Page 53 - Winterling's Chasing the Wind

It was in the fall of 1951 that I saw snow for the first time since my childhood in New
Jersey as I rode the Trailways bus into Oklahoma. It was just a few patches along the
roadside near Tulsa. When I arrived
in Stillwater, I was dazzled by a large
red brick dormitory that was to be my
home for the next eight months.

The building, called Bennett Hall,
was a whole block long on the
northern edge of the campus, right
across the street from the Basketball
Arena and Football Stadium. Our
classes met inside the stadium under
the seats.

One day I thought someone seated at
the desk behind me was kicking my
chair, but I soon learned that it was
tremors from a minor earthquake.

For our Climatology class, each of us had to study the climate of various parts of the
earth. My report was on South America, which contained many different climates. I
learned about its topography, the seasons, and differences between the rain forests, the
equatorial doldrums, and the intrusions of polar air from the south into Paraguay,
Uruguay, and Brazil. I was impressed with Professor Rollo Dean’s demonstration of
streamline analysis. He could place wind reports on the chalkboard and then draw
curving lines of wind flow that converged inward to cyclones (lows) and diverged
outward from anticyclones (highs).

I renewed my friendship with Jack Hall, whom I first met at Chanute Field in 1950. We
attended the First Baptist Church in Stillwater. A new sanctuary had just been
dedicated with a beautiful stained-glass window on the wall behind the balcony. Above
the choir, a lattice had been constructed in front of the organ pipes or speakers. I spent
one Saturday helping students stapling a cheese-cloth curtain to it that could be
illuminated by colored lights. On Sundays, Jack and his friend, Marvin Henry, and I
attended a Sunday School class, following which we listened to inspiring sermons
45