Of North Carolina Mutual Life Insurance Company. But I tried after the
Courier, I tried some other little jobs. I started
doing some work as a school photographer, and then I sold school jewelry
to see what I could do to make some money. Then some friends from the
North Carolina College came to me one day and said, ‘We'd like to have
you to come work with us.’ I said, ‘Well, it doesn't look like it
because you haven't made me an offer.’ So then they were testing me and
I was testing them. So I said, ‘You make me an offer.’ They said, ‘Well,
the reason why we haven't made you an offer is because what we have to
offer now is’—[interruption]. They said, ‘The reason we didn't make you an offer is because
what we have to offer you now is really small, but we can guarantee you
that it will grow fast as soon as we can get our [unknown]
budget.’ So I said, ‘Bring, let's look at it.’ They didn't know that I
was anxious to go. I had been piddling around trying to find something
to do. So they brought me the contract, and I said to them, I said,
‘Well, I can see why you were embarrassed with this.’ But I was happy
that I could, I didn't tell. So I took the job, and of course, they kept
the promise that each year the salary went up.
You asked me about Ford. We were having our celebration. It was 1975, the
anniversary. We started in 1925. So in '75, that would be fifty years,
wouldn't it? That was our fiftieth anniversary as a college, university.
So the president asked me one day (Reverend?) Whiting. Albert N. Whiting
was president, chancellor. He was the last president and first
chancellor. He asked me said, ‘Well, who do you think we ought to get to
speak for our anniversary?’ I said, ‘Get the president.’ He said, ‘The
President, what president?’ I said, ‘We don't have but one that I know
of. That's President Ford.’ So he said, ‘You think we can get him.’ I
said, ‘I can get him.’ I wasn't too sure, but I
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thought I could. That was because of my friendship with Richard Nixon.
So I told him I said, ‘Now, I will do this if you will swear secrecy.’ I
said, ‘Because if I fail, I wouldn't want people to know that I had
failed.’ He said, ‘Yeah, okay.’ He didn't think I would get it either.
So one day he got a letter saying that sorry the president couldn't come
and so forth. Correspondence that he was getting was different from the
correspondence that I was getting. So one day I got a telephone call
said, ‘You're lucky.’ I said, ‘What do you mean?’ He said, ‘The
President's coming and the advance team is coming in there.’ The advance
team [unknown]. ‘But you can't tell anybody.’ I said,
‘I've got to tell my chancellor.’ They said, ‘You can't tell anybody,
nobody.’ So I lived right across the street from the school. So I went
home, and I had to tell my wife. I had to tell somebody. And they said I
couldn't tell the chancellor. ‘Do you think I should?’ She said, ‘Hell
no. If they said no, don't tell anybody. Don't tell anybody.’ So they
were coming in on the two or three days, the advance team to look around
to see where anybody could get shot and all.