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

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nually. The program involves four Southern uni- versities and twenty colleges spending $900,000 over a five-year period. Supplemented by $1,000 annually from the college, the funds are to be used as grants-in-aid to faculty members for creative activity and research. December second saw the beginning of the long planned for annual Fall Religious Emphasis week which has always proved valuable as a period of religious study, Bible classes, special talks by visiting speakers and a generally good opportunity for us to adjust our perspective and give special consideration to this most important phase of life. Two visiting ministers assisted the faculty and students in conducting the week ' s program; Rev. M. L. Bannister of Oxford delivered a series of chapel messages, and Rev. Charles B. McConnell of Franklinton conducted the forum Students Confronting a Changing World. Faculty par- ticipation consisted of Dr. Sankey Blanton ' s forum The Christian and Current Social Prob- lems and a series of lectures of Dr. Lovelace on What We Believe. We enjoyed these programs immensely and many took advantage of special conferences arranged with the speakers for con- sideration of personal problems and questions. To top this highly successful week, the Baptist Student Union entertained at a party for the student body; and Tuesday night, December 3, found a carefree crowd at the Community House for this event. December is the month of Christmas and ap- propriately the time for music. Accordingly we were entertained by our music department, which devoted much time and effort to several excellent seasonal programs. We heard the last two of the series of three broadcasts by the Glee Club carried over WPTF from our music building and featur- ing seventy-four mixed voices. On Sunday, De- cember 8, recordings from the first half of Handel ' s Messiah were presented from Wait Hall Tower and we heard the last half the following Sunday afternoon. Still another musical treat came to us when the Glee Club presented Handel ' s Messiah in a joint program with the Little Symphony Orchestra. An overflow crowd at this event attested the interest that prevailed and we greatly enjoyed the work of Professor McDonald and his Choristers. No Christmas social season would be well balanced without parties and some dancing. The week-end of December 14 ushered in a round of Friday night cabin parties for most fraternities and Saturday night we danced in semi-formal at- tire from eight ' til twelve to the music of Bob Harry and his band. But conditions were not the same as in former years. For visiting ladies there were difficulties in finding rooming accom- modations. Some were piled into dormitories with co-ed friends while most were forced to find quarters in near-by towns. However, a spirit of gaiety prevailed and a nod was due Pan-Hel. for another fine affair. All the while the two literary societies were creating a flurry of activity all their own. These old and honored organizations set December 9 as the date for their annual Society Day contests, featuring orations and debate on the national Pi Kappa Delta question, Resolved: That labor should be given a share in management. Repre- senting the Philomathesians and debating the af- firmative were William Wagoner and Bynum Shaw. Their Euzelian opponents were Hubert Humphrey and Kermit Caldwell. Orations were ably presented by Perry Martin, Tommy Staple- ton, Eugene Deese, and J. A. West. The postpone- ment of Society Day exercises only added zest to the occasion and Friday, December 13, proved to be an unlucky day for the Phi ' s, for the Eu ' s won both debate and oratory contests. However, the Phi ' s had already shown their superiority in another field earlier in the month, when they

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The game was the last for a group of seniors who had helped to make Wake Forest football history and included Nick Sacrinty, John Red Cochran, Ray Manieri, Bo Sacrinty, Dewey Hobbs, Burnie Capps, Clay Croom, John Bruno, and Rock Brinkley. Many Wake Forest students were among the 17,000 fans in Charlotte for the annual Turkey Day game between South Carolina and their Wake team. Because of holidays granted to them by the college, they were able to see the game and afterwards go on to their respective homes for a few days. However, many postponed these trips home for a day and numerous parties were held in the Queen City and its environs after the game as the month of November faded from the activi- ties of Wake Forest for 1946. The first day of December rang crisp and clear as a bell and with it, the last absorbing bit of the Thanksgiving fest just ended began to fade away into fond memory. With turkey appetites satis- fied, and hearts filled with contentment we journeyed back from widespread places. Many returned with eagerness, many with reluctance to plunge again into the whirlwind of activity that typifies our campus at this season. But in spite of term papers almost due, of pestering quizzes, book reports and eight o ' clock classes, we could begin with light and optimistic hearts. For full on the horizon was Christmas, bright and cheery, bringing two weeks of holiday along with it. Yet before we could taste this long anticipated freedom, there was much to be done and we set about at a feverish pace to complete our pre- holiday tasks and make all in readiness for a perfect Christmas. Football, which had reigned as king of sports until that final game on Thanksgiving day, moved into the pages of history and with a rising vote of thanks to Coach Walker, his staff, and the splendid 1946 eleven, we turned, not to forget them, but to lend support to the Deacon 1946-47 basketball team, which began its season with two tilts against the McCrary Eagles. Both were hard fought games and gave us reason to expect much from this year ' s squad. The intramural football season was likewise ended and plans were made for the promotion of a large scale intramural basketball tournament which would find even the co-eds competing among themselves for campus ball-handling honors. We rushed along pell-mell in every department and in every phase of activity. We were busy, no doubt of it, but few were those who didn ' t stop at some moment of the day December 7 to dedicate a thought to this anniversary of five years ago. There was brief retrospection and a glance around to see on every hand the men who had returned after long interruptions to complete their schooling — men with more serious faces, more definite purposes and a vengeance to suc- ceed in a world full of anxieties, doubts, distrusts — and, yes, opportunities. We began to feel the effects of another coal strike and shuddered along with the rest of the nation at thoughts of a paralyzed economy in mid- winter. Despite definite possibilities of such and many rumors, we were not forced to close the col- lege. John L capitulated, we breathed easier. But something was drastically wrong and the nation rested uneasily. We knew that something must be done and we realized that our hard-won peace would not rest securely until we went out and worked shoulder to shoulder to secure it, as we had worked to fight the war. Much was being talked and more written about the many evils extant in our educational system. Wake Forest was chosen to participate in a Carnegie Foundation Grant for the advancement of teaching which would amount to $4,000 an- Sl

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defeated the Eu ' s in the annual touch football classic. Of the many veterans who were toiling daily at the tennis courts last August trying to rush com- pletion of their apartments, one pessimist was heard to say, I ' ll bet mine won ' t be finished by January. That man would have given up in desperation had he known how near the truth he was hitting, for December saw only half of the barracks occupied. Progress on the remainder was moving at a snail ' s pace set by the plumbing bot- tleneck. However, those who were settled in their three- and four-room homes felt that they were lolling in luxury and had space to burn. Most had moved from tiny cubicles or shelters lacking all but the most essential living conveniences. And, indeed, the veterans and their wives had made real homes by a great deal of hard work and an equal amount of ingenuity. December saw wreaths of holly and some doors and miniature trees inside, and a cheerful atmosphere was created despite the heating difficulties brought about by the coal strike, which forced some to forage for wood scraps left by carpenters. However, relief came with the holidays, as most were able to leave Wake Forest and hope that the long overdue coal would arrive by the time they returned. And so went December on our campus or at least the first eighteen days of it. For on Wednes- day, December 18, last pre-holiday classes were held, bags were hurriedly packed, vehicles of all descriptions left town in an endless stream, and the bumming corners were full of hopefuls brav- ing the freezing rain that heralded the beginning of a two-week vacation. These two weeks saw Wake Foresters scattered far and wide over the country, each celebrating in his fashion against a return to Deacon Town and work again. But be- fore this should come to be, another milestone had passed. In our homes, with friends, relatives, wherever the holiday tide had taken us, we paused and perhaps proposed a toast — to the hectic, hardly kind year that had been 1946 and to its successor, looming full of uncertainty and doubt and opportunity — 1947. 24