So here is my response:
- If one were to examine the life of the present living Ted Hinshaw, how did Great Books and the iconoclastic instructor Bill Cole influence his life? Explain. Elucidate. Compare. etc
Above is an example of how a seminar question would have appeared to a GB student…sort of…except substitute my name for Dante and Bill’s for Virgil…now clearly a more precise version. On second thought substitute my name for Kurt Vonnegut. That’s better.
There was nothing more terrifying to me than having to attend a Seminar and come up with some verbal defense that would establish that yes, I read the book and yes, my thoughts are my own and not lifted from cliff notes. And you, yes, you other students stop interrupting my train of thought like some ninja warrior as if we were in some sort of debate or something. But you do it so nicely don’t you: “Mr. Cole, Ted expresses a well founded understanding of Dante’s Inferno, however I’d like to bring up another more sophisticated point. Dante had a peculiar fascination for fire…let me explain in pointed detail how his enamored hero Virgil met him in the caldron and how much Virgil had influenced Dante’s life as a young person…yahda da yada etc.” Please, Mr. Cole just pass me is all I am asking of you. So I can leave this snakepit of shaky nervous hell and go about being a kid of sixteen and no dreamer of scholarly persuits mind you!
Now you think seminars were terrors…Think of how it was for the students of the 60’s who were given an essay exam and some were caught upchucking outside the class prior to the test because this test was a status symbol like driving a Porsche at Hollywood High. You get an A on this mental hair puller and no one questions your mental facilities ever again. One of that elk could only hope. Bill ended this craziness of intimidation only to bring in the performance art production of Seminar. - Well, now that that is off my chest, I’d like to begin by describing a wonderful perk to Great Books not yet discussed. The Great Books Party. That would be two during the year The Bacchanal and The Right of Spring. I was lucky to have been invited to my brother classes’ parties at 12 and, yes, I was spoiled. Here is my enhanced memory of the event (s): Firstly you enter the room and are surrounded by kind smart kids singing Happy Birthday to Bill Cole one dressed up in Gracho’s regalia, next you walk down the hall and see a pair of young ladies playing Beethovens 9th sitting side by side on Piano, at an adjoining room another group is sitting down in a circle playing someone’s made upESP (extra sensory perception) game where one faces another and mirrors the thoughts verbally or appears to be doing so successfully, meaning other’s believe they are successful and are enraptured, someothers discuss the middle east. You exit and find students marco poloing in a greenish blue lit pool, others found on the backyard lawn playing a crafty game of touch football.
One year for a special treat a student showed his 8mm film he made with the great books class, who he had play various 1950 sock hop roles with love intrigues and gang land aggressions built in…similar to American Graffiti but probably done prior to the making of American Graffiti. Ahead of its time.
Believe it or not one year Bill Cole became deathly ill. 1974? Unfortunately or fortunately the Sub was mocked and ridiculed during the reading of Bill’s red pen left handed scrawled lecture notes. Did the students’ get expelled for such behavior? No, some took up the task of lecturing while others ran seminars. - Bill cole as a youth attended a military academy was raised in Long Beach. Was a member of a gang whose penchant was to beat up on the blacks. Perhaps this explains his stubnose, no? He owned a very hot car dodge charger during the 60s and early 70s which he would rumble to and from various revival theaters with lucky students for Great Book Field Trips, a weekly occurrence, accompanied by second hand cars filled to the brim with not so lucky students . One week Hitchcock Psycho, Vertigo…Depalma’s Carry the next. We would stop at say a Bob’s Big Boy for food following the movie and a discussion of the films and other diverse interests.
Bill was one who prided himself on an extreme appetite. One time he was challenged to an eating contest by an acquaintance at a smorgesborg. He did out eat the man, no one would doubt his eating prowess again forever. To celebrate they both had a cone of vanilla ice cream. Unfortunately this was the twos undoing. The fat creamy mixture provided the lubrication to bring everything up. And yes, you can fill in the rest of the detail.
My first year at Lowell, 1978, he sported a perm (mop hair) and had an athletic build. Not hard to explain since he lived in Long Beach and rode a Schwinn paramount all over the place. Remember he did almost die in 1974? So to make up for this he became super health nut plus. A jock, a stud…not the pencil necked geek of earlier, not by far.
My joys of having him for English Class was hearing the past Essay examples from prior students some of which were my bro’s friends. Some were so funny. One was on the merits or demerits of kissing from the point of view of a coed student. Of which she described the “sloppy joe kiss, the orio cooky peck kiss, the French gag kiss etc etc” Uproariously funny stuff! This was not your typical dry comparison contrast essay, not by a long shot: no doubt taught the easy Bill way with humor and intellectual fervor. We were leaps beyond the rest with Bill at our sides.
His sentence diagram sessions were legend. Bill: “This is a special occurrence, (you) understood with an overarching gerundial phrase and implied wavering line establishing (dot dot dot on the board) seesaw symbol two words ‘this and ‘and.” IE Teds mythical explanation of Bills Sentence Diagramming. Perhaps this studied approach to an English sentence helped me with college math. I don’t know, but it was like no other.
One year we were going to see as a field trip the great film you can now see on You tube SUNRISE. He was profoundly saddened by the reluctance of some students to take him up on the offer to see one of the greatest silent movies ever. I can still remember his words: “When the silver ring comes around on the merry-go-round and you are reluctant to grasp the ring that chance will never appear again, not for a long while! Grab it while you can! ” Still, they said no. Oh well.
Reading your post brought back great memories. He was a one of a kind. Best, Dan
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