4-H Clubs

Image by Big Grey Mare via Flickr

My first ever "club" was the 4-H Beef Growers Club. There were about 10 of us in the county who grew our own show calf and fattened it up for the Fat Calf Show that occurred every year in the spring at Warners Sale Barn. We spent the winter feeding, grooming and training the calves to be led by a halter and to take a "show stance." Our club didn't meet but once per year and that was at the show. We all kept our calves and methods very secret and really didn't know each other's names very well.

The second year that I showed a calf, I had the Grand Champion of Greenwood County. Boy was I proud. I had named him Phillip and he and I had spent hours and hours together for almost six months. The problem was that I was going home and Phillip wasn't. Winn-Dixie food stores paid $1.00 per pound for him and he weighed almost 900 pounds. Hmmm. Let me see, Winn-Dixie food stores. It took me about a minute to figure that one out. I wasn't a happy camper, but I took the money. I hope Phillip pleased a bunch of steak eaters. I showed again for the next two or three years and had a Reserve Champion (second place) but never again won. The money that I saved from those calves went a long way towards paying tuition once I started college.

In the 9th or 10th grade Daddy wanted me to join the 4-H Tractor Club. I had skirted the periphery of 4-H and really didn't want to play, but we talked about it and I agreed. My friend Thomas went with us every Wednesday night to the George Davis Buick place where we met. There was a workbook and actual hands-on tractor work. We learned how to grease all the 29 points on the tractor that we were using for the club, how to change the oil, how to do everything with a tractor. One thing that I managed to miss was the excercise where we backed a 4 wheel wagon with a tractor. I had tried it several times at home and never had much luck. Heck, I couldn't even back a two wheel wagon!

Being in these activities qualified me to attend the one-week 4-H camp that was held every year at Camp Long in Aiken County. As I remember, 4-H camp was something that I enjoyed very much and always looked forward to in the Summer. We did crafts, sang a bunch of songs, took safety classes, swam, played ball and went to dances every night. I wonder if they still have 4-H camp there? I wonder if they still have 4-H camp anywhere?