REFLECTIONS- Chapter 3 "From This Day Forward"

"To thrive in life you need three bones.  A wish bone, a backbone and a funny bone!" -Reba McEntire

The summer of 1974 was filled with anticipatory apprehension. Perhaps the anxiety was a sign of maturity or perhaps, after nearly two years of marriage, we were crossing to the dark side and becoming adults!  In either case, this summer would determine the direction of our lives for the next 35 years.  It would ultimately become a roadway marked by joy and loss, achievement and disappointment, milestones and failures but mostly the contentment of a well traveled journey.  In January of 1974, the early exit of Mr. Larry Hoffman from his 8th grade Science position. gave us hope that Andy might have an opportunity for a real teaching job.  At the end of the school year Don Schiff had recommended Andy for the full time position in the upcoming 1974-75 school year but we had to wait for board approval.  It seemed the board had some concerns about a married couple teaching in the same building.  Our wish for this particular summer was a full time teaching position.

I mentioned in an earlier post that Andy's dad had immigrated to the United States from Germany.  Johann Bichler was born on January 31, 1911 the youngest of 7 children.  John's oldest brother, Josef came to America in 1926 after the war and was able to send enough money home to bring John and his siblings to New York City. His parents, Josef and Ursula of  Bayern-Traunstein, Bavaria, never left Germany. John arrived in New York City in 1929.  Maybe it was the long trip by steam boat across the Atlantic or the fact that he had worked tirelessly, saving every penny, to earn his way out of New York City,  but John did not like to travel. Other than a few trips to Philadelphia or the occasional trip to Wildwood, N J, vacations seemed frivolous and somewhat extravagant.  This might explain why Andy decided to attend college 630 miles away in Tennessee.

Andy's father, Johan "John" Bichler

Andy's Uncle Josef who came to America, found work as a brick-layer and then sent money to bring his brothers and sisters here.

Uncle Andreas, Andy's namesake. This was his passport photo, thank you Ancestory.com

My father, however, had the Wilson wander-lust gene.  My Grandpa had it.  He spent summers as a teenager in Montana on a cattle ranch and my Uncle Walter once traveled across the United States on his Indian motorcycle sleeping in barns or under haystacks.  When he ran out of money in California, he sold his motorcycle and hopped a train (hobo style) to get back home.  Dad had seen some of the world as a Merchant Marine in WW II  and I'm ever so grateful we were treated to family vacations. Each year, once we had the 2nd cutting of hay and the wheat and oats in the barn, (late July or early August) we headed off to Michigan for a week of camping, boating, swimming and fishing.  It was one of the things that my brother and sister and I looked forward to each year.  One year dad changed directions and we found ourselves in North Carolina at the Outer Banks.  But my favorite trip was the time we went out west.  It was this trip that inspired Andy's and my vacation in the summer of 1974.  It took very little coaxing to convince Andy that a camping trip out west would be a great way to spend part of our summer.  Unlike the rest of the Bichlers, Andy liked to travel as much as I!

Silver Lake, Ludington, Michigan

This was taken on the trip I bounced my sister, Judy, off the teeter-totter and broke her arm.

No doubt prompted by our desire to travel out west, Andy purchased a used truck that also came with a truck camper in the back.  Odd, the things remembered so clearly while others remain hidden away.  I remember the camper but not the circumstances surrounding the how, why or even when he bought it. He was always bringing home something or other and always using the same explanation that it was a steal and just couldn't be passed up.  And, to his credit, it almost always was!

I believe it was the month of July, but what ever the month, it was about a week before the school board meeting when the pending hiring approvals would be made. As a much needed distraction, we left on our first vacation as a married couple.  We put Dusty in the camper and headed west taking the route that I remembered from my childhood.  We hit all the highlights, the St. Louis Arch, Pike's Peak, Garden of the Gods, the Grand Tetons and Yellowstone National Park.  It was in the park among the towering pines and geysers surrounded by moose and bison that Andy made the call on a payphone at the park office to learn that he had indeed been approved for the vacant science position. And as they say, the rest is history.  All of Andy's hard work to get through college was finally paying off.  This news made the second week of our trip one of the best ever.  We could finally enjoy ourselves knowing that we were both gainfully employed.

Truck camper, although I don't think this is the camper we took out west.

Garden of the Gods

Yellowstone Geysers

Bison at Bear Park in Wyoming  

We did nearly lose our cat.  Well, not lost, as in dead, he actually lived to the ripe old age of 21.  He evidently jumped out of our truck while we were stopped and having our refrigerator repaired in Idaho.  When the repairs were finished we drove away and were about 10 miles down the road before we realized that we could not find Dusty anywhere.  We drove back to the repair shop and there he sat in the parking lot looking quite indignant that we would actually leave without first looking to see if he were aboard.

Dusty

The second week of our trip included visits to Custer State Park, Mt. Rushmore and the Corn Palace in Mitchell, South Dakota.

Mt. Rushmore

I found my first two years of teaching to be my most challenging.  It seems it takes about that much time to build relationships with students and establish a reputation.  Maybe education classes are better than when I was in college but it seemed to me I was totally unprepared to step into the classroom.  Andy, on the other hand seemed a natural. His laid back approach and sarcastic humor seemed to command the attention of even the most hard to reach students.  Perhaps it was the fact that he had been an unconventional student that made him the unconventional teacher that he became.  I believe that his ultimate goal as a teacher was to make each of his students good people first with the belief that everything else would then fall into place.  His conference room was the stairwell where many a student got an earful if Mr. B happened to learn that they had been disrespectful to an adult or had bullied another student.  I think had he written a book of his exploits as a teacher it may have been a Best Seller!  Life Lessons in a Stairwell by Andrew Bichler

The 7th grade team

Donkey Basketball 1975

Middle School Staff 2008-09
Andy's 35th year

Ceora Bester, the Spelling Bee Queen

Andy 2009

Middle School staff meeting at the "Church"

Middle School Staff Kayaking at Trapper John's
I'm pretty sure Andy is tugging on Debbie's shirt

Two of Andy's favorite colleagues
Virginia Mohr and Brenda Knore

The lunch bunch

Jeanne Nichols

Cinderella

West Jefferson Unit
Madison County Historical Society

Alisha Mirollo
Archie Griffin Award

Prairie Oaks field trip

Retired Teachers Lunch
Barb Butler and Rich Haskins

It is hard to imagine a more satisfying career than the one we were privileged to enjoy at Jefferson Local Schools.  We were blessed with colleagues that became like family, students that taught us how to be more understanding and compassionate and parents that supported us through the good and bad times (most of the time!) and athletes that always, win or lose, made us so very proud.   I'm fairly certain we would not enjoy teaching in today's classroom.  Actually, I'm pretty sure we would both be fired within the first week, Andy probably after the first day when he told a student he was "dumber than a stick"!   Teaching in the 70's, 80's and 90's seemed a little more forgiving and probably offered more opportunities to connect to students on a personal level. My hope is, and I have seen it first hand, that the students we taught will carry the torch for their teachers that have since retired.  I was told by a former student that is now teaching that they give each student a nickname at the beginning of the year.  At Andy's calling hours and on social media, I was not surprised but certainly overwhelmed by the comments I read and heard from his students.  Students who acknowledged him for their successes.  As an educator, we cannot ask for anything more.