In the mid-1970s,  when a history of the school of home 
economics was being compiled, a number of oral interviews were 
conducted with different groups of alumni.  One group consisted 
of grads from the 1920s.  One person remembered

that Miss Bales taught us to never put our elbows on the table and 	
one night we were sitting there visiting after eating and all of a sudden 
Miss Bales sat there with her elbows on the table and we had the worst
time trying to keep our faces straight.

Another remembered that they had gone to a show where someone 
had taken butter on a knife , flipped it, and it had landed on bread 
across the table.  Apparently they tried this when they got back to 
the Practice House.  Luckily they were able to clean the butter off 
the ceiling before Alba Bales returned. 

And another remembered that when we were in the practice house, 
she (Alba Bales) had her first class for men and the morning that 
she had her class we knew it, she came down all dressed to a tee.