When I was a young man, my dad had three different cars, and all three were responsible for “teachable moments” in my life. Now, please do not get me wrong, all three were used vehicles that had no back seat and a bar running across the top for him to deliver clothes with. He had taken the seat out to give him a place for his tools to work with on the farm, and he loved all three cars.

The first was a yellow Studebaker that was left to him by my Daddy Jim, and he certainly did not take care of a car! He always got what was left over from Smith-Mills and Daddy Jim took them straight to the back of the fields. Dad used the Studebaker to deliver clothes and was so proud of his Studebaker. My teachable moment in the Studebaker was when I decided to not take school as seriously as my dad thought I should. The day before the last day of school, my dad decided to come to school and take me out of my Geometry class.

Mrs. Godley said, “Harold, he needs to stay and learn.”

My dad said, “Martha, apparently he has not learned anything at all this year,” and out the door we went. I knew something bad was going to happen, and he proved me right. Before we got to the farm my Dad pulled to the side of Highway 17. He told me that since I was not a very good student and obviously did not want an education that he had a job for me! I was not going to take advantage of how hard he and Mother had worked to give me things others did not have. So, for six weeks I worked and lived on the farm. After six weeks, he told me I could come home and go to summer school or stay and work on the farm. His Studebaker never looked so good coming from Old Ford and going to summer school the next day. Lesson learned!

His next car was a green Falcon station wagon that he truly loved. Well, the teachable moment with that car came in the summer also. Jamie Weatherly and I decided to take it for a ride, and while riding on the Whootentown Road (which was all sand) we hit a clump of sand and flipped it onto the railroad tracks. It scared us to death, and we flipped it back over, not knowing about a block in the motor may have been busted and was leaking oil. The next morning at about 6 a.m., I found out what a block was and was jerked from bed. Until I paid for the white Dodge he got from George Parker, I pressed clothes and walked from the dry cleaners to our home every day and he would drive up and say, “How is the asphalt, Big Time?” Another teachable moment!

The Dodge had the next teachable moment. I had come home from college and rode out to the farm to see Dad. It had to be 98 degrees, and he was chasing a sow with a piece of tin. I was sitting on the fence in my college clothes, looking collegiate, when Dad said, “Help me get this sow in.” I informed my Dad that I was too smart to do that and that is when the tin struck me beside the head and knocked me to the ground. Guess in my dad’s eyes I was not too smart to give him some help! Another teachable moment!

In our society today the three lessons my Dad taught me would be considered child abuse but back then they were teachable moments that all parents used, if necessary. Maybe that is what is missing today is teachable moments in a child’s life. If we had more of those moments today our children would be better off and more productive members of our society. They certainly did not hurt me, and those of us that grew up in my time all had “teachable moments,” some more memorable than mine.

They were the best of times with the best of friends and the best of places, Washington, N.C.!

— Harold Jr.

Harold Robinson Jr. is a native of Washington.