Share your memories
As Southern Arkansas University celebrates its centennial anniversary in 2009, we invite you to share with us your stories from days gone by at SAU. We’re calling this project “Mulerider Memories.” If you have a story to share, email it to jeremylangley@saumag.edu, and it will be posted on this site.
June 14th, 2009 at 5:49 am
This occurred during the 1959-60 school year. I think it was the spring of 1960. Bomb threats were all the rage. Someone had called in and said there was a bomb planted in the dining hall. At that time the dining hall was located in the eastern end of Nelson Hall on the first floor. There was direct access to the dining hall from the dorm area of Nelson Hall through a pair of double doors. When the threat came the dining hall was evacuated and searched. When nothing was found students were allowed to return and resume their evening meal. About 15 or 20 minutes later 2 residents of Nelson Hall crept down to the double doors leading into the dining hall. One of the residents slightly opened one of the double doors while the other resident tossed a lit firecracker into the dining hall. There was mass pandemonium. I know the name of one of the two residents. I can’t remember the other name. My dorm room in Nelson Hall was on the second floor southeast corner.
July 8th, 2009 at 9:04 am
Graduated 1961. SAU has been good to me. Retired from Federal Government. I highly recommend SAU.
August 12th, 2009 at 8:32 am
An excerpt from the memoirs of Thomas Marvin Williams (1890-1967):
[In 1910,] I told Mr. Hart (or Holt) [a school board member] I wanted to go to school but did not have the money. He wrote me a note and said to take this to Professor Austin who was at the proposed school and he would give me a job until school started. The school could not start until the buildings were finished, so I drove a team of mules breaking land on the farm that was part of the school. This school was one of four established by the legislature at the suggestion of the Farmers Union, was known as the Third District Agriculture School.
I arrived on Oct 10, 1910 with $53.00, two pairs of overalls, two blue work shirts, and a pair of shoes. I was the first student to arrive, and stayed at Mrs. Souters in town.
About December 1st, Clifford Peace [arrived] from Atlanta, Arkansas, a small farm community some twenty miles south of Magnolia and stayed with me. The school to be was located about one mile north of town. And we would take our lunch in the morning and spend the day on the farm.
Two other professors, H. H. Holtzclaw, who was to teach animal husbandry, and David Burleson, who was to teach Agriculture, were living in town and rode out to the farm most days to supervise the work.
On January 3, 1911, one of the coldest days of the winter, the school opened for business. The main classroom building, two dormitories, one for boys and one for girls and a dining room with kitchen attached had been finished with the exception of electric wiring and steam heat. We used candles at night and placed small wood heaters in the rooms to study by and to keep us warm.
I had been promoted to direct the new boys who came in carrying out the wishes of Professor Austin the President, and Mr. Burleson and Mr. Holtzclaw. These three constituted the entire men faculty. There were three women members to look after the girls, a matron, Mrs. Jackson in the girl’s dormitory, and Mr. and Mrs. Bussey to operate the Kitchen and Dining Hall. This group was the official adult faculty of the school.
Some two hundred boys and girls, from farms and towns in southwest Arkansas were there on opening day. Clifford Peace and I continued to room together and life began anew for me.
I washed my overalls, shirts, and underwear in the bath tub at night and hung them on the head of the bed to dry. When I changed clothes I put these dry ones on without ironing and went about my chores. I had charge of all the livestock and was given credit for my time at 10 cents per hour. This was the same rate of pay that I had received when plowing. I had accumulated enough to pay for my books and meals and some to spare.
August 21st, 2009 at 5:34 pm
I have read the information about the planned mule ride on September 19, 2009 and it brings to mind another such ride in the spring of 1959 (I think). The SSC basketball team was to play their first game in the NAIA tournament in Pine Bluff on a Saturday evening. As student body president that year, I, the vice president, Gene MacDonald, and 11 others were sent off by a pep rally early on the Wednesday morning prior to the tournament and others with SSC’s two donkey mascots for Pine Bluff. The plan was that I and Gene would ride the donkeys and the others would walk. We had arranged to call in to radio stations KVMA and KSSC with reports of our progress along the way. After a few miles, we and the donkeys made a pack that we would only ride when we were in the towns between Magnolia and Pine Bluff. Gene and I and the donkeys were pleased with this new plan. Each night along the way we stayed in homes of people that saw us and invited us to stay with them. We arrived at the tounament site mid afternoon on Saturday. It rained on us all day Saturday. Six of the original 13 made the entire trip. The others fell by the wayside with blisters and other maladies.
I now live in California, but maybe I will come and participate in the planned mule ride. Any others form the 1959 donkey trip to Pline Bluff want to join me?
October 5th, 2009 at 3:20 pm
I have read the information about the planned mule ride on September 19, 2009 and it brings to mind another such ride in the spring of 1959 (I think). The SSC basketball team was to play their first game in the NAIA tournament in Pine Bluff on a Saturday evening. As student body president that year, I, the vice president, Gene MacDonald, and 11 others were sent off by a pep rally early on the Wednesday morning prior to the tournament and others with SSC’s two donkey mascots for Pine Bluff. The plan was that I and Gene would ride the donkeys and the others would walk. We had arranged to call in to radio stations KVMA and KSSC with reports of our progress along the way. After a few miles, we and the donkeys made a pack that we would only ride when we were in the towns between Magnolia and Pine Bluff. Gene and I and the donkeys were pleased with this new plan. Each night along the way we stayed in homes of people that saw us and invited us to stay with them. We arrived at the tounament site mid afternoon on Saturday. It rained on us all day Saturday. Six of the original 13 made the entire trip. The others fell by the wayside with blisters and other maladies.
I now live in California, but maybe I will come and participate in the planned mule ride. Any others form the 1959 donkey trip to Pline Bluff want to join me?