The "So Bobby Wasn't Full Of Crap!" Story

It was an ordinary day.  A day sometime in the fall of the mid-1960s and I'd just arrived at the "Rat Race" after a full morning of classes on the first day of the fall semester at Millersville State Teachers College.  

Old Main on the campus of Millersville State Teachers College.

The "Rat Race" was the gathering place for lunch and conver- sation with friends I had made during my first two years at the college from where I would graduate and start my career as a teacher.  The "Rat Race" was near Old Main, located in a central part of campus, easily reached by undergraduates from all areas of the college.  I entered and headed to the second floor where a lunch line provided my mid-day meal as well as a chance to play a game of bumper pool or a game of darts.  As I rounded the last curve in the stairs, there were most of my friends I had grown to know during my first two years at the college on the south-west side of the city of Lancaster, Pennsylvania.  Pulled up a chair next to Bobby and began asking him about his day.  "Hey, my English Lit. teacher told us she used to be the secretary for Ameila Earhart," he said to me.  

Miss Norah Alsterlund

I looked at him and said, "You're full of crap!"  We went back and forth, he telling me about his classes as well as a bit more about Miss Alsterlund, the alleged secretary while I told him of my second level photography class I had with Ansel Adams.  Needless to say neither one of us believed the other.  We spent many days that semester playing pool and darts as well as talking about our classes before it was time to head home for Christmas break and the start of yet another semester in January.  I kept in touch with Bobby for a few years after graduation, but one day I saw in the paper that he had died.  His name came to mind once again the other day when I read in the Lancaster Newspaper about a woman by the name of Norah Alsterlund who had lived in Millersville for close to 20 years and had taught at Millersville State Teachers College in the mid-1960s.  Story said she lived on Manor Ave. in Millersville, PA and taught English for a few years at the college before moving to Silvis, Illinois in 1991.  As I read more I found that she was born in Moline, Illinois, graduated from high school there and entered the University of Michigan.  She transferred to Smith College in Northampton, Massachusetts and earned a degree in English.  

Famed pilot, Amelia Earhart.

Took a job writing for Cosmopolitan Magazine and was assigned to work with Amelia Earhart on her regular magazine column that promoted aviation for women.  It was the same Ameila Earhart who was known as "Lady Lindy" and who was the first female solo pilot to cross the Atlantic in 1932 in 14 hours and 56 minutes.  She eventually embarked on a flight around the world with her navigator Fred Noonan who were never found.  Well Miss Alsterlund eventually returned to Smith College to help low income students with an innovative furniture exchange.  Miss Alsterlund died on January 24, 1996 at the age of 90.  As I read the entire article I immediately realized that Bobby was really telling me the truth about his English teacher.  Wow!  Would have loved to have met her.  If only I hadn't doubted Bobby I may have been able to hear a few stories about Amelia Earhart.  Times pass and we can't return to days gone by.  At times that's so sad.  It was another extraordinary day in the life of an ordinary guy.