4. Forestry Club

4. FORESTRY CLUB

Royal G. Jackson / Jennifer Lee: What do you remember about the Forestry Club? Were you involved with it at all?

William A. Davies: Well yes, all of the faculty were involved with the Forestry Club in those days because the faculty was small. I think 90 percent of the faculty would be at every Forestry Club meeting in those days, and a lot of the time 90 percent of the students.

Royal G. Jackson / Jennifer Lee: Why is that? The professors, were they required to go?

William A. Davies: Well, it's the same thing as the red ties and other things. The feeling in those days, you know, kind of belonging and being faithful to the school, and so forth. But now they don't have the feelings so much anymore.

Royal G. Jackson / Jennifer Lee: Did they have a greater sense of identity?

William A. Davies: That's right. Yes, that's right. Now everything is bigger. There are more students, more faculty, more diversified, and the attitude has changed.

Royal G. Jackson / Jennifer Lee: Do you think that we have lost something in the changed attitude, or do you think it's beneficial?

William A. Davies: Oh, I think we sort of lost something with the students, because I think the students got better acquainted with each other. I think, now, some of the forestry students that go through here four years would just recognize another student in a different department that was in his class [if he met him] on the street, but wouldn't remember his name. They all knew each other in those days, and some of the friendships lasted. They still last. That's why they have such a big crowd coming to the Fernhoppers Banquet every year - to come back and see friends they had in school, they were on the same Forestry Club committee, and all that type of thing. fll bet in another 10 or 15 years that membership or the attendance at the Fernhoppers Banquet will drop, too.

Royal G. Jackson / Jennifer Lee: What kind of activities did members of the Forestry Club peiform together?

William A. Davies: Well, they had a lot of money-raising activities, of course. I guess that's what they have now, too. And then they had McDonald Forest Day.

Royal G. Jackson / Jennifer Lee: Was that "A" Day, or is that something different?

William A. Davies: No, that's different, that was Arboretum Day. That was a work day. It was way back in the days before McDonald Forest was considered a commercial forest; it was just where they had a place for the students to go. And they had to get money. They couldn't get any money to maintain it,so the students would go out and do the work. They'd go out and work all day Saturday morning and fix up the roads, and everything else, and have a bean feed at noon - Patterson always cooked the "bean-hole-beans" - and then they'd play in the afternoon, log roll and chop, and things like that.

Royal G. Jackson / Jennifer Lee: Did you take part in those activities when you came?

William A. Davies: Oh yes, sure, the whole faculty did. In fact, all of them did.

Royal G. Jackson / Jennifer Lee: What other kinds of things did students doforfun in those days?

William A. Davies: In connection with the school, you mean?

Royal G. Jackson / Jennifer Lee: Yes, or any other way?

William A. Davies: I don't know, it's just activities through the Forestry Club, and through Arboretum Day and McDonald Forest Day that I remember.