JFK was the first Catholic President. Without the changes of the Second Vatican Council in the early 1960’s one might wonder if a Catholic could ever have been elected to this office. Three decades earlier Alf Landon showed the difficulty to be encountered. There were, of course, many changes initiated within the Church during this era.
Although the major changes resulting from Vatican II were not really implemented until after its final session had been completed in December 1965, early liturgical changes were hinted at in the years before the closing event. One major expected change was in the language of the liturgy, itself. The Mass which had used Latin for almost two-thousand years might be translated into English and other vernacular tongues people actually spoke and understood.
The Pastor of the local Catholic parish in Corvallis was a musicologist, who had recently composed an English language Mass in anticipation of the possible liturgical change. The quartet from St. Mary’s Church had piled into our micro-bus for a brief journey to Portland where they were to perform this new liturgy for representatives from the Diocese of Portland. Karen had been an active member of the group; I was merely the driver. They may have been practicing their hymns as we drove along the new Interstate highway heading north from Corvallis.
In my rearview mirror I suddenly noticed a cloud of gray smoke pouring from the exhaust pipe of our micro-bus and I quickly pulled over to the side of the highway. We all got out to see what was happening to my relatively new vehicle. What better way to find the origin of the smoke than to open the door to the engine compartment in the rear of the wagon. That was the wrong move. With exposure to more oxygen, bright flames burst forth to engulf the entire motor. We all scurried away before the small explosion occurred. All four tires burst from the heat and the vehicle settled onto the pavement where it slowly burned down to its metal framework.
This was long before the invention of cellphones, but many truckers did have two-way radios for routine communication along the highways they traveled. Fortunately, one of the passing truckers had called the local voluntary fire department. The volunteers arrived very quickly and put out the blaze. Arrangements were made to tow the remains of my micro-bus back to Corvallis. We pleasantly learned that many of the volunteers were also members of a local Knights of Columbus chapter. They kindly took us to their meeting hall to await the arrival of transportation for the choir back to St. Mary’s.
The adventure had mixed results. The next day when I went to see my insurance agent, he inquired if the event had happened on the Interstate at a particular time. My response corresponded with his recollection of his own trip the previous day along that route. Without the need for any further investigation, he was able to declare that there had been a complete loss of my wagon and I could expect a full reimbursement for the accident.
Officials in the transportation office of the University were less understanding of the situation. When I went to get a new parking sticker for the replacement vehicle, I was told I should have peeled off the old sticker and brought it to them before they could issue a replacement. I finally convinced them that the micro-bus had been completely destroyed and it would have been impossible for me to scrape off any of the old sticker to return to them.
Fortunately, our Pastor had another copy of his composition in his Parish office, so he did not suffer an irreplaceable loss. The insurance covered the cost of a used, blue Chevy station-wagon that lasted for many years and was later sold to a friend living in Washington, D.C., even if it did develop a hole in the floorboard that allowed water to be splashed onto the floor under the passenger seat.
I did discover that there probably had been a rough edge to the metal pipe leading from the gas line into the plastic tube of the combustion chamber of my destroyed micro-bus. When the ragged metal cut through the tubing, gasoline was squirted onto the hot motor. That was certainly as direct a means for burning up a vehicle as any other method. It was also very dramatic.