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Following my last blog some of you asked, how could an Oklahoma farmer put four children through college during the Dust Bowl and Great Depression of the 1930s? You wanted specifics. I know all four siblings had to work and do their part, so I’ll give more details regarding my father, Buel M. Smith—the second son of my Grandpa C.H. Smith.

Buel was finishing high school after the Great Depression began (1929) and as the severe drought of 1931 hit Oklahoma and elsewhere. In order to have transportation to the Limestone Gap High School in Chockie, Buel took the job of being the school bus driver his senior year. (Yes, that is teenager Buel pictured with the bus he drove his senior year and the other picture is the 1931 Limestone Gap high school graduating class with him on the left.) Driving the school bus provided him transportation, plus he got paid for doing it. I know we don’t hire 17 or 18-year olds to drive a school bus now, but that was a different era and different circumstances.

Apparently, Buel’s responsible-bus-driving skill enabled him to be hired for the night-time, ambulance-driver job at the Criswell Funeral Home in Ada, Oklahoma, where the East Central State Teacher’s College was located. (It is now known as East Central University, ECU.)

    During the years of the Great Depression of the 1930s, the biggest college expense was room and board. There were no dormitories at that time, so students rented rooms from local citizens. I’ve been told some students who couldn’t afford to rent a room formed a “Hooverville” of students living on campus in tents. However, the funeral home furnished Buel a bed and room for him to sleep or nap between night time ambulance runs. Hence, that job gave him a bed and enable him to go to college during the day time.

    “Pop” and “Ma” Morrison of the college were intent on helping students find a way to attend East Central and had many ingenious ways to help. Having no children of their own, all the students they helped over the years became “their kids” and would return yearly for reunions.  The Morrisons lived in a large three-story house furnished by the college and used by the college for entertaining. It was located on a sizable amount of land. 

The Morrisons housed many students who worked in exchange for housing. Mrs. Morrison supervised college girls who lived in the upstairs of the house, like a dormitory, and she supervised their help with cleaning and all the entertaining the Morrisons did as part of their position.  The boys were housed in their basement and the various houses scattered about the property. The boys had the job of working off their expenses in painting and upkeep of all the buildings and property.

Pop Morrison (or the college) owned a large farm somewhere near Ada that had a farm house on it for whoever managed the farm. After Buel met Hallie Smith and got married before he graduated, the newlyweds got to live in the farm house in exchange for them managing the farm and its production. Pop even let Daddy use the farm truck to drive into town to attend their classes since they didn’t own a car yet. (Daddy is pictured with the farm truck when he graduated in 1938.)

Following graduation, Pop advised my parents with regard to where to apply for jobs and how to work their way up to better salaries. When Daddy ended up in Cleveland, Oklahoma, during the early 40s, he used his driving skills again to augment his income from his other two jobs. In addition to being principal of the two grade schools and Cafeteria manager/buyer for the only cafeteria for grade school children, he drove transportation and gasoline trucks on the weekends and during holidays.

He was a part-time driver during the decades Tulsa claimed the name “Oil Capital of the World,” so lots of petroleum products had to be driven around Oklahoma and elsewhere. When Daddy’s truck driving took him on “long-haul” trips of several days, he often brought back a small “souvenir pitcher” for Mother’s collection.

There seemed to be a special secret between my parents about the significance of those pitchers, but they never shared that secret with me. Hence, I made up my own reason for them. The pitchers remind me of how Jesus freely poured out his love for us and I think of my parents as following Jesus’ example by pouring out their love by helping and loving others. Daddy received help and encouragement from the Lord and from many people who enabled him to finish high school and college during difficult times. He worked hard and did without a lot, however in humility he never forgot where he came from and tried to help others better their situation in life with the Lord’s help.

Just as we are to be a lamp that shows forth the light of the Lord, similarly we are like a pitcher that pours forth that with which God has filled us. So the two small pitchers I still have from Daddy’s trips in the 40s remind me: that which pours forth from my mouth or my actions, reflects what has filled my inner being. This isn’t something we can fake day after day—we have to have the spring of Living Water to continually pour forth.

Jesus stood and cried out, saying, “If anyone thirsts, let him come to Me and drink. He who believes in Me, as the Scripture has said, out of his heart will flow rivers of living water.” …He spoke concerning the Spirit, whom those believing in Him would receive…. (John 7:37-39)