Elkins hosts an annual Fall Festival, boasting to be the home of the most magnificent viewing of autumn’s artistic touch on the deciduous trees of the surrounding hills. Indeed, it is a breathtaking sight with the hillsides of orange, yellow, red surrounding Elkins and nearby hamlets of Beverly, Mabel, and Kearns. In 1971, the Fall Festival’s special guest was President Nixon who was in office at that time. The secret service men blended into the campus’ population like oil mixes with water. It was exciting that Davis and Elkins had been selected to host President Nixon’s six hour visit but as a student working in the school cafeteria, I never did see him come through the serving line. I did see his distinctive wave as he was welcomed by the Mountaineers.
The green of Davis and Elkins was sloped, expansive and edged with big maple and oak trees. Before fall gave way to winter, those big trees had to let loose of their leaves, creating a sea of browning orange, red, and yellow leaves. It was a new playground for me. Marlyne and I tossed around the nerf football —the only one we knew we could catch— giving us a reason to run through the quilt of autumn’s glory and not look like we were just playing in the leaves.
Fall’s splendor turned into winter’s reality and this ‘roadrunner’ decided that being in the coldest place in the continental USA—as Elkins was several times that year—was not the notoriety that I appreciated. The crystal clear blue skies of the southwest were nowhere to be found; there was no salsa to be had; and the school offered no classes in the field that I had become interested in pursuing—Social Work. I started looking around for a different school and found Trinity University in San Antonio had a BA in Sociology with a social work emphasis. Close enough—close enough to home and blue skies; close enough to excellent salsa at Mi Tierra; Trinity would accept my credit hours from Davis and Elkins and the summer sessions I attended at Western New Mexico University; and the clincher, reduced tuition for Presbyterian p.k.’s, preacher’s kids.
I sincerely believe that we are given life to enjoy and make it more enjoyable for others.
The best way to do this is to get in the middle of it. Henry L. Harrel, Sr.
