Augsburg College - Augsburgian Yearbook (Minneapolis, MN)

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Oscar Tells All.. . Rapping With the President EDITORS NOTE: ihe AUGSBURG I AN owes a vote of thanks to President Anderson for helping make this article possible. Thanks. Also, an “A” for effort is given to a staff member, wish- ing to remain anonymous, who, fighting a battle with a faulty tape recorder, made two trips to in- terview Anderson and complete this story, which is an unedited, word-for-word conversation. Questions by the AUGSBURG IAN staff Answers by Pres. Oscar Anderson Q: I hate to go through it all again. A: So do I. Q: What is the earliest thing that you remember in your life? A: Well. I don't know what I told you last time, but I guess it was vacationing with my family on a little island out on Puget Sound. All I can remember is that we had a dog. and it was the only dog we ever had. and the dog's name was Pogie. That's about the earliest recollection I think I have. Q: When did the words Augsburg College first become a part of your vocabulary? A: Well. I lived in the cities here, so 1 knew about Augsburg College, which at that time had both a high school and a seminary connected with it. and when I was in high school I remember debating against a debate team from Augs- burg prep school or the Academy as it was called, so I would imagine that one could say back in high school days. Q: What similarities do you see between yourself as a college student when you were and students at Augsburg? A: You mean my own experience as a college student and the students today? Q: Yes. A: Well I suppose that one of the things that was of tremen- dous concern to us back in the depression when I went to college was the problem of money. How to finance your education is a common denominator between the students of my day and the students today. I think there was a sense also at that time of a world-wide depression and there's no doubt that had a great deal to say to our own outlook on things, while the problems of that time were very simple compared to those today: nevertheless, there was a pervasiveness about that particular economic crisis that had a marked effect on the way in which we looked at things. Q: Do you think students are more optimistic today? A: I think they're less optimistic today. I think they tend to be more discouraged, somewhat dispairing because of the complexity and massiveness of the problems and be- cause of certain disillusionmcnts. In the depression we were still sure that if we really tightened our belts and went to work somehow or other we'd survive and we'd make it. We still carried what some people call the old American Dream and I guess somehow or other we managed. I think this comes out very definitely in a book that I’ve been reading entitled HARD TIMES by Eric Turkle. in which he interviews people who lived through the de- pression. In the depression there was no attempt to blame anybody else. Everybody kind of took the blame for him- self and figured he was gonna have to find his own way out of the hole into which we had fallen. Q: What kind of a school did you go to when you were in the elementary grades? A: I started school at a grade school in St. Paul, in what is known as St. Anthony Park. It was a very old building—I understand it was condemned at the time and it stood for another 25 years after that but it was a school that served the community that surrounds the University-St. Paul campus and the Luther Seminary campus, and it was a very interesting community and a very interesting school. I remember my first grade teacher very well because there were a lot of people that had her over her 40 or 50 year tenure as a first grade teacher in St. Anthony Park School. It started out as Murray School, was changed to Gun- nerson School, and its subsequent school, a new one. now is the St. Anthony Park Elementary School. Q: Did you ever play hooky? A: 1 don't recall that I ever did. I am sure that I was tempted to. Q: I think everybody is. What was your favorite subject in high school? A: In high school I think I developed my real interest in his-

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■ C««f Out And M ci 2 T0K GEORGE MCGOVERN •(VCfIT COSCfHT BOTTOM LI; FT: In u sheltering 85° Si Melby Hall, presidential hopeful Senator George McGovern (D.-S.Dak.) fielded questions from the audience about his 1972 campaign platform. TOP RIGHT: One of McGovern's Auggic supporters thumbtacks a handbill to a tree announcing the rally. BOTTOM RIGHT: Sen. McGovern, hot and tired after descending from the platform, manages a friendly smile as he doles out autographs for his fans. There was the usual round of admiring, anecdotal (“I knew George McGovern when and sometimes tiresome testimonials from such miscellaneous per- sonalities as Westerman and Donald Peterson, a Wisconsin State Democratic Committeeman. Another introductory speaker was Caroline Taylor, making her pitch for the Minnesota Welfare Rights Or- ganization. Finally, a Hollywood celebrity, whose function one among the bleachers crowd described as sort of like John the Baptist —seemed to have trouble talking. Warren Beatty hemmed and hawed and then said he didn't know what to say, before he finally introduced McGovern. Then there was a lag; and then, a rush of excitement ran through the crowd in the bleachers and onto the gym floor, with many people gazing reverently in the wrong direction, as the Senator finally entered the gym from the south court entrance. This was the big mo- ment. not so much for George McGovern as for his Augsburg followers who crowded 'round the Great Man for his walk to the speaker's stand. Senator McGovern himself was neither wild-eyed nor raving. But he was articulate, both in his short speech and in the question-answer period following, even when he avoided answering some questions outright; one of the audience wanted to know if McGovern was elected president, whether he would rescind the federal order presently forbidding employment of homosexuals by the government. McGovern said in reply that he was opposed personally to discrimination against any mi- nority. The Senator spoke against the war in Vietnam, about domestic issues, and said if necessary, he would sell weapons to the Israelis—this last item caused a minor ripple of dissatisfaction among some anti-war people in the audience. McGovern appealed to the gathering to join with me to build a society we can be proud of here in the United States. In appearance and manner, George McGovern was reminiscent of McCarthy; both men seemingly epit- omize something of the vaguely fatherly, somewhat with-it image younger people just lcft-of-ccnter have been seeking in their politicians ever since Camclot. Many seemed to like what they heard, and McGovern pins were worn alongside Vance Hartke buttons after the Indiana Senator passed through later in the season. There were the predictable objections, of course, to McGovern's chances and his stands on some issues. Dr. Myles C. Stenshoel of the Political Science De- partment expressed concern whether the senator could take the convention, McGovern seems to be gathering a strong locus of support lcft-of-ccnter, going on to observe that such candidates traditionally have never managed to take the middle, the crucial bloc of supporters, in the primaries. Gordon Nelson of the Sociology Department, felt that McGovern's cam- paign was being used by local DFL groups in power plays of their own. Among students, Mike Nelson, chairman of the Campus Republican Club, said that he objected to giving added military aid to Israel, which he de- scribed as undemocratic and as a theocracy. Tom Snell also responded to this issue negatively, and he later added that while McGovern supported the No- vember sixth anti-war demonstration, the senator referred to some of the protesters as a bunch of crazies . In a comic moment of rancor, Snell also accused the senator of wearing eyeshadow, but mod- erated somewhat when told make-up is an occupational necessity for politicians capering under the warm glow of television spotlights. McGovern spoke to a variety of concerns, in a way calculated to appeal to all. and predictably he did not succeed in pleasing everyone. In his wake, there was the usual furor of speculation, just who would succeed in winning the democratic nomination in ’72? And, more importantly, who would be the next Pres- ident of the United States? 11

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and so I don't recall too much stringency at that time. tory, and that became my major in college. I've had a number of rather able and interesting and provocative history teachers and this even began in high school. Q: You don’t really need curfews then. A: Well. I don't think under those circumstances. I guess 1 didn't go out that much at night so maybe I didn't need any fence like that. Q: What do you remember about your first date? A: My first date? Q: Yes. A: I'm afraid I can’t remember anything about it. I guess I told you last time one of the outstanding dates that I re- member in high school was the fact that I took my first airplane ride with a girl and another couple in a Ford Tri- motor over Minneapolis and St. Paul. It was the first time I'd ever been up in an airplane, l ive bucks apiece. The other fella paid the way 1 couldn't afford it. Q: Were you involved in any sports in high school? A: I only went out for one interscholastic sport and that was tennis and I wasn’t very successful at that. The extra- curricular work I was engaged in most of the time had to do with forensics, oratory and debate. Q: Were you pretty involved in that then? A: Yes. Q: Did that take quite a bit of your time? A: Yes it did. We put a lot into it in oratorical contests and also quite a bit of debate work. We couldn't travel very much in those days but we did manage to take on some other schools. Q: What did you do in your lime outside of high school and outside of debate t hen? A: Well. I don’t know just how to put that. I remember hav- ing to do a great deal with respect to my family. My fa- there was ill during the time I was in high school. All the time I was a senior he was a patient at Fairview Hospital and I always left school when my day was over and when my other activities were completed and look a streetcar to Fairview Hospital and spent hours with him and then took the streetcar ride, with two transfers, home to St. Paul. Q: Did you work at all during high school? A: Here and there, spasmodically. It wasn't as easy for youngsters that age to find jobs during the depression, but here and there a job now and then. Q: How big was your graduating class from high school? A: I don’t really recall. I think we must have numbered around 40. 45. something like that. I graduated from Min- nehaha Academy, so it was a smaller, private school. Q: Did you have a curfew in high school? A: I can't recall that I did. I guess it was an understanding that 1 should be in at a decent hour, but there were some times when it wasn’t quite that: but I had a pretty good relationship with my parents at that point. They kinda knew what I was doing, and I was willing to tell them. Q: That was about the best date. A: That's right. That's one I can remember. Q: What was your favorite story? A: Do you mean humorous story, or story out of a book or what? Q: Story out of a book or radio. A: Well, my father had a couple of books by a humorist named Strickland Gilleland and I used to love to hear him read stories out of those books, particularly one story that had to do with a fella's experience waiting for a train that was late and his experience in trying to get into a sleeping berth in this particular train it was a very humorous thing. It didn't have any particular point it was a series of absurd situations described in a very com- ical manner and we just used to love to listen to this in fact I memorized it once and used it as a exercise in elocu- tion. It was about 8 or 10 pages long. Q: Did you listen to the radio a lot ? A: We did listen to the radio a lot that was the chief past- time in those days. It started out in the early 20’s by try- ing to see how far away you could tunc in. It was called DX'ing and later on you had your favorite heroes, .lack Armstrong and all the rest, but during the 20’s and 30’s that was a tremendous way to get at the outside world and 13