I attended PC under the GI Bill this year. All costs were paid by the US Government. My memory fails me on much of this year; after a three-year absence I didn't feel like a student. I reached home on May 1st, visited the PC campus sometime that month, and found one of my old room mates, Dave Humphreys, already in school. For some reason I remember him in the infirmary, formerly Alumni Hall. At any rate, I registered for the following term. At some point I petitioned the faculty to accept some of the hours I had earned on active duty in the Army. They approved my request, and that meant I could be a Senior and eligible to graduate the next May. I also requested a change in my major from Physics to English, and that was approved. I felt mentally tired and not up to doing the work required for an advanced degree in Physics. I expect I made a mistake in doing this, but at the time it seemed best. When I matriculated in September I was assigned to one of the suites on the first floor of Spencer, with Dave as a suite mate. During this year I was heavy on English courses that required much reading. I remember in particular two big books on American literature and world literature in courses taught by Professor John W. Harris and a book on English restoration drama taught by Associate Professor Edward F. Nolan. I particularly enjoyed Professor James S. Gray's class on the history of art. I was taking second-year Spanish under Professor R. K. Timmons when the professor teaching first-year Spanish died. For some reason they thought I could handle his job in class, so Prof. Timmons asked me to teach first-year Spanish under his supervision. I would be paid $3.50 for each class, a fairly large amount at the time. I think I did well enough with the class for the next few months. Some of the class members were veterans who had started as Freshmen with me in 1941. My younger brother, James , joined me in Spencer for the second semester. He had gone to Mars Hill the first semester and didn't get along there very well.
Thursday, March 12, 2009
Senior Year, Sep 1946-May 1947
I attended PC under the GI Bill this year. All costs were paid by the US Government. My memory fails me on much of this year; after a three-year absence I didn't feel like a student. I reached home on May 1st, visited the PC campus sometime that month, and found one of my old room mates, Dave Humphreys, already in school. For some reason I remember him in the infirmary, formerly Alumni Hall. At any rate, I registered for the following term. At some point I petitioned the faculty to accept some of the hours I had earned on active duty in the Army. They approved my request, and that meant I could be a Senior and eligible to graduate the next May. I also requested a change in my major from Physics to English, and that was approved. I felt mentally tired and not up to doing the work required for an advanced degree in Physics. I expect I made a mistake in doing this, but at the time it seemed best. When I matriculated in September I was assigned to one of the suites on the first floor of Spencer, with Dave as a suite mate. During this year I was heavy on English courses that required much reading. I remember in particular two big books on American literature and world literature in courses taught by Professor John W. Harris and a book on English restoration drama taught by Associate Professor Edward F. Nolan. I particularly enjoyed Professor James S. Gray's class on the history of art. I was taking second-year Spanish under Professor R. K. Timmons when the professor teaching first-year Spanish died. For some reason they thought I could handle his job in class, so Prof. Timmons asked me to teach first-year Spanish under his supervision. I would be paid $3.50 for each class, a fairly large amount at the time. I think I did well enough with the class for the next few months. Some of the class members were veterans who had started as Freshmen with me in 1941. My younger brother, James , joined me in Spencer for the second semester. He had gone to Mars Hill the first semester and didn't get along there very well.
Saturday, March 7, 2009
Junior Year, Mar-May 1943
Interrupted by W W II
My Junior year at PC was very short, as I remember. I had one quarter as a Junior at PC before I entered the U.S. Army, and while in the service I took courses taught by American college professors at two military schools which were credited to me when I returned to PC. Just after basic training at Camp Croft, SC, while attending Mississippi State College, at Starkville, MS, I took several courses in the ASTP : Mechanical drawing, English composition, chemistry. After VE Day I attended Shrivenham American University, Swindon, England, and took other courses: Advanced algebra, music appreciation, German. While there I played in the concert band directed by Thor Johnson from the University of Cincinnati. I don't remember which of these courses were creditable. At any rate, that Spring quarter was wild. The Seniors were being called to active duty as lieutenants at a rapid rate, so we underlings had to take their places in various college functions. For example, without any training or previous experience they promoted me to band director, sergeant major plus playing the clarinet. I was embarrassed and felt that I had failed. My two room mates from Anderson were both drafted and ended up wounded at Anzio.
I think this was the quarter I took my hardest physics course, radio vacuum tube theory. For the final exam Dr. Whitelaw told us long in advance that the only question would be to reproduce from memory the wiring diagram of a superheterodyne radio as shown in the textbook. We worked on this on blackboards for days before the exam. I think I ended up with a "C". An interesting course, taught by Professor Marshall Brown, was Europe since 1500.
My Junior year at PC was very short, as I remember. I had one quarter as a Junior at PC before I entered the U.S. Army, and while in the service I took courses taught by American college professors at two military schools which were credited to me when I returned to PC. Just after basic training at Camp Croft, SC, while attending Mississippi State College, at Starkville, MS, I took several courses in the ASTP : Mechanical drawing, English composition, chemistry. After VE Day I attended Shrivenham American University, Swindon, England, and took other courses: Advanced algebra, music appreciation, German. While there I played in the concert band directed by Thor Johnson from the University of Cincinnati. I don't remember which of these courses were creditable. At any rate, that Spring quarter was wild. The Seniors were being called to active duty as lieutenants at a rapid rate, so we underlings had to take their places in various college functions. For example, without any training or previous experience they promoted me to band director, sergeant major plus playing the clarinet. I was embarrassed and felt that I had failed. My two room mates from Anderson were both drafted and ended up wounded at Anzio.
I think this was the quarter I took my hardest physics course, radio vacuum tube theory. For the final exam Dr. Whitelaw told us long in advance that the only question would be to reproduce from memory the wiring diagram of a superheterodyne radio as shown in the textbook. We worked on this on blackboards for days before the exam. I think I ended up with a "C". An interesting course, taught by Professor Marshall Brown, was Europe since 1500.
Thursday, February 19, 2009
Sophomore Year, Jun 1942-Mar 1943
Summer Quarter, June-August 1942
With the country at war and with us in ROTC we knew that we would soon be called up one way or the other, either through the draft as enlisted men or by appointment as officers, so to get in as much education as we could, most of us signed up for summer school. For some reason, the college changed from a semester system to a quarter system. My sophomore year started about the middle of June 1942. I don't remember the courses I signed up for exactly, but one course I enjoyed was Spherical Trigonometry taught by Dr. Herbert E. Spencer. It turned out to be easier to understood than the trig I had in high school. Another interesting course was Dr. Neill G. Whitelaw's Astronomy. My room mate, Harris Johnson, decided to move upstairs with an older friend, Charlie Williams, and I inherited a freshman from Anderson, Oren Jones. I remember the campus as being very pleasant that summer. I continued to go home as often as possible. After the hazing I got as a freshman, I chose not to be guilty of it myself, and I saved my two freshman room mates as much grief as I could.
Fall Quarter, September-December 1942
Oren's friend from Anderson, Dave Humphreys,had spent the summer in Smythe Hall and wanted to live with us. So we got a bigger room on the third floor so Dave could move in with us. My most memorable event this quarter was picking cotton. Apparently a cotton grower had lost his laborers because of the war and asked for help by students. I remember riding to the cotton field in the back of a truck together with other students. We were offered pay at the rate of $1.00 per hundred pounds picked. On hand were cotton sacks and scales. The going rate had been $0.60 per hundred. That afternoon I earned $0.25 and never considered a career as a cotton picker. The Army Air Corps cadets had arrived, had taken over a dorm, and drilled in the streets. I never knew anything about their classroom training. This quarter I probably had a course we called "atomic physics", economics, and beginning Spanish.
Winter Quarter, December-March 1943
I had enlisted in the Enlisted Reserve Corps and was numbered in one of the country's number systems and received Army Serial Number 14 183 363 (my roommate Dave Humphreys got 14 183 364). In later years I figured out the meaning of this number. The first digit, "1", stands for a volunteer joining the Regular Army or the Reserves. A "2" in that spot would have stood for the National Guard and a "3" or "4" would indicate Selective Service. The second digit, "4", meant that I was in the IV Corps Area. Our Military Science textbook contained a US map showing the nine corps (pronounced "core") areas. Georgia and South Carolina were both in the IV Corps Area. In subsequent years I saw many other numbers, most of them beginning with "2" or "3". My National Guard unit was given a block of numbers, perhaps 100, beginning "24781". We eventually enlisted enough recruits to use up this block and were given another block of somewhat higher numbers. I saw the ASNs of some California men beginning with "19" or "39". I have little memory of the courses I had in this quarter.
Freshman Year, Sep 1941-May 1942
My Introduction to PC
My time with Presbyterian College began while we were practicing our senior graduation exercises in high school. Haynie Prince, the PC representative, came by to see my cousin Harris and took us out of the auditorium where we were practicing for our graduation. I became very interested in what he said about the college. It was May and I had not made a commitment for college and I didn't do anything right then. Harris' mother wanted him to go to PC because she was Presbyterian. We happened to be sitting together in the auditorium. He took us both outside and talked to us about PC. It took weeks for me to make a decision about college. When Al Butler, a student representative, came by my house to talk to me and my parents he reminded me of the other boys from Washington who had been in my Boy Scout troop and were already at PC. So, I made a commitment and I was ready to go.
My Experience with Hazing
The cost was about 600 dollars a year to go to PC in 1941. That was still a lot of money in those days. It cost about 350 dollars to go to the University of Georgia. The student representative didn't really tell us a lot, but I made a decision to go to PC. I was shocked within a few days when I got on campus because the upper class men mistreated us terribly on campus! Well, not really, but it was a hazing. Sophomores would come by at supper and tell me and other Freshmen to come by their room in Smythe after supper. I lived in Spencer. Billy Dent was a rascal, He would make me name off the towns I would go through to get from Clinton to his home town and give me a lick with a paddle for each one I missed! I learned quickly. Another general hazing activity was to get all the Freshmen to hold on to a big rope and walk to town in our pajamas holding on to that rope; afterward we went to a movie; we all went together on the rope. We attended a singing on the square at some point in the evening. A key to identifying who the targets were as freshmen was the infamous Rat Cap, a small-billed baseball-like hat that set us apart from the other students and easily identified us to the upper class men to harass. Another indignity was guarding the campus before the Newberry game... all Night! We were going to keep the Indians from raiding the campus and defacing or stealing any of our statues or doing damage. One more indignity was that each of us was to bow or salute the mailbox as we went by. I"m not really sure what that meant; they thought of the weirdest things for us to do.
My Experience with College Education
Chapel was an interesting affair as older students made speeches. Tucker Irvin from Washington was good The first day of selecting courses was at the Springs out in front of the gym. I signed up for General Physics and Beginning German. I knew more about physics in high school than my teacher. I also signed up for Military Science, Typing, Freshman English, and of course, Bible. I soon found that I was going to have a problem with physics with Dr. Whitlelaw, a man of great knowledge with a physical challenge. The other courses were fun and not too bad. My Bible teacher, Bernard Boyd taught us Genesis through Esther the first year. Bernie was a very good teacher. However, I was somewhat shaken up by his liberal ideas about creation. I liked German very much and remember professor Dr.J. William Frey, who made a great impression on me. Dr. Frey told us in class that he had written the Presbyterian College Alma Mater. Typing turned out to be a bigger problem than physics - I failed it and had to take it again the next year. Military science didn't present much of a problem except that another student with a similar name was credited with some of my class scores until I figured out what was happening. I found English 101 to be a rehash of Miss Emily's sixth grade English and no problem at all except that there seemed to be a hundred students in the class.
My Dorm Life
The college assigned me and my cousin Harris to the same room on the second floor of Spencer, directly under the porch. The room was not bad except that our shower was across the hall. We had only one uniform - wool, shade 32 - so that I had to iron it on Thursday night before inspection on Friday. This seems to have been before the day of washing machines so that I had to send my laundry out to a woman who came by to get it and brought it back.
My Experience with Extracurricular Activities
There were a few dances or balls that year, for example, the Military Ball in October or November, which was held at the National Guard armory just west of the campus since there could be no dancing on campus. I invited my latest girl friend, and her parents brought her to Clinton. I enjoyed ROTC and the morning drill because I was in the band. I also was in the men's chorus and we traveled all over SC. This kept me busy and interfered with my trips home some times. We had an articulated bus/trailer, that was really fancy for the time. The band went to Abbeville and Laurens once and heard Strom Thurmond speak. He was in SC politics at the time. We also went to to Rock Hill for a football game and went to a movie and saw "Sergeant York". That was very interesting. The chorus went many places, like Sumter and Chester. We always sang at Presbyterian Churches.
My Travel Experiences
I learned about hitchhiking at PC. Travel wasn't easy. We would go up there in front of the Young's house west of the Plaza and hitchhike from there wearing our distinguished Rat Caps. It wasn't hard to get a ride home, it was just long. My cousin had a an old car, an old Mercury, for a few months. One time we were going through Bradley and the distributor failed and we had to find a replacement. Occasionally we traveled by train. Trips back to PC were bad. Sunday afternoons were slow and uncertain about transportation. Occasionally my parents would take me to Elberton to catch the Seaboard. It cost $2.60 to get to Clinton and we would get in about midnight tired and worn out. I never did have my own car at PC. One upper class man had a Model-A Ford but that was about it for cars on campus. One time it took five weeks before I could return home because the weather was just too bad hitchhiking. The most significant occurrence was on December 7th 1941. I had gone to my home in Washington with Statham Quinn, also from Washington and Alex Cruickshanks from West Virginia. My parents were taking us to Elberton to hitchhike from there back to PC on old Highway 72. Two girls from Elberton in a 1937 Chevrolet picked us up and told us about the Japanese bombing of Pearl Harbor.
World War II Arrives
I had never even heard of Pearl Harbor. This had a very serious effect on all the students. Some of them immediately enlisted and did not come back to school. In a short time the school was used for training Army Air Corps cadets. It was the summer of 1942 when it got going full steam.
My time with Presbyterian College began while we were practicing our senior graduation exercises in high school. Haynie Prince, the PC representative, came by to see my cousin Harris and took us out of the auditorium where we were practicing for our graduation. I became very interested in what he said about the college. It was May and I had not made a commitment for college and I didn't do anything right then. Harris' mother wanted him to go to PC because she was Presbyterian. We happened to be sitting together in the auditorium. He took us both outside and talked to us about PC. It took weeks for me to make a decision about college. When Al Butler, a student representative, came by my house to talk to me and my parents he reminded me of the other boys from Washington who had been in my Boy Scout troop and were already at PC. So, I made a commitment and I was ready to go.
My Experience with Hazing
The cost was about 600 dollars a year to go to PC in 1941. That was still a lot of money in those days. It cost about 350 dollars to go to the University of Georgia. The student representative didn't really tell us a lot, but I made a decision to go to PC. I was shocked within a few days when I got on campus because the upper class men mistreated us terribly on campus! Well, not really, but it was a hazing. Sophomores would come by at supper and tell me and other Freshmen to come by their room in Smythe after supper. I lived in Spencer. Billy Dent was a rascal, He would make me name off the towns I would go through to get from Clinton to his home town and give me a lick with a paddle for each one I missed! I learned quickly. Another general hazing activity was to get all the Freshmen to hold on to a big rope and walk to town in our pajamas holding on to that rope; afterward we went to a movie; we all went together on the rope. We attended a singing on the square at some point in the evening. A key to identifying who the targets were as freshmen was the infamous Rat Cap, a small-billed baseball-like hat that set us apart from the other students and easily identified us to the upper class men to harass. Another indignity was guarding the campus before the Newberry game... all Night! We were going to keep the Indians from raiding the campus and defacing or stealing any of our statues or doing damage. One more indignity was that each of us was to bow or salute the mailbox as we went by. I"m not really sure what that meant; they thought of the weirdest things for us to do.
My Experience with College Education
Chapel was an interesting affair as older students made speeches. Tucker Irvin from Washington was good The first day of selecting courses was at the Springs out in front of the gym. I signed up for General Physics and Beginning German. I knew more about physics in high school than my teacher. I also signed up for Military Science, Typing, Freshman English, and of course, Bible. I soon found that I was going to have a problem with physics with Dr. Whitlelaw, a man of great knowledge with a physical challenge. The other courses were fun and not too bad. My Bible teacher, Bernard Boyd taught us Genesis through Esther the first year. Bernie was a very good teacher. However, I was somewhat shaken up by his liberal ideas about creation. I liked German very much and remember professor Dr.J. William Frey, who made a great impression on me. Dr. Frey told us in class that he had written the Presbyterian College Alma Mater. Typing turned out to be a bigger problem than physics - I failed it and had to take it again the next year. Military science didn't present much of a problem except that another student with a similar name was credited with some of my class scores until I figured out what was happening. I found English 101 to be a rehash of Miss Emily's sixth grade English and no problem at all except that there seemed to be a hundred students in the class.
My Dorm Life
The college assigned me and my cousin Harris to the same room on the second floor of Spencer, directly under the porch. The room was not bad except that our shower was across the hall. We had only one uniform - wool, shade 32 - so that I had to iron it on Thursday night before inspection on Friday. This seems to have been before the day of washing machines so that I had to send my laundry out to a woman who came by to get it and brought it back.
My Experience with Extracurricular Activities
There were a few dances or balls that year, for example, the Military Ball in October or November, which was held at the National Guard armory just west of the campus since there could be no dancing on campus. I invited my latest girl friend, and her parents brought her to Clinton. I enjoyed ROTC and the morning drill because I was in the band. I also was in the men's chorus and we traveled all over SC. This kept me busy and interfered with my trips home some times. We had an articulated bus/trailer, that was really fancy for the time. The band went to Abbeville and Laurens once and heard Strom Thurmond speak. He was in SC politics at the time. We also went to to Rock Hill for a football game and went to a movie and saw "Sergeant York". That was very interesting. The chorus went many places, like Sumter and Chester. We always sang at Presbyterian Churches.
My Travel Experiences
I learned about hitchhiking at PC. Travel wasn't easy. We would go up there in front of the Young's house west of the Plaza and hitchhike from there wearing our distinguished Rat Caps. It wasn't hard to get a ride home, it was just long. My cousin had a an old car, an old Mercury, for a few months. One time we were going through Bradley and the distributor failed and we had to find a replacement. Occasionally we traveled by train. Trips back to PC were bad. Sunday afternoons were slow and uncertain about transportation. Occasionally my parents would take me to Elberton to catch the Seaboard. It cost $2.60 to get to Clinton and we would get in about midnight tired and worn out. I never did have my own car at PC. One upper class man had a Model-A Ford but that was about it for cars on campus. One time it took five weeks before I could return home because the weather was just too bad hitchhiking. The most significant occurrence was on December 7th 1941. I had gone to my home in Washington with Statham Quinn, also from Washington and Alex Cruickshanks from West Virginia. My parents were taking us to Elberton to hitchhike from there back to PC on old Highway 72. Two girls from Elberton in a 1937 Chevrolet picked us up and told us about the Japanese bombing of Pearl Harbor.
World War II Arrives
I had never even heard of Pearl Harbor. This had a very serious effect on all the students. Some of them immediately enlisted and did not come back to school. In a short time the school was used for training Army Air Corps cadets. It was the summer of 1942 when it got going full steam.
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