Senior Study Hall

OK - I guess that I keep everything! But doesn't the above picture of my Pleasant Pastures Farm milk carton bring back memories? For me it certainly does! When the university announced during my senior year that the farm was going to be sold, I made sure that I rinsed out and kept one of those small waxed boxes painted with the university colors. I can't remember if it was 35 or 40 cents at the time, but it is one of my most highly treasured momentos from college. I could only part with it if I knew that somehow I could promote it as some sort of pop culture relic and sell it on Ebay for a ton of money, just like that 10-year old grilled cheese sandwich that sold recently for $28,000. The point is that Pleasant Pastures milk was always there when I needed it. In the mornings with Honey Nut Cheerios and in the evenings for cheesy instant mashed potatoes in my Hot Pot. These were my comfort foods, and what could be more comforting than milk from a farm called Pleasant Pastures?

[The following information is from an April 10, 2003 Greenville News article.]

The property was known as Pleasant Pastures even before the university acquired it in the 1970s, said Roy Barton, Bob Jones University's chief financial officer.The farm provided milk and beef for the student population until it was sold in 2000, he said."We had several hundred head of cattle on it — probably milked somewhere around 300 — and we also had a feed lot and would actually slaughter the cattle there and serve the meat in our own dining hall," Barton said.But running a farm proved impractical for a non-farming organization, "particularly when you're in education," Barton said. "So, rather than have it just sit there and break even, we liquidated it."