The top
floor of the mill is the weaving studio. Hand weaving is a craft
almost as old as man himself. It flourished in the Ozarks in the
1930s when the W.P.A. put looms in hundreds of schools and
communities. The College was one of those places. Here students
work off part of their tuition by creating placemats, table
runners, rugs, stoles
and an assortment of other items.
The looms are old but carefully cared for.
Down the road a piece is the agriculture department which houses
one of the worlds best orchid collections. In passing through we
met David Barker, the landscaping superintendent. We chatted for
the next half an hour while he explained that he had 72 students
working for him and was responsible for the landscape design and
implementation for the entire campus. The orchids, now numbering
over 7000 plants are available to the public.
We then worked ourselves across the campus. We stopped one of the
students passing by and asked for a picture of his "Hard
Work U" t-shirt. Billy Hall said he was a freshman and
majoring in the restaurants/hotel industry. Again that warm
satisfied feeling was projected as he talked about the college
and his part in it. We would experience this same satisfied
self-confident projection as we met more and more students.
We located our next stop in the back of one of
the music buildings where (Yum-yum) the fruit cake factory was in
full swing. As we munched the best of the samples, we chatted
with Mynette Ulrich, Supervisor of the Order Department. She
explained that the cost of operating the College was over a
million dollars a month and by no means could the students hope
to create that kind of income
from the 15 hours a week they donate
to the various efforts afforded them. Most of the income comes
from private donations. We wandered back into the kitchen and sat
with a handful of gals and guys who were packing fruit cakes and
just having a ball interacting with each other.
Our final stop was at the nationally acclaimed Ralph Foster
Museum, maintained on campus. Ralph Foster was a pioneer radio
operator, who owned KWTO out of Springfield MO. He created the Ozark Jubilee which featured many
of the old time country music names. He was an avid collector and
supporter of the College, turning his collections over to the
school for display. The museum is a cross section of the Ozark
community. With such diversities as the old "Beverly
Hillbillies" truck, display not far from an extensive
collection of Rose O'Neill's famous
"Kewpie" dolls. Fine hand
carved oak furniture sits not far from displays of the radio days
of KWTO and the great stars that performed there. The second
floor contains one of the finest gun collections in the nation.
The third floor holds the exquisite collections of birds and
animals. If you ever need to identify a bird just drop by the
third floor. You'll probably find it there. All in all, it was a
lot of fun wandering around with the students watching the world
of academia at work, and work really well!.
*** THE END ***
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