Wake Forest University - Howler Yearbook (Winston Salem, NC)

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tion and understanding and sympathy and patience that is found only in a -family circle. We put his advice into practice, and it worked. And the old Wake Forest spirit continued to live in a world of postwar confusion and ultra- materialism. Little did the northern truck drivers realize how much their strike of last fall would affect the textbook situation. Wake Forest, like other colleges and universities all over the nation, opened her doors in September with the handicap of an acute book shortage hanging over her head. Every department in the college experienced the shortage in varying degrees, the language and law departments receiving the slightest blow from the handicap. Many students did a great deal of their work out of lecture notebooks, taking notes on each hour lecture and depending on those to get them through. Books weren ' t the only necessities lacking in the lives of Deacon students last fall. There was a shortage of the old-fashioned kind cf eating place into which one can go and choose his meal without having to stand in impossibly long lines. But conscientious souls went to work to alleviate the problem. Shorty Joyner ' s hamburger shop was remodeled and turned into a more modern eating place with short orders in breakfast and lunch foods as a specialty, and the College Soda Shop promised the opening of a new grill which would feature grill style short orders. A few of the fraternities solved the food prob- lem by opening their own dining rooms. Among these were the Delta Sigma Phi, the SPE, and the AKPi and PiKA frats, the last two patronizing the Delta Sig dining hall. In order to provide necessary additional class- room space, the Alumni Building was taken over by the English and Physics Departments for the first time since December of 1942. It was a sort of coming home party for the two departments, for they had lived there for many years before the war. Their homecoming meant new and needed space for the Modern Language Depart- ment and the Chemistry Department. Everyone was looking everywhere for space, and more space. And in that hunt for space came again the hous- ing situation, which was acute. Boys were crammed three to a room in Simmons Dormitory fraternity sections, and the attics were cleaned out and made livable. The new chapel and Hunter Dormitory and Bostwick Hall were no less crowded. Nearly a hundred men bunked in the basement of the new chapel with the other Gophers. And the attic of Hunter and the basement of Bostwick were made more colorful and a bit more feminine by the presence of Wake Forest co-eds. The village homes were just as crowded, and many students were forced to commute from Youngsville and Raleigh. But they all managed to get to class each day, and every new day was one more milestone on their road to an advanced education. And that was and is what they ' re after. For the married students there were trailers and prefab houses and the forty-six apartments erected on the quadrangle surrounding the tennis courts. This project, begun during the middle of August, was to last well into spring — the delay being due to the shortage of material and labor. Former CCC barracks from Camp Butner were obtained for the project through the efforts of col- lege officials aided by Fred Williams, a local attorney. The buildings were one-story, prefabricated structures that were erected by the vets them- selves and assigned on a priority basis, with those who had put in the most number of hours of work getting the first choice.

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There were more representatives at the record- breaking special session of the Baptist State Con- vention this fall than at any previous convention in the history of the denomination. Though a few were against the move, the overwhelming ma- jority, who were for the progressive chance of a lifetime and for greater furtherance of Christian education, flooded the minority with their approval. And so, Wake Forest College, which has lived quietly but quite potently on the summit of one of Wake County ' s highest hills for these 112 years, smiled broadly but reverently at the new horizons that rose in wholesome challenge before her. A FALL BRISK WITH ACTIVITIES The leaves were still green and full on Wake Forest trees during the second week of last Sep- tember. The sun was still potent enough to make a mid-morning lemonade or a noon coke mighty refreshing. But the night breezes made the leaves and the bushes rustle with the song of approach- ing fall and early morning frost and biting winds around campus buildings. And the new stu- dent body descended suddenly upon Wake Forest. . . . 1,500 students 200 were women and 92 were law It was the largest enrollment at Wake Forest College in her entire history. The ratio was nine to one — nine men to one woman — and Deacon- town took off its belt, put on suspenders, and strained conscientiously to accommodate the heavy enrollment. Nine hundred veterans were the biggest cause for this record-breaking student body. The school of liberal arts had 1.427 stu- dents. 400 students more than had ever been registered in liberal arts before. Of the more than students. It was a determined student body. too. On the first morning of registration a line of applicants strung a fourth of the way around the circular campus. Some aspirants even slept on the cam- pus the night before, in order to be the first in line. It was different from the old days. Men were in a hurry. Two, three, even four and five precious years of their lives had been interrupted by war and general confusion and blood and fear and pain. Now they were back — those who had managed to get back — and they wanted to finish their education and get started in life, a bit late perhaps, but with a full education under their belts. So they stood in line under the September sun and waited anxiously for their turn to register and begin with the ir chemistry and geometry and Life and Teachings of Paul. Far happier is the family where love and respect and mutual consideration prevail, even where some of the children have to sleep on the floor, than the family where comfort is found and there is absence of these cementing ties. Family happiness is rooted in a sense of oneness, in sympathy, in mutual understanding and coopera- tion and appreciation, in a readiness to share in hardships as well as in comforts and ease. . . . These words were spoken to the first assembly of the entire student body last September by our beloved president. Dr. Thurman D. Kitchen. The thoughts gave new and old Wake Forest students a new lease on an old idea that has always pre- vailed on the Deacon campus. His remark, The chief asset of Wake Forest College is the personal interest that characterizes a genuine family circle. was an appropriate send- off for the biggest student body the college has ever supported. It was certainly a time for the ' family circle attitude on the part of students. Long lines, crowded rooming facilities, high prices, tremendous classes played stinging tunes on the key strings of our nervous systems. And our pres- ident knew that the situation could be made a lot less burdensome through the kind of coopera- 15

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The apartments were not furnished for the students and their wives; however, coal-burning space heaters were provided, and a central plant was set up to heat water. And with a shoe string, a chest full of hopes, and a pair of brave hearts, some of the couples moved into their new college homes and began the novel process of mixing education with domesticity. So, the battle of the housing situation was just another challenge to be met and overcome by the determined Wake Forest student body. September brought gridiron glory for the Deacons in their first game of the year as they treked North to win over the Boston College Eagles. It was sweet revenge for the Deacons, who had fallen before the Bostonians in 1941 and 1942. Since the Eagles were regarded as one of the strongest teams that Wake Forest met last fall, the victory overjoyed all of the Baptists ' fans. Red Cockran played his best game of the year that night. The team as a whole played superior early-season ball; the line in particular, about which there had been much speculative doubt, surprised everyone with its stellar performance. No honest Deacon would say that it wasn ' t a surprise — this victory over the powerful Boston College team — well, a sort of a surprise, anyway. But most Deacon students couldn ' t restrain the little glow of I sorta thought it would happen attitude that sparkled in their eyes as they met down at the Soda Shop and up at the bell and over Shorty ' s counter after the final results of the game came in over the radio from Boston. The town was happy in the middle of the night, and the bell was rung until the early hours of the morning. Wake Forest 12, Boston College 6; one down, nine to go. The abrupt termination of these eventful Sep- tember days surprised us into the realization that we had only been here a few short weeks, though we felt that much of our year was already behind us. Many of us were relieved to find that time yet remained to improve a bad beginning, or to make another determined effort toward our Phi Beta Kappa goal. At any rate, the close of the month found everyone digging in with new vigor and ambition. In October, the Pan-Hellenic Council was faced once again with the problem of a rushing season. But rules appropriate to the situation were set up and complied with, and a large number of pledges improved and added new spirit to the ten active fraternities on the campus. Those among our number who like to dance were full of anticipation as the plans for the Cam- pus Social Club ball — or dance, in certain circles — began to take shape around the middle of the first week in October. The dance was set for the night of the Clemson game — and it came off then, successfully, too — under the sponsorship of the four loveliest girls in the freshman class. Lib Hellen, Rushie Marlin, Sue Norton, and Jewell Adams. It was a gala occasion, for Wake Forest ' s own Charlie Morris led his smooth and hot, sweet and low-down twelve-piece band through three and one-half hours of melody for the tapping Wake Forest toes. It was a big crowd — that first Wednesday after- noon in October — a big crowd of seventeen pro- spective debaters and other speakers who turned out for the first meeting of the forensic group in the Alumni Building, under the direction of Pro- fessor A. L. Aycock. Much interest was displayed in the projected activities of the group for the coming year, and the new participants, which included several co- eds, were expected to add strength to last year ' s organization. And if the full truth were known. 17