By Jim Nichols

The variety of people in our lives is amazing when you think about it. Sit and reflect for a few minutes about various qualities and activities of your acquaintances and how knowing about them has enriched your life. Sometimes what they do or think causes me to wonder what adjective to use—charming, quirky, imaginative, or daring for starters.

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I attended a college that required daily chapel attendance. This occurred in a large mid-20^th century auditorium with wooden seats fastened to the concrete floor by sturdy metal feet. The floor slanted steeply toward the front where there was a stage with a podium for chapel. The building was also used for plays and musical concerts.

It was a fine place for pranks.

One group of students smuggled a hundred marbles into chapel one day. Sitting at the back of the auditorium, they released them simultaneously. The marbles started downward slowly initially but picked up speed soon. They were quickly pulled by gravity, bouncing off one another and off the metal legs of the chairs. It resembled a giant pinball machine with multiple miniature balls. A friend reported this to me.

Another time students gained access to the auditorium at night and rigged up a large sack of baking flour attached to the ceiling directly above the podium on the stage. Using their physics knowledge, they connected a release mechanism with a timer which they set to activate at a time corresponding to the presence of a college dean at the podium. Unfortunately, the chapel program for the next morning was altered just enough that the podium was unoccupied for about five seconds when the drop occurred. As order in the auditorium was restored, a student in the audience stood and shouted, “We missed him this time, but we will get him next time.” A friend reported this to me. 

Across the street from the campus was a washeteria used by students. Some students at this school that took the Bible seriously discovered that the clothes dryers were large and powerful enough that one could crawl in and, after turning off the heating, rotate around inside the dryer as it operated. To discourage this, a sign was soon posted reading “. . . neither do they toil nor spin (Luke 12:37).” A friend reported this to me.

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When I was teaching, a female student approached me after class one Monday morning, and we had this conversation. 

Student: Guess what I did this weekend.

Me: What?

Student: I went to Canada.

Me: Tell me about it.

Student: A girlfriend and I got in the car Friday afternoon and drove north from Texas. When we crossed the Canadian border, we got out and took our picture. Then we returned to the car and drove back south.

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Another time sitting in my office a former student came to visit. It had been years since he was a student, and I did not immediately recognize him. He did have an unusual name and, as soon as he reminded me, I knew him. Now a medical professional, he said, “I want to apologize for hitting you in the face with a shaving cream pie during class years ago.” There is a complicated story there, but I certainly did remember the incident.

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Many years later in the middle of the night I was serving as a chaplain in a large midwestern hospital. I sat down for a while in the ICU area with a young female physician I had met another time. She was resting also, and we visited. We found that we were both newcomers at that hospital. She had just completed a trauma surgery residency program in another city. When I asked her why she had come to this specific hospital for employment after her training, she responded that she was attracted by the “high penetration rate” of this emergency room. She cheerfully explained that “. . . about 30 percent of people coming to this ER are here because of a penetration wound from a bullet or knife. That is exciting to me.” That is why she had chosen this hospital.

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I am thankful for the ways others express their creativity in fascinating ways— charming, quirky, imaginative, or even daring. They make life interesting and fun.

Jim Nichols is a retired Abilene Christian University biology professor and current hospital chaplain