DuPont Forest by Bernstein Danny;

Author:Bernstein, Danny;
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: Arcadia Publishing Inc.
Published: 2020-08-15T00:00:00+00:00

PART V

End of an Era

GROWING UP DUPONT

Growing up DuPont was a special experience. When you talk to DuPont kids today, you see the enthusiasm and love they had for their environment. Some are nostalgic for the long-gone days of swimming and playing in Lake DERA. Even those children who grew up before the lake was built remember the famous yearly picnics and the other children’s events. Now, DuPont kids are not kids. Most are in their fifties, sixties or even seventies.

Connie Hubbard Corn is the daughter of Chan Hubbard, the first employee at the Brevard plant. She’s in her fifties and a grandmother. Connie starts and ends talking about her father. “Chan never knew his dad. So, he didn’t have role models. He had to figure out what dads should be like.…My dad truly loved his job—he truly loved and respected the property that is now DuPont Forest. He was once a keeper of the treasure that now thousands come enjoy.” She has pictures of her dad with the kids and the jeep.

“The jeep is a vivid memory for us all,” Connie recalls. “We spent a lot of time on the property in the jeep; for some odd reason, my best memory is running behind it. The pictures of Dad show him in his glory days. He was a strong man; he still is for his age.”

“DuPont was the backdrop of my whole life,” Connie says. “It was your job, your recreation, your life.” Connie graduated from Brevard High and Blue Ridge Community College. She is now the marketing manager for the Self-Help Credit Union.

Her friends at school were like two tribes. Parents either worked for DuPont or the Ecusta paper mill. Both companies made huge contributions to the local schools. In the summer, DuPont families camped and hiked on the property along with church groups. They could bring Ecusta friends; in return, DuPont people could swim at Straus Park, owned by Ecusta.

“In the summer, we would go to work with our dad at DuPont. He’d drop us off at Lake DERA and pick us up at the end of the day,” Connie says. “We also camped at High Falls where the shelter is now.”

Connie’s husband, David, is a plumber. His dad worked at Ecusta, the other tribe. Their first date was at High Falls; they married when she was twenty years old. Afterward, they camped on the DuPont property. Later, they gave their children the same opportunity.

But now Connie feels DuPont Forest is too crowded. She goes to Holmes Educational State Forest down the road, where it’s a lot quieter. Her daughter owns a horse business and boards horses, so she benefits from DuPont Forest visitors. Her husband helps out the business with trail rides. “We still have the annual retired employees party,” Connie says. “We’re expecting over two hundred people this year.”

Barbara Johnson Orr, Earle Johnson’s eldest daughter, has different memories about DuPont than Connie, mostly because their age difference. Barbara is about fifteen years older than Connie.

Barbara and her family moved to Brevard when she was seven years old in 1957 and entered the third grade.

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