Shirley Thiac McBride – Upper Elementary Education, 1954

Shirley Thiac McBride

1954 – Upper Elementary Education

I am a 1954 graduate of SLI.  I received a BA in Upper Elementary Education, and my diploma reads Shirley Mae Thiac.  I entered Southwestern in September 1950 and lived in Baker Hall my freshman year and afterward in Randolph Hall.  These dorms were the newest on the campus.  We moved in with clothes and very few luxuries, which today are commonplace such as telephones, TV’s, and computers.  We had an 8:00 P.M. curfew on week nights and on weekends of 10:30 P.M.  Upperclassmen had later hours, but we all had to sign in or out in the office to leave the dorm after classes.  A housemother lived in each dorm and was on call to enforce the rules.

Very few students had cars, so walking to movies and shopping was common.  We ate all meals in the O.K. Allen Dining Hall and bought snacks in the student center between classes or at Hick’s.  Hick’s was there a long time and was located on St. Mary Boulevard between the main campus, the back campus buildings, dorms, and the stadium.  There weren’t any fast food restaurants on every corner nor pizza delivery; so, we accepted the dining hall food.  Off campus, we frequented Voorhies Club for dancing and dates, and the three movie theaters in Lafayette.  Life was simple compared with the stresses and complications of today.  Since there were between three and four thousand students enrolled at that time, we knew almost everyone by sight if not by name.  There were many students who commuted to school, and most came by bus since they couldn’t afford their own cars.  Students from Lafayette were frequently the ones with cars.

                There were several formal dances held in the Men’s Gym during the year.  Football games were also well attended and lots of fun.  I met my husband while a freshman, and we married shortly after graduation.  I did my student teaching in Spring 1953 in the seventh grade at the school across from the campus.  Sorority and fraternity activities were enjoyed but were not exclusive to the general student body.  I also enjoyed the many activities at the Newman Club and, of course, the inspiration of the chaplains, Msgr. I.A. DeBlanc and Msgr. A.O. Sigur.  They certainly were instrumental in our development and growth.

                After graduation and marriage, my husband of 44 years–Bob McBride–and I moved quite a few times.  I taught school in Assumption and Jefferson Parishes.  We lived in Ecuador three years, and two of our children were born there.  We had five children and have lived in Texas since 1967.  After the children were grown, I worked ten years for an S&L, leaving in 1987 as Vice-President and regional manager of twenty branches in Houston.  My husband completed his working career after starting a very successful engineering firm in Houston, and we have been retired since 1987.  All of our memories of SLI and Lafayette and the people we met there are great.  We are proud to be Ragin Cajuns!