An Idea is Born
It began to take shape in discussions between students across a lab table in qualitative chemistry, conversations among fellow believers at church and at student religious foundation activities, chats among friends while walking to classes, bull sessions between roommates, and a host of other contacts. What was it? An idea! We could do it by working and living together! We could improve our living conditions. We could enhance our spiritual beliefs and strangthen our moral standards. We could have better food, more social involvement, and enjoy some of the better things in life that non of us were able to do alone or independently. And so, the idea was born ... the idea that a group of men living and sharing and working together could provide themselves a more satisfactory way of life.
To understand the birth of the idea, the conditions that spawned it and consequently the establishment of Nabor House need to be examined. It was 1936-37. The economy in general and agriculture in particular were reeling from the Great Depression. Farming had begun to recover, but the hard times were definitely not over. Money was scarce, especially for farm families. Tractors were taking over for horses, and combines hardly existed. Farming was much more general than it is now, with livestock a part of nearly every farm operation. Hay was a necessary crop in the rotation. Fertilizer was primarily manure from the farm's livestock, and pesticides would not be available for several years to come. TVA electric lines were just beginning to be installed in rural areas.
To understand the birth of the idea, the conditions that spawned it and consequently the establishment of Nabor House need to be examined. It was 1936-37. The economy in general and agriculture in particular were reeling from the Great Depression. Farming had begun to recover, but the hard times were definitely not over. Money was scarce, especially for farm families. Tractors were taking over for horses, and combines hardly existed. Farming was much more general than it is now, with livestock a part of nearly every farm operation. Hay was a necessary crop in the rotation. Fertilizer was primarily manure from the farm's livestock, and pesticides would not be available for several years to come. TVA electric lines were just beginning to be installed in rural areas.
On campus, many agriculture students had to partially or totally support themselves financially. Although this was extremely difficult, they chose to do so because they desperately wanted an education. They had a vision of helping agriculture and mankind. On-campus or nearby work was the means to get that education. Being farm boys, they were used to hard work, they knew how to "make-do", and they knew how to be self-reliant. These traits would be greatly needed and would serve the first "Nabors" well as their dreams and aspirations unfolded and became reality. One pair of such young men was Burdette B. "Bur" Lutz, '40 1/2, and Garrett W. Loy, '40/12. The first semester Bur was in school, he had a board and room job in a private home. He was the only student in the house located about a mile from the campus. Bur once said that he might as well ahve been at home taking a correspondence course. The second semester, he moved closer to the campus and by chance became Garrett's roommate. |
"We lived in a miserable little basement room and cooked our meals on a laundry stove, had one burner apiece. He cooked his stuff, and I cooked mine. I lived on ground whole wheat, eggs, and milk. This basement room was an interesting little hole -- bare concrete with sills and dripping water pipes overhead. At times, I studied with my rubbers on. After a hard rain, the water ran under my study desk." |
Bur's observation of their living quarters was, "We lived in a miserable little basement room and cooked our meals on a laundry stove, had one burner apiece. He cooked his stuff, and I cooked mine. I lived on ground whole wheat, eggs, and milk. This basement room was an interesting little hole -- bare concrete with sills and dripping water pipes overhead. At times, I studied with my rubbers on. After a hard rain, the water ran under my study desk."
And, it should be added, that the landlady hung her laundry in the room on rainy days. Both Bur and Garrett had National Youth Administration (NYA) jobs. The NYA was a depression-era agency paying 35 cents and hour. The next year, Garrett had a room job and lived elsewhere. Bur also moved to another basement room, living and cooking by himself. The remaining three founders were Walter D. Parks, Samuel F. Ridlen, and Bonard S. Wilson.
Walter D. Parks, '40, did odd jobs in faculty homes for his meals and slept first in an attic, then on a screened-in porch. Samual F. "Sam" Ridlen, '40, and Bonard S. "Willie" Wilson, '40, worked about four hours a day as waiters in Greek fraternity houses for their meals. That experience soon revealed to them the wide financial and social disparity between themselves and their employers, including the manner in which they were treated as servants.
Sam also worked an NYA job at the University's Poultry Research Farm. He worked there for his room, where he was the sole occupant of the building, a place so cold in the winter that he had to study sitting next to the furnace to keep warm. Since cooking was not permittedi n the room, eggs boiled in a tin can hung in the furnace constituted no small part of his diet. Income from occasional odd jobs helped cover his expenses. In addition to his meal job, Willie usually had two or three other jobs to further help defray his costs. All five men had one or more scholarships. Although information identifying Garrett's scholarship is not available, the other four men all had County Farmers Institute Scholarships earned by competitive examination. Bur also had a Sears Roebuck scholarship. The Farmers Institute Scholarship covered the one-time matriculation fee of $15 and the per-semester tuition of $35. That's not much by today's standards, but it was a serious hurdle for these five men and many other students.
And, it should be added, that the landlady hung her laundry in the room on rainy days. Both Bur and Garrett had National Youth Administration (NYA) jobs. The NYA was a depression-era agency paying 35 cents and hour. The next year, Garrett had a room job and lived elsewhere. Bur also moved to another basement room, living and cooking by himself. The remaining three founders were Walter D. Parks, Samuel F. Ridlen, and Bonard S. Wilson.
Walter D. Parks, '40, did odd jobs in faculty homes for his meals and slept first in an attic, then on a screened-in porch. Samual F. "Sam" Ridlen, '40, and Bonard S. "Willie" Wilson, '40, worked about four hours a day as waiters in Greek fraternity houses for their meals. That experience soon revealed to them the wide financial and social disparity between themselves and their employers, including the manner in which they were treated as servants.
Sam also worked an NYA job at the University's Poultry Research Farm. He worked there for his room, where he was the sole occupant of the building, a place so cold in the winter that he had to study sitting next to the furnace to keep warm. Since cooking was not permittedi n the room, eggs boiled in a tin can hung in the furnace constituted no small part of his diet. Income from occasional odd jobs helped cover his expenses. In addition to his meal job, Willie usually had two or three other jobs to further help defray his costs. All five men had one or more scholarships. Although information identifying Garrett's scholarship is not available, the other four men all had County Farmers Institute Scholarships earned by competitive examination. Bur also had a Sears Roebuck scholarship. The Farmers Institute Scholarship covered the one-time matriculation fee of $15 and the per-semester tuition of $35. That's not much by today's standards, but it was a serious hurdle for these five men and many other students.