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Have you ever had a father like mine? He was the king of the neighborhood. He worked three jobs; he farmed, ran the dry cleaners and worked in people’s yards after he got through with the other two jobs.

The first one did not pay the bills. Like many others, he put in eight hours a day. Mother had to come down to the dry cleaners so he could go to the farm. He left before 6 a.m. so he could get an early start, and many times that included me with him. He borrowed the first tractor he drove from Uncle Charlie and he took it back in good condition.

His job at the dry cleaners paid the bills. The cleaning business was left to him by Uncle Ray Robinson. He worked hard and had a thriving business cleaning clothes. He picked up clothes from homes and businesses on Mondays and delivered them back on Wednesdays. Many children got to know him as they grew up. He would drop off at 12 p.m. and head to the farm. You see there wasn’t much time in the summer to take care of his main job at the dry cleaners .

Mainly in the spring time he worked in people’s yards. He came in from the farm, and immediately he started work. His uncle, known as Daddy Ray, gave him a piece of land with lots of flowers, azaleas and dogwood trees on it. He would take many of the plants from Market Street Extension and plant them in other people’s yards and water them. He came home dirty and the first time I ever saw him crying was when the people in Washington had heard that he was going to sell that property on Market Street.

People, don’t get me wrong, we had it tough but only for a little while. We came out of it a little better than most. My father came to Old Ford and they laughed at him, but my dad proved them wrong! He was one of the best farmers in the area!

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

Harold Jr