11. OREGON STATE COLLEGE

Donald M. Dickey: when Hugh had, or we all moved someplace else as I remember. A fellow from Independence was doing the logging, and so I made pretty good money that summer.

Donald M. Dickey: I had enough I went back to school. I could stay in school for the rest of four years. I started in '37 and got through to the spring of '38 and then I had to lay out '38 and '39. Started again in '39 and graduated in '42.

11. OREGON STATE COLLEGE

Bob Zybach: Where did you live while you were going to school?

Donald M. Dickey: In Corvallis. I bached.

Bob Zybach: Just by yourself?

Donald M. Dickey: Huh?

Bob Zybach: Did you live Just by yourself?

Donald M. Dickey: Yeah, most of the time. Well, part of the time. Part of the time I had a roommate.

Maxine Dickey: He bached with Jake Frobe.

Donald M. Dickey: Yeah, I bached with Jake Frobe, I bached with Foster, then Lee and I finally, Lee Kuhn, have you met Lee Kuhn?

Bob Zybach: Nope.

Donald M. Dickey: Lee was a graduate student from Ohio, no Iowa. In Fish and Game. And he and I lived together. Well, from the first of January to the 21st of March, I guess. The old army was breathing down my neck and Maxine and I were gonna get married in June. So I went back spring term to register, and they notified me I was gonna be in the army pretty quick. Fortunately, I had worked on wildlife damaged farm crops the summer before, and I was continuing to do some work on it. So I went down to the draft board and I knew most of em, and told em what I was trying to do to get done and help the farmers out. Could I get a deferment to untill the end of the school

Donald M. Dickey: year. They didn't give me a deferment, they gave me something that was as good. Quick as the school year was out, I went up to Portland to take my physical. And they put me from 4A to FiB, I think it was. Then in the summer, why, they called me up again and the local doctor, Dr. Ball I think it was there in Corvallis, said "I'll take care of this for you." And I didn't know what he was talking about. He put me in some other classification, and the next three years I think we moved about 10 times. They finally quit acknowledging my change of address.

Bob Zybach: Were you trying to keep out of the service?

Donald M. Dickey: No, I wasn't trying to keep out. I was just working, doing a job. And I wanted to finish up this paper on damage to farm crops. What we was trying to do was to come up with a chemical that you could treat the seed with that would keep the pheasants from digging corn out, stuff like that.

Bob Zybach: That was for your thesis?

Donald M. Dickey: No, it was just another paper. I didn't have to do a thesis for a bachelor's degree. And I didn't. I think I did four papers one term.

Maxine Dickey: I had to type those.

Donald M. Dickey: Yeah, that's my typist over there.

Bob Zybach: Going back a little bit, to Berry Creek, we talked about picnics. And Maxine was saying that every year that they used to have a picnic at your pond.

Donald M. Dickey: Pond?

Bob Zybach: That pond at your home there, did you have picnics there?

Donald M. Dickey: Oh no, we didn't have it there, we had it on the creek over on Savage Creek. Over by school. Where we had our pond, the cows ran, and it wasn't a very good place to have a picnic.

Bob Zybach: Oh. So it was back by the log pond?

Donald M. Dickey: Well, it was down below the log pond a little ways. It was a real pretty spot there, trees, and shade, and this creek. Oh, sometimes there was some cattle in there, but no problem or stepping into things you didn't want to, that sort of thing. It was real pretty. We used to cut through across that place to go up, to come and go to school. And one spring I was going through there and all of a sudden down in the dead leaves ahead of me -- you asked me about rattlesnakes -- this old snake rattled in there and I went about 4 feet high I think. It was just a bull snake in there, I had startled him and he was rattling. There are a lot of bull snakes, they don't do any harm, they catch mice and insects and things. Far as I know, closest rattlesnakes are to that country is down here. Maybe some over by Falls City, I don't know. Out south of here on Spencers Butte and out on Coburg Hill, and some other places south of here there's quite a few rattlesnakes. I killed a whole bunch one spring with cyanide. The guy had already killed 63 between two flat rocks. They called me and I went out and