Excerpts from the interview given by Oliver Malcolm, 2 November 2002

Malcolm:   And as far as my CCC tenure I think, today, that it was probably the best virtually two years of my life growing up as a kid. I learned brick masonry, I learned cooking. And I also learned basically how to get along with people. The world didn’t owe me a living.  I learned to accept discipline and just instead of pulling my hand out to accept something, I’m on the giving end, even today. And I praise the lord for the fact that I’ve just been blessed so much as I have and I credit a great deal of it to the CCC, my training in the CCC.  And I [laughing] guess I’ve messed your program completely.

Nelson:  Not at all. How did you first hear about the CCC? And how did that work to get in?

Malcolm:  I – well, of course the CCC was originally a poverty program when Roosevelt went in and the office and president and he went in Jan, I think January the 20th and April the 5th or April the 10th he opened the first CCC Camp.  He called it his tree army and that was the beginning of this tree planting that you see now only we did it by hand.  We didn’t have no machinery.  They’d have a transit and they’d shot a line down the other end had a chain every so many feet they’d have a ribbon tied on it and at that ribbon they would be two boys -- one with an arm load of seedlings and the other with this little--I believe they call it the trivet --little spade of a thing and they’d stick it down in the ground and pull it back. Then they drop a seedling in there. But everywhere you look, them trees they were in line.  Now they do it by machinery.  They -- on the chain at the other end-- they’d use the tapes to go up so many feet and you’d look at it from the west and its in line.  You can look at it on a 45 and its in line you can look at it north-south and its inline.  Everywhere you look at it they’re in line.  And that was the beginning of that.  We planted trees here. We didn’t plant no pine trees here [referring to Highlands Hammock State Park] but we planted these live oaks around here and these little things like that. Its thrill for me to come out and look at those things and think I had a part in putting them there you know and we built roads in here.  And we built a hot house. I saw it from a distance when we turned to come straight here [referring to the park’s old administration building].  I remember I was over here I think around the first time that I had -- I have always when going from Florida up home visiting if I came through here during the day, I’d always run out here. Just run out here and say hello and see it.  Of course if I came through at night it was closed and I couldn’t otherwise I’d would have come out here then I guess.  But I still if I’m going down to South Florida I come by here during the day and I’ll usually run in here.  Very, very, very interesting and enjoyable. I can’t say that part of the time it wasn’t that enjoyable as a kid, but now as I look back it was a great thrill to know that I had a part in it.