Hard Work U

Before we left for Branson, we had several people give us some really good advice on places to visit that didn’t involve shows, high-pressure salespeople, or lots of money.  On Monday, we decided to visit one of those places that nearly everyone to whom we had spoken about Branson said we shouldn’t miss.

As we were on vacation, we slept in a bit on Monday morning, and, shortly before lunch time, drove 20 minutes over to the College of the Ozarks. 

Yep, you read it correctly.  We visited a college campus on our vacation!

In case you’ve never heard of this school, it is one of the very few free universities in the United States.  Every single student here attends college on a work-study program.  Most students are from the area, and I think that over three-quarters of them exhibit financial need.  In return for a four-year college degree, these young people work 15 hours a week when school is in session and two 40-hour work weeks when school is not in session.  There are something like 80 different work stations across the campus, ranging from the computer center to the on-campus dairy to landscaping maintenance.  The College of the Ozarks is nicknamed Hard Work U.

We had been told that the College of the Ozarks also had a fabulous restaurant, also completely staffed from the kitchen to the waiters by students, so that is where we were headed.  And we definitely had an excellent meal here.  Here are some pictures of the kids in the classily rustic Dobyns Dining Room.

After lunch, we took a self-guided tour of the campus.  Places to visit included a tractor museum…

…a dairy during milking time…

…and the original mill that has been converted into a gift shop and also houses the student weavers and basket makers.  Charlotte bought one of the baskets for sale here.

After touring these places, we headed over to the kitchen where students make the famous College of the Ozarks fruitcakes, apple butter, and pies.  We got to sample the fruitcake.  I’m not a fan.  We ended our time here with a walk out to a scenic overlook at the edge of the campus.  Beautiful!

After our visit, we headed back to the resort, ate a sandwich supper, and then left to see our second show in Branson.  After our Kirby Van Burch experience, we were a little leery of what this night held.  As Jeff’s parents were going to their own choice of show that night, Jeremy was attending this one with us, and the show started right about at his bedtime.

However, we were very pleasantly surprised by this show, performed by a group named Six.  Six is an a capella group consisting of (wouldn’t you know it) six brothers from a family of ten brothers.  Their vocal ability is absolutely amazing.  The show started with a vocal rendition of the sounds that you hear in a theater when it is demonstrating the surround sound.  It continued with a variety of songs from a variety of genres, interspersed with hysterical conversations among the brothers, with all of the instruments in a band brought to life with voices.

In addition, the theater in which Six performed was beautiful, and I think the only empty seat was the one that they gave us for Jeremy, as he was too little to use it.  It was night and day from the first show.  Jeremy actually listened to the music until intermission and then managed to sleep through a good portion of the second act.  What a great evening!

Thus well entertained, we returned to Still Waters, ready for bed.

Next time…playing at the resort and in Branson.