I was not in a lot of clubs in high school, but one that I was quite involved in was FFA (Future Farmers of America). Most of the boys who took Vocational Ag were also members of FFA. At that time FFA was restricted to boys only. Girls were not allowed as members but each chapter had a “Chapter Sweetheart” who was an honorary member of the organization.
To get into FFA we had to go through an initiation as freshmen. That is where I learned about ‘Colonel Puff’. It was a drinking game (with water) that we had to get correct or our cups were refilled over and over again. Some of the boys got quite sick from drinking too much water. I learned the routine fairly quickly and didn’t have to drink too much water. The older boys did lots of things to us that I won’t go into. In the end, we became new members of the club. We could order the blue jackets with yellow lettering with our names on and I was quite proud to wear that jacket. Each year we were in FFA we got a little medal to attach to the jacket just above our name. The first year we were called “Greenhand Farmers,” the second year we were called “Chapter Farmers”. I don’t remember what we were called the third and fourth years.
The FFA has a very formal opening ceremony at the beginning of each club meeting. There were a number of officers (advisor, president, vice president, secretary, treasurer, reporter, sentinel, parliamentarian etc.) Each had a symbol at their place and as roll was called, each gave a little statement about their responsibilities and how it related to the symbol. For example the advisor’s symbol was the owl because it was a symbol of wisdom. Part of what we learned in FFA was parliamentary procedure. I can’t remember many of the rules now, but at one point I was pretty good at it. I served as secretary and vice president of the club the last two years. Our fourth year we went to the state convention in Tucson. We had leadership training, elected state officers and had lots of fun. Our “Chapter Sweetheart” was elected as “State Sweetheart.”
During the year we competed in different contests at FFA Field Days. I can remember competing in soil judging, welding, dairy judging, weed identification, meat judging and there were probably others. I think the highest I got was an honorable mention in poultry judging. Each chapter could have a team entered in the different contests and the contests took two days to complete. At the end there was usually a banquet where awards were given out. Usually ASU and U of A each sponsored a field day and sometimes one of the chapters would sponsor a field day for the schools in the area. Since we were the only chapter in northern Arizona, we seldom competed except at the statewide contests. They were a good excuse for an overnight school trip. Wow! What a thrill to ride a bus for five hours or more? We played crazy eight or other card games on the trips or just talked or slept. Sometimes we got to take the “Big Bus” that had the motor in the back that was usually reserved for the athletic teams. We thought it was pretty special!
The FFA group had some “wild hares,” but most were good guys and we enjoyed each other’s company. There were enough with some common sense to sort of keep a lid on the others. Mr. Angle didn’t put up with much goofing off and everyone knew it so they toed the line pretty well. I learned a lot through FFA and I think my love for agriculture was strengthened as a result of a good experience in Vo Ag. When it came time to choose a major in college it was not difficult for me to choose an aspect of agriculture.