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[continued from yesterday's post]
In August of 1977 I was college-bound for SFA in Nacogdoches, and left radio and television behind, a move that I've never regretted, though the experiences left fodder for some good story-telling once in a while.
In order to pay for college my dad and I had a deal going. One-third of my education was to be paid by my mother's estate (she'd died the year before, in April of 1976), one-third by my dad, and one-third I had to earn myself. This was when education was a lot cheaper, and SFA was one of the cheapest, so there was no big hurdle for any of us. So it was that toward the end of my freshman year I was faced with figuring out how to earn money for my third of the bargain.
I didn't have to think long, because in short order it was all handed to me on a silver platter, as they say.
After graduating law school at UT Austin, my brother Bob took his first job with Tom Upchurch in Amarillo, up in the panhandle of Texas. One of the cases he worked on was in defense of Iowa Beef Processors, Inc. (IBP) - some guy got cut on the floor and tried to sue. While working on the case (which he won), Bob learned that the hourly pay there was decent, and that it would be easy to get hired there because of the huge turnover, especially on the kill floor. He called me at SFA one day and suggested that I might apply there to earn money for the summer. To make the arrangement a little easier he knew of a place that I could rent, and on top of that he would sell me one of his two cars - a 1968 Rambler American named Old Blue. Things seemed to be falling into place for me to come on up, so I hopped on a bus and did just that.
This was one of those times when I felt strongly that I was in the right place at the right time. I had given up the glamor, notoriety and ego-stroking experience of being on the radio and behind the scenes in television, and took on the hard labor of working on the kill floor of a slaughterhouse. To this day that summer of 1978 remains one of the brightest spots in life.
1 comment:
Believe it or not, we have lived in
Believe it or not, I have lived in Arkansas for 13 years. I was thinking just today about our trip during Spring break to Eureka Springs in Old Blue. One of my most vivid memories trying to go up a big hill in town and old blue stalling out. Don't know for sure how we finally made it, but I was laughing so hard my sides hurt and you were yelling at me to shut up. Fun times.
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