A College Christmas Story

Photo courtesy East Carolina University Digital Records Collection

     
My Uncle Joshua "Muff" Potter, Jr. has always been a storyteller.  At family gatherings he is always educating us about the rules of a football game or telling us stories about something that happened in his life.  Stories about growing up on the family farm, leaving Lowland to go off to college, playing baseball and even tales of "thumbing" from Bayboro to the Island at night.  I recently asked if he would share a Christmas story and he generously offered.  Here is his story about his freshman year at East Carolina University.

     In August of 1963, I made the 60 mile journey from Goose Creek Island to the "big city" of Greenville to begin my studies at East Carolina College (.it changed to East Carolina University my senior year in 1967).  Sure, I had been to Greenville many times with Daddy when he went to the tobacco warehouses, but this was the first time I had ever been away from home.  I had settled in to my studies and before I knew it, the first quarter had come to an end.  I remember returning home to Lowland that first Christmas I was away at college.  I came home very discouraged and embarrassed.  I had failed English.
     During that first quarter, I had maintained grades in the low 80's.  That was nothing to brag about but I was passing comfortably.  My freshman year the East Carolina College English Department implemented what was called the "departmental theme".  In order to be able to take the final exam in English class, one had to pass the theme.  I will never forget it for two reasons.  First of all, for the impact it made on me.  Secondly, it was on the day that President John F. Kennedy was assassinated - November 22, 1963.
     I had struggled all through the night writing the theme in what was called a little "blue book."  It turned out to truly be a "blue book" for me, because when my paper had been graded by three professors outside of the English Department, I had gotten a failing grade.  Therefore, I could not take the final exam and thus failed the course. To say the least, I was devastated.
     I came home for the Christmas holiday break. I had to tell Mama and Daddy what had happened.  To me it was unfair to base passing or failing a course on one theme, especially after having passing grades for the whole quarter.  I was so upset that I told them that I did not want to return to East Carolina College.  If that was the way college worked I was ready to quit.
     To my surprise, Daddy told me that it was okay to quit....if that was what I wanted to do.  To this day I do not know whether he was seeing how I would react or whether he thought he would be saving money by me returning home to help on the farm.  Daddy did say that I would have to work on the farm with him if I stayed home.
      I pondered what he had said and throughout the holiday break, I thought of all the manual labor that kept a small farm going. I thought about things like working in tobacco, from the plant beds to transplanting, to chopping, to poisoning, to cultivating, to topping, to suckering, to pulling sand lugs and tips, to working in dry tobacco.  All these labor intensive jobs came to mind.  I even thought of weeding the soy beans of "cuckle burrs".  I also thought of having to use that back breaking bush axe to shrub the ditches.  So after some serious thought over the holidays and thinking about the consequences for quitting school, guess what?  I found myself hitching that ride back to Greenville to begin the next quarter at East Carolina College.
      In retrospect, I am so thankful that I did.  Some wonderful things happened to me as a result of continuing my education.  One is that I got a chance to play college baseball.  But greatest thing is that a fellow baseball team mate was instrumental in leading me to the Lord.  As a result of that, I met a wonderful Christian woman.  The love of my life, my wife, friend and companion, Alberta Jenkins Potter.  I have been truly blessed because of that one turning point in my life. 

Wishing you all a very blessed Merry Christmas!

Joshua "Muff" Potter, Jr.