A DAY IN THE LIFE OF A DIXIE REBEL

THIS WAS GIVEN AT THE 1975-1985 DIXIE REUNION.  I WAS THERE FROM 1976-1978,

 SO PRETTY CLOSE.

Spring Quarter 1977 Roomates
Karen McKnight, Sara Cutler, Pam Merrell

A Day in the Life of an early 80s Dixie College student by Rodney Rebel

5am – Woke up to the wind up alarm clock. OK…who messed with my alarm clock!?! I don’t have class until 8!!!

Back to sleep for two hours and 45 minutes. Woke up just in time to shower or rather spray on some deodorant and brush my teeth…well, put some toothpaste in my mouth then off to class.

8:00am – Made it to Dixie just in time for our first class. Maybe it was Max Rose’s chemistry class, or Mr. Hinton’s communications class; heck some of us had Biology with Mr. Woodbury or maybe a PE class (usually dance) with Mrs. Roper. We were just happy to be at Dixie.

In between classes we would meet at the fountain or the student center to socialize…face-to-face…looking at each other…and even talking with words!!! Some even talked about the nightmare from the night before of a future time in a few decades when they would change the mascot from a Rebel because it was offensive to a Bison of all things, an almost extinct animal almost completely killed off and considered sacred by many indigenous people…weird dream!!! Moving on!

9:00am – A time many of us considered THE REASON for life. Morning Program Bureau with Mrs. DiFiore. Ohhh, how we loved being from Dixie and singing for that beautiful woman who we all knew as Mrs. D. She was the heart of Dixie!!! It was a time of goodness and kindness; of caring and heartfelt Dixie pride. Such fun to sing about God, country, and good ol’ Dixie. To swoon and croon, to talk about not being fenced in, rocking your baby with a Dixie melody, being from Big D, Old Glory and so much more.

Following PB, as it was lovingly called, there would be an exodus to our next classes for a couple of hours of serious college work or perhaps a class across the street at the Institute building. Who could forget the classics like Dr. Anderson’s drama courses or Dr. Putnam’s choral groups or Mr. Hinton and Woodward’s speech and communication classes? These classes weren’t just time fillers. They taught us so much more than the course content.

Some of us took breaks to head over to the bookstore to see Dave Wilkey to chat and share a laugh or maybe to the cafeteria for some yummy food prepped by Chef George Whitehead and his crew. We would often times stop and talk to our favorite custodian Ronnie who was always happy and positive. We might drop in to talk to Rudy Iverson or Dr. Karl Brooks or Tad Derrick or Bill Fowler or Kathleen Pope for some good ol’ fashion reassurance and advice. There were so many mentors that loved us.

12:00 noonish - That mid-day period was another great opportunity for students to hang out, study, and maybe meet with one of the clubs like DECA, the Hospitality Club, Radio & TV, Drama or the Pink Panther Peace Corp. We headed to the library to type a paper on the cool, new IBM Selectric typewriter. Again, this was a time where we sat face to face and conversed one with another…using words. The only thing we did with our fingers was premarital bisexual interdigitation (holding hands).

1:00pm - To kick-off the second half of the day, some of us headed to afternoon Program Bureau for more of God, country and Dixie with our amazing Mrs. D. We heard from the likes of Ed Rogers & Ken Young; Phil Theobald and Cara Clawson; Theresa Springer and Ron Kahle; Eric Young and Gretchen Graff. Oh, the songs we sang like “I Love to Cry at Weddings,” “When You’re from Big D,” “Waddlie-Acha,” “This is a land of milk and honey,” and so many more…almost sounds like a “Time/Life” commercial doesn’t it.

The afternoon hours were filled with more classes or studying…no really some of us actually studied… and of course, work. And we worked wherever we could…Ben Franklin’s, Pizza Factory, Larson’s Frost Top, Chez Maggie, the bookstore, Harmon’s, the cafeteria, landscaping. You name it, we did it. Anything we could do to earn money for school, dates, rent, dates, food, dates, and of course dates.

We also took off to Snow’s Canyon to go rappelling, to the narrows in the Red Cliffs to get stuck, or maybe to Pine Valley for a hike. At certain times of the year, we might find a swimming hole down at the river or if it was raining go to the canyon to watch the waterfalls.

6:00pm - When the evening hours finally arrived, it was time for one of the many social activities. We watched our awesome Rebel basketball team win championships and go to nationals cheered on by Deanna Hafen, Lisa Newby, Koni Esplin, Sheri Blake, Gretchen Graff and others. We either went to watch or were in one of the many musicals directed by the gifted Dr. Paul Anderson such as Oklahoma, South Pacific and Guys and Dolls. We went pool hopping innocently from motel to motel. We went tunnel running through the passageways under the college and never got caught.

8:00pm – We snuggled ourselves safely in bed while visions of sugar plums danced…oops wrong story. We were just getting started around this time. This was the time we would head off to a dance and boy could we dance…the Hustle, Moonwalking, Cabbage Patch, the Robot, dirty dog…OK, maybe we should forget that that ever happened. It was also when we did this thing called “dating.” That’s where a guy calls up a girl on the telephone and asks her to go out for ice cream, to the movies or dinner…and they would talk to each other….in person.

11:00pm – To end the day, we would all head over to JB’s for a burger or Larson’s for ice cream sundaes, shakes, malts and of course fries with fry sauce. I might interject here that most people outside of Utah don’t know about fry sauce. Here we would talk about the day, tell jokes, laugh, cry and just have fun being together because we were with friends in one of the best place to be – Dear ‘Ol Dixie.

The life of an early 80s Dixie College (and late 70s) student was…well…the best of times.

(And, if I hadn't gone to Dixie first, I probably would have liked my time at BYU better!)