Ithaca, New York
Friday night
March 10, 1939
Dear Folks,
I was very glad to receive two letters from home yesterday noon. Thanks very much for the check. I am not certain that Dr. Raeder in Millbrook will remember my dentist appointment. I would like to have it between the 3rd and the 8th of April; probably about the 3rd is best. I will be coming home the 31st of March and have to be back here the 10th. This term has been going very fast and I have lots of work to keep me busy until about 1 o'clock every night, but have good marks so far - over ninety average in Farm Management.
When is Easter Sunday - it's around the 10th of April isn't it? I was sorry to hear about Mrs. Benton; it will sort of disrupt their home, won't it. I'll write Charles over the weekend. The weather is pretty tricky around here; one day it's like spring and the next we have a foot of snow.
A couple of weeks ago I was invited to a Kappa Phi Kappa Fraternity meeting along with several others interested in education. It is an honorary Education Fraternity and the only one they have here at Cornell. It is comprised of prospective teachers, mostly in Agriculture, Arts, Engineering, and Law. They have about twenty-five members, and over half are Seniors and the rest are Juniors. They also have about 30 other national chapters throughout the country and none of them have houses. Here at Cornell, they have meetings at Willard Straight Hall every week, and a member has the opportunity of meeting all the important professors, in education, from here and other colleges and also acquiring valuable information relating to our profession.
Today the president of the fraternity (he is also president of the FFA Organization) told me that I have been selected to join if I cared to. I hadn't really expected to be picked because I didn't think my marks were high enough, but I guess my average last term raised it quite a bit. I have talked with several of the members who have belonged to it for a year, and they tell me it is really very much worthwhile and that they have gotten a lot out of it, so I am thinking rather seriously of joining as the initiation fee is only fifteen dollars and I don't have to pay it now. You might tell me what you think about it in your next letter.
Wednesday night I was invited up to a Ho-Nun-De-Kah smoker. This is an honorary agriculture society comprised of Juniors and Seniors. The name is the Indian word for maize or corn. The organization was originated partly by a group of Seneca Indians who attended the College of Agriculture about fifteen years ago. There was a very good speech at the meeting by Professor Bates on Indian History and Traditions of New York State. Afterwards, there were color movies of the Cornell-Dartmouth game which I had seen once before. When I got home, I had to light into a Farm Management report until about 2 a.m.
Last night, I was one of several given the degree of Future Farmer of America by the FFA Organization here at Cornell to which I belong. It was the second and highest degree which one can receive in a local chapter. After the business meeting, there was an excellent speech by Bristow Adams of the Journalism Department telling about some of his experiences in his two trips around the world. He is a very gifted speaker, I think, and possesses a very good blend of humor and tact in all that he says. He spoke mostly on rice and tobacco production in different areas of the world.
Maybe the warm weather will start the hens laying again. Do they get outside occasionally? I will delay mailing this until I have a chance, tomorrow, to find out about guinea pig production. They don't have any bulletins on it, but I can probably get something in the library about it, and at least I can bring home a bulletin on Rabbit Production when I come.
Frank Hedges, from Pine Plains, has a job already in a town near Amsterdam. He is going to teach Agriculture there. He is in the same department I am in and is taking several courses with me now. I visited a large Central School in Spencer down near the Pennsylvania border in my Practice Teaching lab this week. They have an excellent agriculture department there.
You will probably be tired of trying to read this by now so I will say good night for now.
Lovingly, Hall
Gilbert Hall Flint was born August 14, 1918 and raised on Flint Hill Farm in Amenia, New York. His formal education began in a one-room schoolhouse in Smithfield. He graduated from Amenia High School in 1936 and from the Cornell University College of Agriculture in 1940. He taught high school agriculture from 1940 to 1944, served in the U.S. Army from 1944 to 1946, taught high school agriculture from 1946 to 1963, and finished his career as a school principal from 1963 to 1975.
Gilbert Hall Flint passed away on December 16, 2009. The letters are published in his memory. To view the letters in chronological order, please click a timeline label from the side bar menu, scroll to the bottom, and read up.
Gilbert Hall Flint passed away on December 16, 2009. The letters are published in his memory. To view the letters in chronological order, please click a timeline label from the side bar menu, scroll to the bottom, and read up.
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