The night I moved into the dorm, I found out they locked us in at 9 PM. I grew up where doors were never locked and proceeded to find a way out. I could not handle being locked in. I found that the windows had screens and they swung out on hinges like little doors. I would go out the window and walk 3 blocks to the seawall where I could sit on the wall and watch ships and tankers maneuver through the ship channel. That became my favorite thing to do. At some point, the screens were nailed shut and I bumped the nail loose, bent it over and latched the screen. It looked as if it was still nailed.

Bobbie asked me what I would do if I ran into Mr. Monroe during one of my escapades? I told her I would drop to the ground and frantically start looking in the bushes. I would tell him I lost my tuition money and was looking for it. She cracked up laughing and said, "He would probably believe you because you have always been honest with him."

I never got caught and would probably not lie if I had. Hopefully I would have told him the truth about not being able to handle "locked in." I know when I had nothing but typing 8 hours a day, I told Mr. Monroe I was a nervous wreck just typing all day and he set it up so I could skip school for a couple of hours and do the work at night in the dorm.

When I went to church, it was at the Methodist church next to the college. They had a real pipe organ. It was a good church and I enjoyed the services. I just got too busy after a while and didn’t go as often as I should have.

There was a city park across from the college with lots of trees, flowers, trimmed grass and benches. I spent a lot of hours there just listening to the birds, thinking and enjoying a short period of privacy. Someone would always find me and I’d be back at the dorm. My other escape was the seawall where the salt breezes would blow in my face and I would dream of other places as foreign ships would glide past. No one ever found me there. These were my alone spots where I never went with anyone else. They were my private places: just my Lord and me to be alone. After I quit going to my special place where I talked to Jesus, I strayed. He leads us really well when we take the time to communicate with him. We get in trouble when we don’t slow down and aren’t quiet enough to listen.

Prov 12:19 The truthful lip shall be established forever, But a lying tongue is but for a moment.

Heb 10:24-25 And let us consider one another in order to stir up love and good works, not forsaking the assembling of ourselves together, as is the manner of some, but exhorting one another, and so much the more as you see the Day approaching.

Prov 8:32-4 "Now therefore, listen to me, my children, For blessed are those who keep my ways. Hear instruction and be wise, And do not disdain it. Blessed is the man who listens to me, Watching daily at my gates, Waiting at the posts of my doors.

Picture of Port Arthur College Dormitory taken by Fran