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Was the owner of Blimpie's Jerry D at the time?How The ‘American Way of War’ and History 76 Put Me On The Right Path
Indulge me on this one friends..
As I approached my first college graduation in 1980 I had a plan but had no idea whether it was a True Path. In fact, that plan was the same one I had always believed I had — go to law school. I admit that I thought it was a cool idea - after all, Perry Mason and “Paper Chase” were both captivating enough and in those days it seemed no one became president without being a lawyer. And of course anyone could be president so why couldn’t I?
Mostly though, Law School was my Deddy’s idea. Born in 1916 on a #DeepChatham dirt poor farm he never came close to going to college -
As he finished up the 12th grade at #Bonlee School it was 1934 and the depths of The Great Depression. That grade was, by-the-way, a voluntary one and as I understand it his little brother, Pete, a natural-born intuitive mechanic in the mold of his father, Willis Logan Dunn, gladly gave up a year of high school so that Deddy could get the extra one. Pete went on to work - what he could find in those hard times - and Deddy got one more year book education, which by his own account, he cherished. Still, college was out of the question.
But there was a dream there just the same. Deddy had a business partner in #BonleeHardware named Archie Andrews. Mr. Archie had a powerful strong wife in Ms Ina and they raised up a successful son in Ike Andrews - UNC Law Class of 1951 - and a six-term U.S. Congressman. So with that example right down home there were some expectations. When my brother turned towards the numbers and became a CPA that left me to The Law. And I swear that I tried. Though I had been a pretty bad student at Carolina for my first two years - went hog wild frankly - I buckled down for those last two and as per my Deddy’s wishes I managed to get on, provisionally, at Campbell Law School among the Southern Baptists in Buies Creek.
I don’t think I have hated many things as much as that time spent in Harnett County. All my mind, body, and soul wanted from the time I set down there was OUT! And as soon as my first term ended that’s what I did - bugging out back to Chapel Hill and a job as a “sandwich engineer” at Blimpie’s on Franklin Street. And so I became for a time the prodigal. To the deli job I added telephone operator at UNC Administrative Data Processing and then on to a night shift there doing all sorts of not-innovative things with paper - essentially I prepped reports and stuffed envelopes. I took some classes too - floundering about with Journalism and Public Administration.
Eventually I hit upon an idea that SEEMED like it could work - MBA School. Honestly I do not know what I was thinking. I had not a single business course on my Carolina undergraduate transcript. With my parents once again inside my head I took the GRE and sent out my applications and miraculously landed in Boone at Appalachian State. There Late one evening my first semester there I found myself seated at my desk and staring down at hours and hours of Accounting 101 homework. The figures and Accounts Payable and Depreciation seemed to stretch out endlessly before me. At some point exhausted and nigh number blind a promised myself a break - I would take 30 minutes for rest and recuperation - so I pushed myself away from the ledger and grabbed a book.
I’ll always figure that was the moment when my life changed. The book - a tome really - that I chose dated to History 76 in the Fall of 1978, a very popular lecture course at Carolina titled American Military History taught by Dr. James Leutze. The book I opened was Russell Weigley’s ‘The American Way of War: A History of United States Military Strategy and Policy.’ Thumbing through that text, an instant classic of its focus, I drifted away only to look up and find two hours had passed in an instant.
The very next day I executed a maneuver likely impossible today - being accepted into ASU for the MBA meant my foot was in the Graduate School door. So with a bit of paperwork I changed my major from Business to History. To the surprise of the folks in the latter department I was up and running come the following spring semester - no longer in the boggy morass of the MBA but enrolled in ‘European Intellectual History’ with James Winders, ‘The History of Mexico’ with Carl Ross, and ‘The Southern Slave System’ with Richard Haunton. Each of those great teachers, in their own way affirmed the correctness of my decision.
Folks who know me also know that I continued on down the history trail - eventually returning to UNC where I focused on Latin America (Keeping the so-called American South close just the same as my second field of study) and finished my doctorate in 1999, some 16 years after I started into graduate schools. I’m thankful for the economical pricing that I experienced in the UNC System, a thing made possible by virtue of a proper reading of our State Constitution during my years matriculating within it, and the help that my parents gave me once I emerged from the dark cloud of Law School drop-out.
Ultimately though, it was serving people that both kept me out of debt and prolonged my time in school. From Blimpie’s to Bloody Marys I was fortunate all around. At Tijuana Fats, The Hardback Cafe, The Cave, The Dead Mule Club, Local 506, Henry’s Bistro, and The Orange County Socialist Club, service sustained my dream. I was blessed to be in so many cultural Ground Zeros over those years while studying and teaching. I sometimes wonder which profession was the “sideline,” tending bar or the research and writing. Both callings - teaching and tending bar - meant literally learning from thousands of people over the past 40 years. I am sometimes curious about the Law but accounting holds no allure whatsoever - I’m pretty glad I took that break from accounting homework and got in a solid four decades of education instead. Thanks y’all.
Just a great story. If I was called upon to give it a title, I would title it, "Never Give Up on Yourself."How The ‘American Way of War’ and History 76 Put Me On The Right Path
Indulge me on this one friends..
As I approached my first college graduation in 1980 I had a plan but had no idea whether it was a True Path. In fact, that plan was the same one I had always believed I had — go to law school. I admit that I thought it was a cool idea - after all, Perry Mason and “Paper Chase” were both captivating enough and in those days it seemed no one became president without being a lawyer. And of course anyone could be president so why couldn’t I?
Mostly though, Law School was my Deddy’s idea. Born in 1916 on a #DeepChatham dirt poor farm he never came close to going to college -
As he finished up the 12th grade at #Bonlee School it was 1934 and the depths of The Great Depression. That grade was, by-the-way, a voluntary one and as I understand it his little brother, Pete, a natural-born intuitive mechanic in the mold of his father, Willis Logan Dunn, gladly gave up a year of high school so that Deddy could get the extra one. Pete went on to work - what he could find in those hard times - and Deddy got one more year book education, which by his own account, he cherished. Still, college was out of the question.
But there was a dream there just the same. Deddy had a business partner in #BonleeHardware named Archie Andrews. Mr. Archie had a powerful strong wife in Ms Ina and they raised up a successful son in Ike Andrews - UNC Law Class of 1951 - and a six-term U.S. Congressman. So with that example right down home there were some expectations. When my brother turned towards the numbers and became a CPA that left me to The Law. And I swear that I tried. Though I had been a pretty bad student at Carolina for my first two years - went hog wild frankly - I buckled down for those last two and as per my Deddy’s wishes I managed to get on, provisionally, at Campbell Law School among the Southern Baptists in Buies Creek.
I don’t think I have hated many things as much as that time spent in Harnett County. All my mind, body, and soul wanted from the time I set down there was OUT! And as soon as my first term ended that’s what I did - bugging out back to Chapel Hill and a job as a “sandwich engineer” at Blimpie’s on Franklin Street. And so I became for a time the prodigal. To the deli job I added telephone operator at UNC Administrative Data Processing and then on to a night shift there doing all sorts of not-innovative things with paper - essentially I prepped reports and stuffed envelopes. I took some classes too - floundering about with Journalism and Public Administration.
Eventually I hit upon an idea that SEEMED like it could work - MBA School. Honestly I do not know what I was thinking. I had not a single business course on my Carolina undergraduate transcript. With my parents once again inside my head I took the GRE and sent out my applications and miraculously landed in Boone at Appalachian State. There Late one evening my first semester there I found myself seated at my desk and staring down at hours and hours of Accounting 101 homework. The figures and Accounts Payable and Depreciation seemed to stretch out endlessly before me. At some point exhausted and nigh number blind a promised myself a break - I would take 30 minutes for rest and recuperation - so I pushed myself away from the ledger and grabbed a book.
I’ll always figure that was the moment when my life changed. The book - a tome really - that I chose dated to History 76 in the Fall of 1978, a very popular lecture course at Carolina titled American Military History taught by Dr. James Leutze. The book I opened was Russell Weigley’s ‘The American Way of War: A History of United States Military Strategy and Policy.’ Thumbing through that text, an instant classic of its focus, I drifted away only to look up and find two hours had passed in an instant.
The very next day I executed a maneuver likely impossible today - being accepted into ASU for the MBA meant my foot was in the Graduate School door. So with a bit of paperwork I changed my major from Business to History. To the surprise of the folks in the latter department I was up and running come the following spring semester - no longer in the boggy morass of the MBA but enrolled in ‘European Intellectual History’ with James Winders, ‘The History of Mexico’ with Carl Ross, and ‘The Southern Slave System’ with Richard Haunton. Each of those great teachers, in their own way affirmed the correctness of my decision.
Folks who know me also know that I continued on down the history trail - eventually returning to UNC where I focused on Latin America (Keeping the so-called American South close just the same as my second field of study) and finished my doctorate in 1999, some 16 years after I started into graduate schools. I’m thankful for the economical pricing that I experienced in the UNC System, a thing made possible by virtue of a proper reading of our State Constitution during my years matriculating within it, and the help that my parents gave me once I emerged from the dark cloud of Law School drop-out.
Ultimately though, it was serving people that both kept me out of debt and prolonged my time in school. From Blimpie’s to Bloody Marys I was fortunate all around. At Tijuana Fats, The Hardback Cafe, The Cave, The Dead Mule Club, Local 506, Henry’s Bistro, and The Orange County Socialist Club, service sustained my dream. I was blessed to be in so many cultural Ground Zeros over those years while studying and teaching. I sometimes wonder which profession was the “sideline,” tending bar or the research and writing. Both callings - teaching and tending bar - meant literally learning from thousands of people over the past 40 years. I am sometimes curious about the Law but accounting holds no allure whatsoever - I’m pretty glad I took that break from accounting homework and got in a solid four decades of education instead. Thanks y’all.
I had Manager that got me in my profession-grew up in Chapel Hill. He claims he remembers when it was dirt
I remember when the last part of Estes Drive Extension was dirt and ended up at a stop sign on Greensboro St. Part of 54 toward Graham was also dirt at the time.
The Highway part kinda looks like where the beginning of Franklin Street peels off from 15-501; that ridge above and to the right of the overpass is definitely not in the Eastgate location.
Yeah, I saw. Didn't look at the signs closely enough.
Is that the east side of Fowler's. It looks about right and the graffiti suggests it.
