Down Memory Lane at Miramar College

It was an amusing and sentimental journey into the past for faculty and staff who have been at Miramar College at least 15 years. The “Old Timers” Retreat,” hosted by the college’s new president, Pat Keir, was a time for campus veterans to share memories, accomplishments and achievements that have contributed to creating the Miramar College of today.

Bob Henderson recalls the dirt road to Miramar College, the “Rattlesnake Patrol,” squirrels living in the vending machines and airplanes still landing on Hourglass Field, the Navy’s auxiliary landing strip that is now Hourglass Field Park.

Norris Charles recalls the “Sage Brush Ramble” 10K that he coordinated for years on behalf of the college’s Faculty Association.

Everyone recalled the C-300 bungalow that once housed all student services, business services, reprographics, the mailroom, and most of the administration.

Helen Christiansen was Miramar’s entire student services staff. Everyone remembered the student body as a much older group of students and how, over the years, the average student age continues to get younger.

Joan Messenger fondly recalled how she thought she was inquiring about an art teaching position at MiraCosta College, but the phone operator connected her to the wrong phone number. The rest is history: Messenger was the college’s “pioneer” art teacher with her first class of one student!

Greg Carrier remembers the “Roach Coach” that provided food service one hour during the day and one hour during the evening.

Mary Meiners reflected on the “sense of community” that has always been at Miramar.

Dorothy Simpson remembers classrooms that routinely flooded with heavy rain and having to cancel classes when the water pooled under typewriters and calculator stations. Ray McFarlane provided rubber fire boots so Simpson and women students in heels could wade across the classroom thresholds.

John Shablow shared an amusing story of how he first came to Miramar from Lockheed. In a Friday follow-up call to his interview he was told he was hired—could he start teaching Monday? He could, and he lived in a tent trailer for the start of his career at Miramar.

Almost 20 years ago, Ric Matthews literally started the science program at Miramar College, amid promises of the construction of a science building ... still waiting. Matthews remembers not only the rattlesnakes, but also the tarantulas in the biology lab—live, not specimens!

David Sanderlin taught tennis in the fire tech training area because the tennis courts weren’t yet constructed.

Pat Owens-Rodriguez is assisting the eighth president since she began at Miramar College.

The college’s first faculty member, Terry Truitt, remembers the days when Miramar College had an official U.S. Post Office located on campus. He issued the postmaster a tear gas mask to use when training for the police recruits resulted in wayward clouds of tear gas drifting through the post office trailer.

Jim Weber clearly recalls the aviation night class when he thought they were experiencing an earthquake, only to discover that the boom was the result of the police academy firing range located next to his classroom. “No one told me,” he said. In memory of the firing range, bullets that missed their target sit in a jar on a shelf in the aviation training classroom.

Edith Pollack and others fondly remembered student Jocelyn Allen, who lived in her broken-down car behind Mira Mesa High School and walked the three miles to Miramar College. Allen, dying of cancer, graduated in a ceremony held at the hospital at her bedside. This special student touched faculty and staff with her presence, intelligence and spirit.

The spirit of camaraderie and “family” that Miramar proudly proclaims as its unique character apparently has been true since the early days.

You’re a Miramar College veteran if you remember
…the dirt road to Miramar College
…the Rattlesnake Patrol
…squirrels in the vending machines
…tarantulas at large
…planes landing at Hourglass Field
…the Sage Brush Ramble 10K
…the on-campus U.S. Post Office
…the twice-a-day Roach Coach
…student Jocelyn Allen