Excerpts 

We Can Take It! 

The Roosevelt Tree Army At High Point State Park 1933-1941

   

Chapter 13

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 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 second "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 its 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.  

  Chapter 15

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 children we want them to be able to see what nature is all about."