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colorful characters, intrigue, and melodrama.But in the end, it comes down tosimple dynamics: the push of an ironwilledman determined to do the job heTo generations of graduates and faculty,Old Wake Forest was an idyllic haven,with landmarks like Holding’s Drug andSoda Shop on White Street, the Old StoneArch, and the Old Well.was hired for, and the pull of a powerfuland prosperous family striving tobetter the community in its keeping.WFO KNOW HOW FAR YOU’VE COME,Tyou need to know where you’vebeen. Or, put another way, to know whoyou are, you must know who you were.The town and college of Wake Forestwere, in the glow of autumnal memory,idyllic in the thirties and forties. Onthe south edge of town was a mill; tothe west and north was the “Harrakin,”a hurricane-devastated district wherepoor tenant farmers tilled the soil. Therest of the town’s residents were boundup—body, heart, and spirit—with thesmall Baptist institute for men foundeda century before.U.S. Highway 1, the East Coast’smain north-south route in those days,became Main Street as it eased on intotown, making one hard turn, thenanother, to skirt campus before amblingon to Key West and the Canadian border.One block east of Main was thetown’s commercial artery, White Street,a minute’s walk from campus throughthe Old Stone Arch and the railroadtrestle, over which a lonely freight train,dubbed the “hoot owl” for its hauntingwhistle, passed by in nocturnal melancholy.On White Street, a student couldfind practically anything he might wantor need except alcohol, which couldn’tbe sold within a mile-and-a-quarterof the town limits. There was a men’sclothing store, Ben’s of Wake Forest,whose owner, Ben Aycock, was thefather of Director of Alumni ActivitiesMinta Aycock McNally (’74); two movietheaters, the Forest and the Collegiate,which changed films two or three timesa week; Holding’s Drug and Soda Shop;Hardwick’s Pharmacy; Jones HardwareStore; Barney Powell’s barbershop; Mr.Satterwhite’s savings and loan; Snyder’sCollege Book Store, which sold textbooks,school supplies, and ice creamsodas; the post office, a daily destinationwhere postmistress Lib Greason, thewife of the basketball coach, greetedevery student by name; and Shorty’s, asmoky hamburger joint and pool hallthat was a den of iniquity to the righteousbut a perennial heaven on earthto students. Every Friday andSaturday, students would line up inlate afternoon at the “bumming” cornerto catch rides to Raleigh eighteen milesaway for a dinner or movie or to datecoeds at Meredith or Peace colleges.The compact campus, with its lushstands of magnolias and flora, its rusticbrick buildings and walkways, and itslandmark Old Well, was ringed by thestone wall affectionately named afterDr. Tom, the College’s beloved AfricanAmerican groundskeeper. Otherwise,there was little separation between theCollege and community, physically orsocially. Most of the townspeople wereCollege alumni or the children of facultymembers. At one point during theDepression when the College could notSEPTEMBER 2006 15