RICHARD DYER (intro): This is a continuation of the student interviews in the History of Columbia Junior College. The interviewer is Richard L. Dyer; the time is a late summer in 1972.

DYER: Bernice Frost was a student in Columbia in the fall of 1968.  Bernice went back to school at thirty-nine years of age, and Bernice will give us a little bit of information about her experiences at the old Eagle Cottage.

Now Bernice, can you give us an idea of the reasons why you went back to junior college after a few years out of school?

BERNICE FROST: Well, I had been ill and was going through a period of recuperating, and prior to that I had worked for a few years.  And my doctor thought it would be a good experience for me.  It would give me something to do without too much activity, and I hadn’t completed my high school education, so actually I started prior to this time.  And I went back to Sonora high school and completed my high school education and then started my college experience in the fall of ’68. 

DYER: what was your major when you first started?

FROST: Well, I started with a psychology major.  I was really hyped in psychology. I’d been reading a lot of books and it really interested me a great deal. Later I switched to a general education; it seemed to be a little more reasonable to complete on a junior college basis. 

DYER: So you must have had quite a few courses from Virginia Blackbird?

FROST: Oh yes, I had just about all of them. 

DYER: Now, where did you meet the first time in the courses that you had?

FROST: Well, it was in the fall of ’68.  I had, let’s see, Personal Adjustment, I think was my first class from Virginia.  I had two classes that year.  I had Social Psychology; that was probably one of my most memorable classes.  It was held at Pricos Boys Ranch.

DYER: that’s in Calaveras County isn’t it?

FROST: Yeah.  And that was the first class that she had had of this nature.  Since that time she has held several…I think.  Well, right up to when the boys ranch was closed. 

DYER: Well, it must have been unique to be there with all of the boys around you—younger boys in a penal institution too.

FROST: It really was. Of course I found myself just like a mother hen. And the boys really seemed to warm up to the women about, you know, a mothers age.   And I enjoyed it thoroughly; however, it was pretty exhausting.  They are pretty active.  And they’d drag us down into the bottom of these canyons on their little jog after dinner. And I’d come climbing back up just exhausted—one boy would be pulling me by the arm and a couple pushing me from the back, but it was really quite memorable.  And one little boy I became so particularly fond of, and the one I did my case study on, I almost brought home.  But after considerable thought, I decided it probably wouldn’t be the best thing to do.

DYER: Well, you have two boys of your own don’t you?

FROST: No, I have a boy and a girl.

DYER: Boy and a girl.

FROST: And at that time the little boy that I did the case study on was exactly the same age as my daughter and my daughter was a very healthy, active, normal girl. And this little boy was about, oh, two feet shorter than my little girl. Not only emotionally immature, but physically and everything, and it would have been quite a problem to tackle—to raise a child with this many problems.

DYER: Well, did you any field work in Virginia’s classes, other than at Prico?

FROST: Oh, yes, I took a child psychology class from Virginia, and in that we visited nursery school through seventh grade.  And that, again, was a very good experience.

DYER: You wanted to bring a few more home?

FROST: No. No, those I could leave very (laughing)…very easily.  But in a short span of time, you got to see children on several age levels of development.

DYER: what about other course that you took there, are there people or are there courses that seem to stand out in your mind as you think back?  Places that you met interesting instances that occurred, unusual people, or differences in the educational philosophy at Columbia Junior College than you had experienced before?

FROST: Well, certainly, Columbia is going to stand out in my mind as an educational experience, and particularly that year of ’68.  It’d been very unique, and anything that I had had before, and anything that I have had since, and I will always remember that year and the way it was held—the intimacy, I think, is the thing that I’ll remember the most.  And I think probably then it was personalities that I was more impressed with than the particular classes that were being taught, even though I really liked them all.  It was really hard for me to pick a favorite because I was so interested in an education, and so awed at the experience of getting to go back.  And I think that thing that surprised me more than anything else is that the young people accepted me.  I really expected to go and find myself in a foreign country and not terribly welcome.  And before I knew it, the young people treated me as if I was no different. 

DYER: Did you become a kind of “mother confessor” to many of the young people? 

FROST: No. No. That’s the strange thing.  I can’t even think of any young student that I behaved motherly towards. It was more peer to peer—type of friendships that I had with many young students.  In fact I found myself in classes where I was the only older person and, like I say, at first it bothered me but then when I found out it didn’t bother them and they didn’t think that I was invading their private domain, then I relaxed and enjoyed myself too.

DYER: What did you family think of you experience at Columbia Junior College?

FROST: Well, they were all 100% behind me.  I would have never been able to make it if they hadn’t been.  And I think they’re all kind of proud that I made the step.  And, so, I don’t know, I guess its people like John Hankstrum, that I met the first year, and he was my counselor and really helped me through some real rough spots because it was hard—I not only went to school, but I was working and being a mother too.  I was probably shorter a few time thing…”I can’t do it. I can’t do it,” but we’ve managed. 

DYER: Did you feel that the work load was excessive or…at the school?

FROST: Well, I don’t know if it was.  It was hard for me.  Extremely hard, but I hadn’t been in school in twenty years and so I had to learn how to study all over again—new study habits.   And not having completed a high school education I can say is an extreme handicap because I’m amazed at the things that these young people evidently get in their junior and senior year that I didn’t have.  So I not only was trying to keep up with the class, but to go back and pick up some of the things that the other young people already knew. And somehow, well, it was thing s that you don’t normally learn through the experience of living.

DYER: One other question FROST: after having spent the first year at Columbia Junior College, do you think that it had any significant affect on your future plans for yourself?

FROST: Oh.

DYER: That a new vista opened up for you, did you consider a new career?

FROST: Well, I guess I have. 

DYER: Had you originally planned to go on for an additional education beyond Columbia or beyond the high school diploma?

FROST: Well, not really.  Not really.  I went back for the high school diploma thinking tht this is what I would do, and up to that time I had managed to hold on a job—I had worked as a bookkeeper—and it hadn’t been a handicap, but I thought that the day would come when it would be.  And I enjoyed that much of my educational experience and my husband was going to school and it just seemed like that thing to do to keep going. And through a lot of people’s help and encouragement I manage to just keep going.  And this fall I will be starting my senior year at Stanislaus.

DYER: Hm.  Marvelous.  Well, we thank you very very much, Bernice, for being with us.  Thank you. 

LAST 13 SECONDS OF TAPE ARE BLANK

END OF TAPE

General Information:

Interviewer: Dyer, Richard L.

Interviewee: Frost, Bernice (Student)

Name of Tape: Student interviews in the History of Columbia Junior College (CC_hist_11_0)

When: Late Summer 1972

Transcriber: Ariella (September 2008)

Transcriber’s Note: