How I got to college
After my junior year in high school, I needed only 1½ credits to graduate. Wingate Junior College (now University) offered summer school, so my mother cashed in my $90 life insurance policy to pay my way.
Miss Mary Jo Dickson taught senior English and in summer oversaw the library. Knowing I wanted to attend college but had no money, she arranged for me to work in the lunchroom and library. She also arranged for me to deliver the afternoon newspaper.
Each morning, I opened the lunchroom at 4 a.m. and started a fire in the wood stove. Ma Spittle, the lunchroom manager, would arrive. I helped cook breakfast and ran the dishwasher before leaving to open the library. At noon, it was back to the lunchroom, then the library until time for my bike route. Then back to the lunchroom for supper and the library until it closed.
I took a full load of freshman classes. Most were easy, but chemistry was impossibly difficult. My professor, a first-year college teacher, did his best. Others may have learned; I never did. Finally, he offered to tutor me. After the first session, he asked, “Now, Richard, do you understand?” “No, sir. I don’t.” “Well, come back tomorrow.” I visited his house trailer almost every day but never passed a single test. Out of kindness (or maybe so he could have a social life), he gave me a passing grade.
I have a Ph.D. today. Miss Dickson, professor Reid and Ma Spittle helped make that possible
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