening up, in fact the courses were still given in barracks, I took German from Dr. Mathieu. He worked with me person-to-person, because there was no full class yet.
Later on when we had complete classes, he was the most inspiring teacher. Later yet, I did some substitute teaching for him, and also worked with his student teachers at Troy High School.
Dr. Mathieu made my college years the most memorable in my life! I shall never forget him.
I arrived on campus in Fall 1965. I parked on a dirt parking lot, which was located somewhere in the vicinity of the Visual Arts facility. For this privilege, we paid approximately $15/semester. The two permanent buildings were the Science and Letters and the Music/Performing Arts Building, which were connected by a covered bridge connecting the second floor and on S & L side was the only place on campus to get food – that was from a number of machines. Everyone knew where this was. The Library was located in the basement of the Science & Letters.
In September of that year the Physical Education Building/Gymnasium was just being completed, but the landscaping was not complete. On rainy days, we had to do a balancing act on wooden planks laid out across the mud in order to get to class.
1965 was post Elephant Races, we were on a commuter campus and we were being accused of being apathetic. I thought then as I do now that involvement in school and campus activities was what you made of it.
In those early years, registration was handled by the pulling of computer punch cards. At your time for registration, depending on seniority, you went from classroom to classroom requesting a card from the class of your choice, once the cards for a class were all taken, the class was closed. Often you would have to stand there and adjust your schedule to whatever cards or classes were available. When you had collected your cards, you put them in order and handed them in to the registration office. It was a different time.
The first building of the Library opened in Fall, 1966. The basement of the Science and Letters Building became the Student Union. I became active with Titan Christian Fellowship and we gathered to study on the sixth floor of the Library to study and to meet up with each other. It was a great time of life for me. Over the next few years I was able to participate in at least two Spring Vacation trips to an orphanage in Mexico, where we did painting and cleaning and ran a water pipeline. It was a wonderful experience.
In my junior year I had to take some evening classes for my major in order to graduate in four years. What I remember most about being on campus in the evening was the wondrous smell of orange blossoms. An orange grove still occupied the east side of campus. The smell or orange blossoms has long disappeared from campus.
As a senior communications major, I joined the Titan staff. The Titan was then published three times a week. I remember being confronted with fellow classmates, who had all been editors their high school or junior college newspapers. I was overwhelmed. The instructor offered a point system, through which he offered many ways to get points. I saw right away that the best way for me was distribution of the paper. So three days a week, whatever the weather, I arrived at campus shortly after 7 a.m. Lifted my blue wagon out of the trunk of the old Rambler and pulled the wagon to the front of campus on Nutwood Avene, where I would meet the man from the printing company and we would load the papers in the wagon. I then began my journey through the Science and Letters Breezeway, out to the Quad, to the Music Building, the Library, the Commons, the Physical Education Building, and out to the temporary buildings, filling the newsstands as I went. I would cross back across the parking area, put my wagon back in the car, grab my books and head to class stopping to refill the breezeway stands as I passed. But I got my A.
Along with meeting many interesting and intelligent people, my one semester as the campus Titan delivery person stands out in my memory braving the weather, and the mission trips to a Mexican Orphanage as some of the great memories of my years at the Fullerton campus. I still remember sitting in the sunny warm Quad with friends sharing and talking about classes and about life. It was a great time.
