Convincd that herein lay a great future, I plunged into operation of the parts department with enthusiasm. In a few months I was vested with the responsibility. of the entire parts department alone, handling a business with inventory in excess of $20,000. Modesty must not restrain me from stating here that by carrying home all available literature on parts and department operations, I taught myself that part of the automobile business. I have little doubt that I was at that time the youngest parts department manager in our part of the state, being at the time an
11th grade student at Mount Olive High School.
Of the 14 boys who graduated who graduated from my high school class the following year, I was fourth high in scholastic standings.
In September, 1947, I enrolled as a freshman at East carolina Teachers College in Greenville, N.C., and began my studies toward a degree in economics.
My first year at the school was uneventful. To help with my expenses, I worked in the dining room.
The next year, my activities increased. Afternoons I worked in the parts department of the John Flannagen Buggy Company (Ford Company) for $35 a week---a salary which drew the envy of practically the entire campus and convinced me that the days spent shoving the push broom around the garage at Mount Olive and the nights spent studying the parts department literature surely had not been without benefits.
During that second year I was elected president of the College YMCA, a member of the student government, and staff member of the college yearbook.
Though older heads wagged sadly and commented loudly on the impulsiveness of youth, during my third year of college I calculated my weekly earnings, figured on the maturity of a building and loan investment of 10 years earlier, and proposed to marry the girl who had been my sweetheart since high school.
(Three and one-half years and two children, both boys, later, I still am convinced that for once, at least, the old folks were wrong.)
To be continued...
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