Taking Time at the Memphis Airport to Thank Lumbermen

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As much as I travel, I have been known to dash through an airport without paying much attention to my surroundings. Like others, I can end up focused only on gate numbers as I near my destination or someone with unwieldy luggage that seems to take out everyone else on the concourse.

A recent trip out of my hometown airport, I got through security for the B concourse, and headed over to A. That takes you right past an interesting display by The Lumbermen’s Club of Memphis that was established in 1898.

I decided to play around a bit and see what would turn up. Having grown up here and spent so much time in the Mid-South, I can imagine hardwoods are a part of our economy, but I really hadn’t thought about a Memphis Lumbermen’s Club nor that Memphis would be the headquarters for the National Hardwood Lumber Association.

According to Wilson Lumber Company, the Lumbermen’s  Club of  Memphis is the oldest lumber organization of its type in the world.  With that in mind, I was worried it wasn’t still operational! But according to the Memphis Business Journal, The Lumbermen’s Club of Memphis is still active. The 2010 officers are Thomas E. Wilson, president (International Specialties); Preston F. Padgett, first vice-president; Elsie B. Starr, secretary-treasurer; and Tom Hibdon, director (Sitco Lumber).

I’ll be looking at my hardwood floors a bit differently for a while, wondering if this came from Memphis area lumbermen! And then next thing I’ll wonder is did those lumbermen have timber too? other crops? Wow…. that’s a lot to think about!