Grandpa and Grandma

    Vern did not relish the idea of retirement.   He had never had any interest in chasing galf balls.  He had traveled to most of the destinations which had attracted him in any way.  Besides he lacked sufficient resources to travel much if he had desire to do so.  Grandma Jo had little interest in traveling except to see relatives.  Vern saw opportunity to learn real estate appraising with son-in-law Ron.  The first step was to study and prepare for licensing examination.  He enrolled in the classes required by the Oklahoma appraisers board.  After the few months of preparation, he took and passed the exam and accompanied Ron as he did his appraisals.  Then with Ron's supervision, he actually did appraisals on his own, taking appraisals which Ron's company were ordered to do in places at greater distances than those close to Tulsa. 

     Months passed and Vern and Jo became eager to do business in their place of origin--Southwest Missouri.  They moved the furniture which they had brought from California to Springfield and to a small duplex which they rented.  There a relative who was a mortgage loan officer gave Vern his first order to appraise a residence.  His fulfilling the order got him references and since he had not yet built a large clientele enabled him to give quick turn-arounds, and his business grew.  Vern actually had no ambition to build a large clientele, since he needed only to augment his small retirement income.  He had no intention to become certified.  He could earn enough as a licensed appraiser.

    One day he met his cousin, Sam, who built houses in Webster county.  Sam made Vern and Jo an offer.  He would build them a house on two acres near Marshfield.  Also he referred Vern to a man who owned a small parcel of the land which their great-great grandfather, William Pursley had homesteaded in the 1820's jost outside Springfield.  This man would be willing to sell off a portion of the land lhe owned.  Introductions were made and Vern gave the man a down payment and they made a handshake agreement.  This agreement turned out to be a financial loss for Vern and Jo.  The man declared bankruptcy, leaving Vern and Jo as unsecured creditors.

     Ten of the most gratifying years of Vern's life past quickly.  Then major changes began to take place.  Ron and Linda decided to move to Oklahoma, believing that Bible Belt would provide a more wholesome environment in which to rear their children and Angie decided to enroll in Oral Roberts University.  Larry and Kathleen decided to move to Dallas, where Larry would establish his own business.  Dr. Cronin, Vern and Jo's family physician discovered that Vern had a large colin cancer, which needed should be removed without delay.  The surgery, done in March of 1996, was successful and Vern opted not to go through chemotherapy.  He had intended to teach at Locke until he was eighty years old, but Linda convinced him to do so the year following his surgery.  He turned seventy in May of 1987.

     During his his recovery in the hospital, some of his students from the AP Spanish literature class came to visit him one evening.   The nurses on his floor were somewhat converned that these "gang bangers" would invade, but before the visit ended they were impressed positively by the politeness and respect demonstrated by the group.  After returning to the classroom, the class surprised Mr. Pursley with a generous party.

     The following year Mr. Pursley made preparations to retire.  As part of these preparations he wrote a poem in Spanish entitled "Mi canto del cisne," ("My Swan's Song") and deducated it to the AP Spanish Literature class, promising an award to the student who could explain the complete meaning.  After her typical amount of research, Maribel was the first to get it.

     One night in July of 1997, after the school term had ended, Vern and Jo were surprised when Linda, Angie, Kelsey and Brittany appeared at their door, having parked their rented U-Haul truck on the street outside their condo.  The following day, the whole family, a friend, and some day workers loaded all the belongings onto the truck and the Pursley's two cars and departed in the evening for Oklahoma,.  Linda drove the truck, Jo and Angie alternaded driving one car and Vern the other car.  That night, the following day and well into the next night and they arrived in Broken Arrow, Oklahoma.,  

     Almost every semester there were a couple of undercover narcs on campus.  They were always young in appearance, passing themselves off as high school students.  Aboput two weeks before the end of the semester, they would make their busts to the surprise of the students.  The teachers never knew who these law officers were, only a select few of the administrative staff.   In one very unususal case, the male narc was an Anglo.  The student body almost always was one hundred percent African American and Hispanic.  Once or twice in eleven years an Anglo student appeared for a semester.  On this occasion the Anglo "student" became quite popular.  One week he was 'hanging" with a young lady who was black; the next week he would be with a Hispanic.  His black female counterpart was also popular.  When the busts were made, surprise was greater than usual.  One of Mr. Pursley's students said, "I thought she was my frien""

     Another semester Mr. Pursley had an unusually reluctant learner in his class of Spanish for Spanish Speakers.  He always sat in a back corner of the room usually with a scowl on his face.  He was very stocky, slouchy, slow-moving.  He seldom participated in anything, never prepared homework, flunked tests.  Finally Mr. Pursley was so exasperated he decided to call home and talk with a parent.  When he made the phone call, a female voice answered in Spanish:  "Bueno" .  Mr. Pursley asked es Ud. mama de ________ _______?"   "Si."

     Mr. Pursley continued to introduce himself and inform her that her son was headed toward failing his class if her son did not improve his study habits and participate in class.  He told the lady that the student was capable and should have little difficulty in passing if he tried.  She replied that she understood and that she would talk to him about it and thanked Mr. Pursley for his interest.  Near the end of the semester this "student" made his busts.  One student had even sold him a potted "pot" plant.

     The majority of Mr. Pursley's students were very smart, funny, motivated and ......best of all.....appreciative.  Before Christmas, on his birthdays, Mr. Pursley was usually given gifts and sometimes even a party.  Once, Mr. Pursley was hospitalized in Long Beach for a major surgery for cancer.   One evening after the surgery, a group of students got "rides" to Long Beach, and visited Mr. Pursley in his hospital room.  When they arrived, some of the hospital staff were apprehensive at seeing the "gang bangers" invading their floor.   Upon his return to school, his students conspired with a counselor to give him a party in his classroom.  Mr. Pursley did not ask them where they got the money for the cake and other refreshments.

     The assignment to teach in South Central Los Angeles turned out to be the best teaching assignment Mr. Pursley ever had.  Not that it did not present challenges.  Lock High School had no air conditioning.  Most of the year there was really no need for it, but sometimes, especially in September, the classrooms were uncomfortabsly warm.  The first two years Mr. Pursley's room was a detached mobile unit.  One of the most momorably amusing moments occured when o ne afternoon the class-begin bvell sounded and a maile (baritone) voice from somewhere in the room remarked, "Sho' do smell fishy in heah!"  Then a tenor: "Could be yo' breath blowin'  back in yo' face, Dude."  "Yeah!" came a deep bass."

     Mr. Pursley's initial assignment was to teach Spanish as a foreign language.  The majority of his students were not English speakers, but in every class there were Spanish-speaking immigrants.  Although they needed the credits to graduage, they had little need to learn to speak their first language.  Recognizing that there were plenty of students on campus who could benefit from having classes in Spanish for Spanish Speakers, Mr. Pursley recommended this to the head counselor, and the third year he was assigned to teach classes for only Hispanic students.  By the fourth year he also taught AP Spanish Language and AP Spanish Literature.  Most of these students were collenge bound.  Mr. Pursley found sthese students to be very intelligent, funny and motivated.

     Even though security was tight, there were breaches.  Sometimes during the noon period.  Gang-bangers who were rivals from the gang-bangers who belonged to Lock would come over the fences, make an appearance and disappear before security officers or campus police could encounter them.  There were frequent drive-by shootings in the area, and early one morning, before school, a girl was chased onto the campus and killed.  One day of several, a lock-down was called and soon helicopters were heard overhead.  The lock-down lasted for nearly two hours.  Later Mr. Pursley learned that three young people--two males and a female--had robbed a bank in Pomona, about fifty miles distant, had led a police chase along the freeways back to Los Angeles, exited near the school, driven into Lockie's teachers parking lot, where the police caught up with them.  The young woman was captured before she got out of the car, but one of the males ran off into the neighborhood, and the third male, carrying the stolen money in a pillow case joined the students who were then returning from anutrition break and entered the library.  Feeling uncomortable, he abandoned the money, left the library and found a small room unlocked, and entered the room.  Meanwhile, the police brougnt a canine which smelled the money bag and led the police to the room where the fugitive was hiding.  On the school intercom they convinced him to surrender.

     Another memorable occurence happened between two students during lunch break.  A young, spendly male student harrassed a very stocky young lady until she decided she would not tolerate him any longer.  She grabbed him in a bear hug and proceded to bite off both his eyebrows until each brow hung by a shred of skin.

     One of Mr. Pursley's students made news by coming out of a gang.  Afterwards, the student was caught down the hall from Mr. Pursley's room by a group of students who decided to punish him.  The started pounding him with their fists as he tried to protect his head with the hood of his jacket.  Mr. Pursley tried to push through the crowd to help him, but the school security people arrived just in time.

     Larry married again, to a beautiful young model, Shelly.  In 1983 they became parents to a wonderful baby son, Collin.  Then Linda remarried, to an aspiring singer and actor, John.  They then had a fiery little girl, Kelsey.  One day Larry came home to find their apartment vacated.  Shelly had moved out.  Then she filed for divorce.  Larry felt crushed and decided  that marriage just didn't work for him.  Linda, also, discovered that her marriage was an ill-considered decision.  During the ensuing months of mourning their failures, Larry established a relationship with another beautiful young lady, Lauren, and Linda became acquainted with a handsome and respectful young real-estate appraiser, Ron Scott.  They were soon married and Larry moved in with Lauren.  Within a year or so Brittany was born to Ron and Linda and Lauren bore Blake.  These years had been a time of emotional tumult for Vern and Jo Dean.  A misture of sadness and joy.  They viewed the divorces as tragic,but the births of beautiful grandbabies as joyful.  They disapproved of the lifestyle of Larry and Lauren, but they loved Lauren.  And they counted Ron as a blessing to Linda and her children, and to themselves.

     In the meantime they were struggling economically.  Jo Dean was working for Ford and Vern in sales.  Then Jo convinced him that he should resume his teaching career.   He strongly doubted that at age fifty nine he could be rehired.  His experfience and schooling would require a higher salary than some districts would feel they could afford.  But he submitted applications to several schools around Southern California.  He was surprised to receive favorable responses right away.  The first response received was from Los Angeles Unified School District.  He was invited to an interview.  As result of the interview he was offered a choice of three high schools within the district.  He visited two of the campusus and chose Locke High School in South Central Los Angeles, because it was located closest his apartment in Long Beach and because the school's security seemed to him the better of the two schools.  He was able to retain his sales job for some weekends and holidays and summers.

     His sales job was interesting.  Larry had been hired as national sales manager for a company in North Hollywood which imported massage chairs and tables and wholesaled them to various outlets and sold them at retail at conventions.  Vern and Jo Dean both sold them successfully at these conventions and also at fairs.   Their economics improved.

     Larry and Lauren broke off their relationship.  Larry traveled a lot.  Then he married Kathleen, who had two little girs from her previous marriage.  They moved to Irvine.  The matters of the family seemed to level off, with fewer events of major significance.  Larry and Kathleen lived in Irvine, Ron and Linda in the "Valley" and now Vern and Jo Dean in Bellflower and Cypress.

     Airlines were deregulated.  The Iran-Iraq war broke out.  The U.S. economy took a downturn.   The agency could no longer make as much money on overseas group traavel.  Some groups cancelled because they felt the war could threaten safety of travelers to the Middle East.  some commercial accountgs and one college account went bankrupt leaving the agency as a nonsecured creditor.  Vern and Jo Dean left the agency in the hands of Larry and Linda to salvage what they might of the business and they themselves took what they believed to be an opportunity to go into a promising life insurance business.  This opportunity required them to go to Missouri where they would train for the business and then travel within the states of Missouri, Kansas and Oklahoma, spending time in small-town motels and eating in "greasy spoon" cafes and working with banks and funeral homes, selling small whole life policies to individuals and families.  The policies served as burial insurance policies.  Vern and Jo took on the project with enthusiasm. 

      They spent two or three weeks in each small town, making appointments and presentations.  They were fairly successful, but as the year passed, the prospect  of returning to California and establishing the business there dimmed until the obvious loomed.  The business would never be theirs to take to the west coast.  Looking back on the year's experience of  heat, cold, snow, ice, rain, mud and nomadery, Vern commented, "Well if the Catholics have it right and one has to spend time in Pergatory before being advanced to Heaven, then we've already done that part of the process."

      At least the was a time of learning.  Also, they were removed from some of the painful things which Larry and Linda were experiencing, both in business and in their personal lives.  They had to go through the closing down of the travel agency.  Also, five years earlier Larry and Sharon separated and divorced.  They had married too young and had lost two babies.  Their marital problems grew until the marriage disentegrated.  Before they divorce, however, they were successful in having two beautiful twin girls, Amber and Alicia.  Neither Vern nor Jo Dean had ever known such a thing as divorce in their families.  This divorce was emotionally devastating to them.  Sharon was their second daughter.  Larry was soon married again and  wife, Shelly, bore a son, Collin, during Vern and Jo's year in Pergatory.

     About five months prior to Amber and Alicia's arrival, Linda bore Angie, a lovely and very active baby girl.  Since she and her twin cousins all were given names beginning the the letter "A", they became called the Triple A Gang and were a source of great entertainment.  Then Linda and Bob had their son, Robert Vernon Schuller, named for both grandfathers and dad. 

      Linda and Bob's marriage had troubles also.  They, too, had married too young, and their infatuation did not survive the troubles of life.  They year that Vern and Jo Dean returned to California, Bob and Linda were divorced.   This divorce was equally difficult for Vern and Jo.  And the divorce itrself was quite nasty.   Sometimes, to escape pain, Jo Dean retreated to the beach, just to lie on the sand or grass, reflect, read, cry and pray.  Vern turned his energy to work and depression.  Other troubles ensued, but

passed, and mourning was turned to joy.

     Most tours were fun.  Most tour members were fun.  Some tour members were funny.  Some were tragi-comedies.  There was a large luxury tour to the South Pacific.  First the entire group stopped in Hawaii for orientation and getting acquainted.  A wealthy heiress from California accompanied her eighteen-year-old son on the tour.   She took a single-occupancy room for herself and asked for a roommate for her son in adjacent rooms all the way.  Her son's roommate was a nice, quiet middle-aged gentleman whom we shall give the ficticious name Barney.  The group arrived on Oahu on a Saturday and given rooms at the Hilton Hotel at Diamond Head.  There was plenty of time left in the day for individual explorations in Honolulu.

     The following morning Barney decided he would take an early dip in the Pacific Ocean.  He had never seen the ocean before.  He donned his swim trunks, threw a towel around his shoulders and headed out his door.  He was surprised by his next-door neighbor who had left her door ajar.  She had already introduced herself as his roommate's mother and now she invited him and her son into her room for a private breakfast which she had arranged.  There it was, all beautifully laid out:  All one could imagine, inclujding caviar.  She roused her son and the three enjoyed a sumptious breakfast, Barney still in his swim trunks.

     Later, that Sunday morning, the entire group were invited to meet in a large conference room to get acquainted with one another, then have a brief devotional lesson by their minister organizer, and a time of sharing.  When the time for sharing arrived, our California heiress stood and reported a successful shopping trip the prior afternoon.

     " For months I've not been able to find a bra which really fits me," she beamed, "but yesterday I found one that's perfect.  I think that's a sign of a hugely successful tour with all you wonderful people."

     Since the group was too large to book everyone on some of the flights and since there were differing individual preferences about some of the locations to be visited, the group had been split into three smaller group, everyone visiting Hawaii, Australia, North Island of New Zealand and Tahiti, but one of the splinter groups including Fiji, and another South Island of New Zealand.  The California lady and her son happened to be of the group which went to Fiji.  On their flight the lady lost control of herself.  She got out of her seat and began reciting some of the woes of her unhappy life.  ""...........and you know," she sobbed, "I have NEVER had an orgasm........"  By the time the flight reached Fiji, the captain and her son decided it would be best for her to be hospitalized.  She was left in Fiji and later returned to the pschiatric ward of a California hospital.  Her son continued the trip.

     Another memorable situation on the same tour was with a well-to-do lady who invited her maid to accompany her on the tour, all expenses paid.  At first the maid was thrilled to get the trip of a lifetime, all paid by her friend.  As time wore on, however, she tired of the demands and quirks of her boss, the "bitch" who wouldn't allow her to open the drapes in their room because she didn't want to see how high above the streets they were located.  She had great fear of heights.

     Among the day trips enjoyed by the group was a trip to the kangaroo farm outside Sydney.  When the tour organizer tried to approach a large 'roo to pet him, the animal turned, kicked the man in the groin and hopped away.

     Vern saw one of the elderly ladies of the group standing in front of the parrot cages giggling.

     "What's up?"  Vern asked.

     "Oh, I kept say 'hello' over and over to this bird, and he did't do anything.  Finally he said 'Hello, dammit'"

     After Australia the groups flew to the islands of New Zealand, then to Tahiti.  On New Zealand, Larry became very ill; so ill that at the airport for departure, had to be given a wheel chair.  Once in Tahiti, he was transferred immediately to the hotel and a doctor was summoned.  One look and the French doctor pronounced "C'es le dengue."  Larry had been bitten by a mosquito which carried the Dengue Fever.  The doctor produced a wicked-looking needle and applied a shot.  The following day Larry was better, but when he returned to Los Angeles he had lost seventeen pounds.