I don't know if many of you know the story as to why I did not finish my education at Memphis Tech High School. The pure truth of the matter is I had to quit and go to work. I will try to make this short so as not to take up a lot of your time. My father worked at the refinery there in Memphis at the time. It was called Delta Refinery and the name was later changed to Mapco.

There have been many explosions and even a few deaths that occurred during the time that my father worked there. He too encountered an explosion that sent him to the hospital with third-degree burns over 80% of his body. I was the first one that the police department contacted and I called my brother to collect my mother at work rather than calling her not knowing what condition our father was in. My brother Gary House, also a Tech High School alumni, agreed with me and he went directly to pick up my mother who was a manager at the Crystal on Summer Avenue. I drove like a maniac to get to the Methodist Hospital where the ambulance took my father. When I arrived they rushed me back to the emergency room where my father was, not to make light of the situation, but the only way I could describe how he looked without being completely morbid would be to tell you that he looked like a crispy critter. The doctors were already removing the peeling and blistering skin from his body. I don't know how most people would react to seeing such a sight, but for me it was devastating. I have never been able to get that sight out of my mind all these years.

My father and I were always at odds with each other. I guess it's probably because he saw so much of himself in me. I understand now because I see so much of me in my grandson and we are at odds at times but, going through the experiences that I did with my father, I tried to make the experiences that hurt me so much different so that he will at least remember me fondly. It’s hard when you see them making the same mistakes that you did not to fall into the same pattern that your father took with you, so I fail miserably at times.

I don't know if any of you had ever experienced poverty like we did that entire year. You see a lawyer went to see my father in the hospital and as soon as the company found that out they stopped any payment of workman's comp or salary so we were living completely on why my mother made at Crystal. Up until that time biscuits and gravy was one of my favorite breakfasts, but when you have to eat it for breakfast, lunch and dinner because you can't afford anything else, you lose your taste for what I once considered a breakfast delicacy. So you see, I had no option and I had no one to counsel to other than my family and my brother who was in denial that we were hurting financially and to be fair, he had his own family to worry about it that time. I would've loved to walk across the stage with those that I grew up with but it wasn't to be for me. I'm not bitter because, you see, I have done more than most in my life. God truly blessed me with the things that I have done and the things that I have seen and everything that he is allowed me to learn.

The education that I have now I hold in the highest regard. None of the teachers that I had probably ever knew the struggles that I was going through and the decision that I had to make and I am sure that they would have thought it was the wrong decision and for someone else they might have been right, but it was my path to travel and I thoroughly believe God sent me on that path for a reason. Later in life he blessed me for going through the struggles that I went through and I cannot thank him enough for all he's done for me. There were others in my life that I must thank as well, you see, the teachers that I had all the way from grade school up until my last day of high school where some of the best people I had ever met. They were not just teachers they were my mentors and yes my heroes. There were teachers that did not understand me and believe me I don't blame them. It was only later in life that I grew to understand the problems that made it hard for me to learn and with the help of a loving wife and the knowledge that was bestowed on me by all of the teachers I had, somehow I figured out how to learn and what motivated me and I don't believe without those teachers I would be the person I am today. So “Thank You”! All of you that touched my life and taught me so much!