Excerpts from The CCC Books by Peter Osborne



The following excerpts are taken from We Can Take It: The Roosevelt Tree Army at

High Point State Park 1933-1941 by Peter Osborne



Chapter 13

Good Will Towards All And Malice Toward None



Poems were included in company newsletters and often reflect camp life and the

great affection the CCC boys had for the camps. Also, the kinds of dreams young

men have. They demonstrate the literary promise of some of the enrollees

including Owen "Black" Murray who wrote the following in February 1937:



What if we sweat in the summer

And what if in the winter we freeze

Though we grumble and kick

Somehow we stick

To life in the CCC's

When enlistment times comes around

And we all get the urge to breeze

A couple may go but the rest of us know

We're home in the CCC's



Murray wrote two other poems for the newsletter, the first entitled "Darkness up

in High Point" and the "Contentment."



"Darkness up in High Point"



The flowers stop their nodding

Each bows its pretty head

For there's darkness up in High Point

They know it's time for bed.



The birds all stop their singing

And nestle close instead

For there'd be darkness up in High Point

They know it's time for bed



The day is through and play is through

All's been done and said

When shadows creep it's time to sleep

Time to go to bed



The wind itself is crooning

There are pleasant dreams ahead

For there is darkness up in High Point

And it's time to go bed.



"Contentment"

These things I ask of life

I know I'm asking much

Are a simple life, a home and a wife

The thrill of a baby's touch



To know the joy of working

How sweet this life can be

When someone is waiting - Anticipating

The safe arrival of me.



Other poems appear in the 1280 newsletter written by "Pat" under the heading of

"This and That" in 1938.



Prayer of the Unemployed



Oh my God, I pray that Thee

Will send a job, not Charity

Give me a chance to earn my bread

And a place to rest my head

If I could just find work again

I'd bow my head and say, Amen.



This poem also comes from "Pat" and reflects a concern of the time.



Give Me Work

With weary heart and heavy feet

I tramp along the dusty street;

My throat checked by a sob

For tho' I look I find no job.



"No help wanted," employers say

Then I plod my weary way

I'm groping blindly in my grief

I want a job, not relief.



Of course I could live on a Dole

But work itself is a better goal;

With work I could keep my pride;

There'd be no grief for me to hide.



In work I could be content,

A job would be Heaven sent;

Then my heart would fill with glee;

For in work I'd find Security.



Epilogue



For those of us who use and love our nation's parks and forests, we can never

express our gratitude enough to the Roosevelt Tree Army or to President Franklin

D. Roosevelt who had a far-sighted vision about conservation and young men and

acted upon it. Some CCC boys understood what they were doing went beyond the

building of roads or lakes or even a paycheck. They saw a larger purpose. Peter

Lutz reflected upon that mission: "We were from the city, and we realized what we

were doing, see, we were building that park for our next generation, see we knew

that. And we were only kids, we didn't have anything, we were from the city and

we had no toys, Christmas didn't mean a thing to us. And so we thought, well,

when we get married and have



When we drive over the roads of High Point, camp at one of its beautiful sites or

canoe on its lakes, we can tip our hats to men like Messrs. Gibbons, Gemmill,

Mastriani, Thiede, Lutz, Polisi and the others who made it possible. We remember,

as Ray Hoyt said in his history of the CCC, "We Can Take It" that life in a CCC

camp was a great adventure.





The second book written by Peter Osborne, High Point State Park & The Civilian

Conservation Corps is in soft cover is 128 pages long and illustrated with 200

photographs. The images come from a variety of public and private sources and

almost all of them have never been published before.



Courtesy of High Point State Park

Much of what makes up the current park layout was built by the CCC including

Ridge Road, Sawmill Road, Sawmill Lake, Stenykill Lake, the campsites and trail

network as illustrated on this circa 1940 map created by a National Park Service

architect working for the CCC.