SEARCY — About 60 women gathered at the White County Fair Grounds to celebrate 100 years of homemaking clubs. This year marks 100 years since the first Extension Homemakers Club was established in Arkansas. It was originally called the Home Demonstration Club.
Records for White County go back to 1930, when there were 16 clubs and 300 members. Those numbers varied from year to year, depending on what was happening in the world.
“Ladies were needed to do different types of things,” Krista Brimer, White County Extension Homemakers Council president, said about the drop in numbers. “There were different reasons they would be pulled in different directions.”
In 1943, the club numbers rose to 58 clubs and 1,459 members, but women were expected to meet wartime demands, as well as keep up their homes and hold up the morale in their neighborhoods. It was in 1944 that the club numbers dwindled down to 38 clubs and 931 members. This year, there are 14 clubs and 200 members.
Some of the subjects covered at meetings over the years included what the well-dressed bed is wearing, selecting hatching eggs, ourchildren’s dispositions and housecleaning made easy.
Brimer said that later this year, the clubs plan to revive some of the dying arts by revisiting some of those subjects.
Several longtime club members were at the celebration and told stories about what thingswere like in the club’s younger days.
LaVera Hale of the Vinity Extension Homemakers Club recalled walking four miles with her mother in the 1930s to meetings.
“I’d go with her and play with the otherkids,” Hale said. “I don’t know of anyone who would walk four miles to go to a meeting now.”
She also talked about, after she became a member, some of the crafts that club members learned to make, such as mattresses.
“I still have one of those mattresses on one of my beds,” Hale said.
Over the years, the homemakers club evolved, and Minerva Sanders, 91, has seen 70 of those 100 years as an EHC member.
“I got married in Dec. 14, 1941, and joined the Andrews Club the next year in 1942. … From the Andrews Club, I’mthe only one standing,” Sanders said.
“We had a meeting once a month, and that was the highlight of the month. We would meet at people’s houses and have a potluck, and that was a highlight, too. We’d also do crafts.” Sanders said that she even learned how to make feathered hats though EHC.
She said that although she still cooks and sews, she’s not much on housekeeping anymore.
“I sew, cook and eat,” she said with a laugh. “I made over 200 bags last year and have given them away. Everybody who comes to see me can’t leave without a bag.”
One thing that hasn’t changed over the years is thefellowship among the women involved in each club.
Brimer also noted that Pangburn has a new club called the Little Red Club that was established this year.
“We have 40 to 50 new members this year,” Brimer said. “Our goal is to add 100 new members this year.”
White County clubs represented at the celebration included the Bald Knob, El Paso, Floyd, Little Indian Creek, Oak Grove, Searcy ,Vinity and UNeek clubs.
For more information on Extension Homemakers Clubs and for times and meeting locations, visit www.uaex.edu.
Staff writer Jeanni Brosius can be reached at (501) 244-4307 or jbrosius@arkansasonline.com.
Three Rivers, Pages 49 on 05/31/2012