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A Life Changing Walk Across the UNC Campus
by Charly Mann
Many of us have life changing moments that we look back on with fondness because they set us on the path for the good things we subsequently achieved. In my case, the entire trajectory of my life was altered by one moment of clarity on a walk across the UNC campus in the summer of 1965 when I was 15. Up to that time I had little interest in school and was getting by with a C- average. As I made my way through the arboretum for some inexplicable reason I realized I passionately wanted to attend this University in three years.
UNC Arboretum trail where I started my walk across the campus
Since I was 14, I had essentially been living alone. My mother and two sisters had moved to California, and I had a room in attic of my father's house on Whitehead Circle. He was rarely around in those days, because he often away attending a conference or spending time with his girlfriends. He would leave me for a week or two with a well stocked refrigerator and $20. I always promptly spent the money on records at Kemp's Record Store and one large takeout pizza from the Zoom-Zoom, leaving me penniless until my Dad returned.
Inspring coed in the Coker Aboretum
I enjoyed my freedom and loved to hitch-hike each day to Durham where I attended the 8th , 9th, and 10th grade. I believed I was not academically gifted because I had always been at the bottom of my classes. As I passed by the Old Well and South Building that day I knew I would have to radically change if I wanted to be a student here. I then noticed a couple of coeds sprawled out on the grass on Polk Place and realized that by attending this great institution they had the world at their fingertips and I became determined to do the same.
By the time I passed Wilson Library I knew my life had totally changed and that I was unafraid of the difficult challenges that faced me in my quest. I had the courage and determination to do whatever it took to achieve my goal.
UNC coeds with the world at their fingertips
From that time on I maintained straight As throughout high school and was all honors classes my junior and senior years. When I graduated from high school my SAT scores, grades, and extra-curricular achievements afforded me the opportunity to attend almost any college, but there was only one choice for me.
Now as I sit back and reflect on that walk, I shake my head in wonderment about how great my life has been since that time.
Comments:
Mike Wilson
1:09 PM Mon 11/9/2009
I take it the photos of coeds in your piece are from today and not 1965, but I can easily understand why UNC coeds of any era might inspire you.
Charles Gant
4:18 PM Sun 11/8/2009
I have long found walking around the main part of the University of North Carolina campus to be an uplifting experience.
M Caldwell
11:45 AM Sun 11/8/2009
I think almost anyone would be inspired by your story and photos. I'm sending this link to my grandson who needs to turn his grades around like you did.
Check out our other website:
Investment strategies and advice about Apple Inc. and related technology companies by Charly Mann. www.appleinvesting.com
Investment strategies and advice about Apple Inc. and related technology companies by Charly Mann. www.appleinvesting.com
Chapel Hill is located on a hill whose only distinguishing feature in the 18th century was a small chapel on top called New Hope Chapel. This church was built in 1752 and is currently the location of The Carolina Inn. The town was founded in 1819, and chartered in 1851.
What is it that binds us to this place as to no other? It is not the well or the bell or the stone walls. or the crisp October nights. No, our love for this place is based upon the fact that it is as it was meant to be, The University of the People.
-- Charles Kuralt
Dark Side of the Hill -- Pink Floyd, the creators of the most popular album in history, Dark Side of the Moon, took the second half of their name from Floyd Council, a Chapel Hill native, and great blues singer and guitarist. He once belonged to a group called "The Chapel Hillbillies".
Check out Charly Mann's other website:
Oklahoma Birds and Butterflies
http://oklahomabirdsandbutterflies.com
Oklahoma Birds and Butterflies
http://oklahomabirdsandbutterflies.com
There would probably be no Chapel Hill if the University of North Carolina Board of Trustees in 1793 had not chosen land across from New Hope Chapel for the location of the university. By 1800 there were about 100 people living in thirty houses surrounding the campus.
The University North Carolina's first student was Hinton James, who enrolled in February, 1795. There is now a dormitory on the campus named in his honor.
The University of North Carolina was closed from 1870 to 1875 because of lack of state funding.
William Ackland left his art collection and $1.25 million to Duke University in 1940 on the condition that he would be buried in the art museum that the University was to build with his bequest. Duke rejected this condition even though members of the Duke Family are buried in Duke Chapel. What followed was a long and acrimonious legal battle between Ackland relatives who now wanted the inheritance, Rollins College, and the University of North Carolina, each attempting to receive the funds. The case went all the way to the United States Supreme Court, and in 1949 UNC was awarded the money for the museum. Ackland is buried near the museum's entrance. When the museum first opened, in the early sixties, there were rumors that his remains were leaking out of the mausoleum.
The official name of the Arboretum on the University of North Carolina campus is the Coker Arboretum. It is named after Dr. William Cocker, the University's first botany professor. It occupies a little more than five acres. It was founded in 1903.
Chapel Hill's main street has always been called Franklin Street. It was named after Benjamin Franklin in the early 1790s.
Chapel Hill High School and Chapel Hill Junior High were on Franklin Street in the same location as University Square until the mid 1960s.
The Colonial Drug Store at 450 West Franklin Street was owned and operated by John Carswell. It was famous for a fresh-squeezed carbonated orange beverage called a "Big O". In the early 1970s, I managed the Record and Tape Center next door, and must have had over 100 of those drinks. The Colonial Drug Store closed in 1996.
Sutton's Drugstore, which opened in 1923, has one of the last soda fountains in the South. It is one of the few businesses remaining on Franklin Street that was in operation when I was growing up in the 1950s.
Future President Gerald Ford lived in Chapel Hill twice. First when he was 24, in 1938, he took a law couse in summer school at UNC. He lived in the Carr Building, which was a law school dormitory. At the same time, Richard Nixon, the man he served under as Vice President, was attending law school at Duke. In 1942, Ford returned to Chapel Hill to attend the U.S. Navy's Pre-Flight School training program. He lived in a rental house on Hidden Hills Drive.
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The most important predictor of success is determination. It is much more important than intelligence. Your story tells when you learned determination; which is the deciding factor for having a great life for most of us.