My 4-H Club experiences (1944-1949)

Yesterday I was watching an old movie about kids going to a camp and it brought back so many memories of 4-H camp the summer after I was in the 7th grade. More about my camping experience below. I remember all the fun and learning opportunities of 4-H when we attended monthly meetings at school. We elected officers who had to preside at the meetings. At each meeting there were planned programs and led by students. I remember how we learned to make cottage cheese and I thought it was awful. I had never eaten cottage cheese and wanted no part of that! Another time 2 friends and I shaved left over bars of soap over a period of time and put the shavings in a jar. Then when it was our time to do a demonstration on how to clean a rug, we poured hot water in the soap jar, and made suds; then cleaned one of Miss Jean's beautiful wool rugs. We kept record books of things we did at home and I could never remember to write things down.

In the spring we always went to the county 4-H rally. One year all the clubs from schools in the county gathered at Elba football field for our rally. It was so exciting. There were a lot of relays, ball games, etc. Then we ate our lunch (I think we all brought our own lunch) and then lined up to march downtown to the Elba theater to see the new movie, "Song of the South". I don't think I ever saw a movie that I enjoyed as much as that one. It was in color and the music was beautiful. I loved the Uncle Remus (see photo) tales and mother gave me an Uncle Remus book for Christmas the next year. There were other rallies but this one I remember the best. I remember skipping all the way back to the school bus after the movie.  Check out this great movie, over 60 years old, at http://www.songofthesouth.net/movie/index.html

The summer after I finished 7th grade, a group of my friends from Curtis school and I decided to go to 4-H camp at Lake Tholocco (now a part of Ft Rucker) for 3 days in July. We were given a list of things to bring to camp and I laugh everything I think about this. We slept in an old empty house with some Army cots set up throughout the house. Our meals were cooked outdoors under the big trees and we ate outside. The boys stayed in tents outside. We all lived on farms so we were given a list of food to bring with us: Example - 6 ears of corn, 6 eggs, flour, cornmeal, etc. etc. And a sack of peas or butterbeans. The campers furnished all the food for damp. Don't know about the meat but probably some of the boys furnished that by killing chickens, etc. The highlight of camp was evening vespers after an afternoon swimming in a large pool, and cooling off from the heat, then eating dinner and then going to the large room by the pool and singing songs as we watch the sun set. This was my first camping trip and I really didn't want to go again; too hot, too many insects, not enough sleep, etc.


When I was in the 8th grade, we had lessons on sewing and were encouraged to make a garment. My grandmother Wilson had been teaching me to sew and she said she would help me with this project. I'm the world's greatest procrastinator and put off making my dress until almost time to turn in my project. My Mama Wilson helped me cut out my dress but I didn't have enough fabric in the chicken feed sack fabric so she showed me how to lengthen the skirt with solid fabric inserts. I sewed the dress on a treadle machine (no electric machines back then). Making buttonholes by hand was the hardest part, but I did it. We washed the dress and it rained the day before the contest so I had to dry the dress in front of the fireplace fire. I waited and waited for it to dry so I could starch it and iron it to wear the next day. I wish I had a picture of that dress. I took it on a hanger to school the next day and we attended the competition at the court house in Elba. My face fell when the lst place winner, an older 4-H member from another school walked out in her 2 piece suit, made of beautiful fabric and she had on high heels and makeup. I was not intimidated at all. I was so proud of my dress. Later I learned from the girl's friends that her mother actually made the dress and she went to Montgomery to buy the fabric and it was very expensive. So in my heart I was the winner. I had learned to sew!


The next summer I was selected to be a delegate at the state 4-H camp at Auburn University,  and after that trip I knew I wanted to go to college, and I wanted to go to Auburn. It was a whole new world for me to be on a college campus.


Footnote: I did not go to Auburn but went to Troy State instead, for 1 year, and then got married. Several years later I graduated from East Texas State University (now Texas A&M at Commerce) and got my degree in Home Economics in 1976 when I was 42 years old.