At Rogers I was a geek, but I claim that I was part human too. Hormones were working overtime. I admired girls, to put it delicately.
I used to talk to Virginia Langston in our sophomore year. She had a dream of being a medical missionary in Quito, Ecuador. I had never heard the term "medical missionary." Not sure I have since. I don't know how she picked the location, but she pronounced Quito as "Quinto." I had no interest in the medical business or the missionary game. Nevertheless, when Virginia invited me to a meeting of the Future Medical Doctors of America club (FMDA), I jumped at the chance. She told me that there were a lot of girls in the club. The idea of being in a club with girls sounded pretty good.
Sharon Martin's basement was the venue for all 1957-1959 FMDA meetings. The house was near Hamilton Elementary, but was newer than the surrounding houses. I walked three or four miles one-way to get there. Sharon's parents seemed quite wealthy by NE Spokane standards. A white '58 Caddy was parked in the driveway (a '47 Chevy was in ours). The basement was fantastic to a teenager. We sat on couches to conduct club business that usually consisted of dreaming up a field trip or project to justify our club's existence. Once we took a field trip to Sacred Heart Hospital. To me, the idea translated to a Saturday spent with girls. I cared not a hang for the prospect of working as a doctor or in the medical field. Any thought of blood made me feel faint (a combo geek and wuss, I guess).
After 15 or 20 minutes of club business, we pushed the furniture aside and the music began. We danced and socialized for a couple of hours. We probably did this once or twice a month. Today, I cannot remember the names of most members except Sharon Martin, Phyllis Hoegh, Joan Pivar, Virginia Langston, and Dick Churchill. Notice the four-to-one girl-to-boy ratio. That ratio was the hook.
There are FMDA ironies. First, Ray Miller, my homeroom classmate and our class president, was not in FMDA, but become a medical doctor anyway. Good job, Dr Miller! Second, I found myself building a concrete block security wall for amedical clinic in Quetzaltenango, Guatemala last October. Why is that ironic?
I thought about FMDA, Virginia Langston, and the concept of a medical missionary while lifting and setting solid heavy concrete blocks into wet mortar on that wall. So this was where four years at Rogers, six years at MSU, and 36 years working in computer sciences landed me? I pictured a fictitious Rogers Record headline: "Rogers FMDA member lays cement blocks at Guatemala clinic." That's irony, my friends.
I was not one of Virginia's medical missionaries, but was on a real mission in a third World country working on an actual medical clinic (that had a circuit doctor from Washington State). It turned out to be one of the most fulfilling things I've done. I'm returning to Guatemala to carry out more grunt work at that clinic in January.
Thanks for a neat concept, Virginia, wherever you are.