In my senior year, I discovered I had a gift for public speaking, once I got over my initial fear of facing the class. It really came in handy later when I discovered, much to my surprise, a call to the Christian ministry. Typing in my senior year was another subject that bore fruit for a lifetime. I used typing the year after high school when I was learning to be a bookkeeper, as an Air Force Radio operator, to revise college notes, and all the years of my career to write sermons. I can't think of another course that has been of more practical benefits than touch typing.
As I approached graduation, college seemed to be impossible for me. My family was large and our income was small. I had worked part-time from the age of 12 to pay for my school clothes, school supplies, and spending money. In May of my junior year I enlisted in the Army National Guard battery at Avon Park and began to think of a career in the military. Wauchula Elementary School and Hardee High School had opened to me a wide world of adventure, and I intended to see that world courtesy of the United States Air Force.
On June 3, 1957 I graduated with my class, and the next day I boarded a Trailways bus for the induction center at Jacksonville. As the bus rolled through town, I took one last look at the place that had shaped my life. I had many memories of growing up there—of education, religious training, friends, playing trombone in the band, talent shows, camping trips with the Boy Scouts--and all I could think was, thanks for the memories, Wauchula. I'm off to see the world.
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