Clubs in the '40s & '50s - Signs of the Times
In the 1940s, student club offerings started to expand beyond music and academics, better representing the hobbies and extracurricular interests popular among the student body. As World War II made its impact on PDS students and their families in the early 1940s, the Red Cross Detachment was formed in an effort to train and educate students to be "on hand" in the event of an emergency at or near the school. One of the six Red Cross Detachments to be found in Nashville at the time, the PDS detachment students joined voluntarily and learned skills such as bandaging, splinting, and CPR. and studied topics such as human anatomy and war gases.
Students also formed clubs for collectors, such as the Stamp Club, and clubs for popular hobbies and games, such as the Photograph Club and C.C.C. Club. (Checkers, Chess, & Camelot.)
The popularity of the Household Arts Club in the 1940s suggested a great deal of interest among female students in domestic skills such as cooking and sewing, but the club dwindled in membership, finally ending in the 1950s.
Another popular club was the Record Club. Formed in 1947, students in this club gathered to listen to and discuss popular classical and jazz music. In 1951, the Record Club planned an assembly during which they played selections on the phonograph and gave comments and discussion afterwards for each piece.