"I WAS THERE"
A Series of Selected
Autobiographical Vignettes
By
Chester C. Travelstead
Volume 6
The Year at the Kentucky Military Institute
PREFACE AND CONTENTS
Preface
A Series of Selected Autobiographical Vignettes
By
Chester C. Travelstead
Volume 6
The Year at the Kentucky Military Institute
PREFACE AND CONTENTS
Preface
When I graduated from Bowling Green High School in June of 1928, I was only sixteen years old, and my mother and I agreed I was too young to enter college at that time. She also said I was immature, but of course I didn't agree with her on that point. Like any other sixteen year old, I thought I was quite mature.
Shortly before my graduation, we made the necessary arrangements for me to attend Kentucky Military Institute the following year. We could not afford the high annual cost of $900 for room, board, tuition, books, and military uniforms, but with the help of a half scholarship in music, the cost for us would be only $450. This scholarship I was to receive required that I play trumpet in both the marching band, used for cadet reviews and parades, and in the school's dance orchestra, which played for various social occasions.
The stories included in this volume describe several things that happened to me during the 1928-29 school year at military school--some of the things amusing, others frustrating. One or two of them may be hard to believe.
As in earlier volumes of the "I Was There" series, the accounts in this volume represent what I remember after a lapse of more than half a century. Some notes I made at the time, however, have been helpful to me in recalling some of the details.
The stories are basically true, even though certain parts of them are not altogether accurate.
I hope that neither the minor deviations from the true facts, nor the "elaborations" added here and there will detract from the reader's enjoyment of these stories.
Chester c. Travelstead
April 10, 1981
Contents
1. Buttons are for Buttoning 2 Screens
(A new cadet is duly instructed)
2. Mr. Day, a Band Director Not to be Forgotten
3
Screens
(A character straight out of Dickens)
3. No School on Monday 3 Screens
(A free day in Louisville)
4. The President's Errant Brother 3 Screens
(Everybody called him "Bunny")
5. Join the Marines and See the World 2
Screens
(A debatable recruiting slogan)
6. "Didn't Anyone Give You the Signal?" 2
Screens
(A mix-up at radio station WHAS)
7. "I Thought You Said We Were Invited to Supper"
3 Screens
(A long day at Simpsonville)
8. Victor John Mature and James Gilmore Backus
1 Screen
(I knew them when)
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