WALKER: Ten things I didn't want to do

Coming up soon, if all goes well, will be my "2015 Book Report." I already have 30 books read in 2015, and from which to report. This time, in addition to favorites, I might report on some reads that I did not like and why I finished them. With that in mind, today I'm thinking about some other things I didn't like. Number 10 was the worst.

10. Delivering feed on the feed truck with Joe Hodges. Daddy had a one-half interest in a Purina feed store. In the summers I worked with Joe Hodges and twice a week we loaded feed to deliver to chicken farmers and others. Have you ever been in a chicken house in July when it was 100 degrees? Couple the odor with the burden (I weighed about 135 pounds, the sacks of feed 100 pounds), and you will begin to understand.

9. Mowing grass for the public. I was about 13 or 14. I had four or five customers. I did have a Briggs and Stratton power mower (not self-propelled) and frequently, it did not work properly. You cut it off by pressing a little metal strip on the spark plug. I got shocked a lot. My customers let their grass get very high (saving money, you know) before they engaged me. I got paid $3 to $5 a yard.

8. Picking up trash in the front yard. We lived at the corner of Swift and Third streets in Perry. People walked to town along Swift Street and some threw their trash in our yard. Daddy told me to pick up the trash. I didn't want to, so I picked it up and hid it under some leaves in the flower bed. Daddy found it. I got a good spanking. I deserved a spanking. I was probably about 12 years old.

7. Assisting the oiler at Texas Steel Company in 1963. I was 21 years old. I had never been in a steel mill (or hardly any kind of a factory) before. The first Saturday I worked there, I had to go up on one of those overhead cranes that picked up the cradles of molten steel and help the "oiler" oil the crane. I was petrified. I can still hear him saying, "Don't touch that, it's 100,000 volts." I survived, but I do believe this stunted my growth.

6. Math, chemistry, calculus, physics. If you happen to be left brained (or right brained) to be good in science, technology, engineering and math, I am the opposite. I can do arithmetic in my head, but beyond that, I was and am generally lost in these other subjects. That's one reason I am a lawyer.

5. Taking piano lessons from Miss Willie Ryals. The only thing I ever learned was "Here we go, up a row, to a birthday party." I must have been 10 years old or so when I finally was allowed to give it up. We didn't have a piano. It's hard to practice on the kitchen table. I do distinctly remember the sweet smell of cherry cough drops that Miss Willie sucked.

4. Busting out a concrete floor with Bobby Jones. Let's go back to Texas Steel. By then, I may have weighed 145 pounds. Jones weighed less. They gave us a 50 pound jackhammer and told us to "bust out" a 4-inch thick concrete floor and haul off the pieces. Have you ever used a jackhammer? This was one of the longest days in my life. We probably finished about one-fourth of a 1,200 square foot floor.

3. Daddy decided I needed to work in the parts department at Gray-Walker Tractor Company. The farmers would come in and say something like this: "I need that little grease fitting that goes on the back axel of my WD 45 Allis-Chalmers Tractor. 1961, I think." I would look in the book of drawings that some engineers drew. I don't think I ever found one part.

2. Getting a dead dog out from under our house on Swift Street. The odor solved the riddle of where the dog was. I had to crawl under the house with a rake or a hoe and get him out. It was awful. I still vividly remember it, and it was probably more than 60 years ago.

1. Picking cotton. I tried, but I never could pick much. It was hot. I was thirsty. One day I picked 27 pounds (I went to the bullis vines). I got my rear end branded that night. One good thing though, I learned lots from listening intently to the others that picked with me as they talked and sang. I won't write about what I learned, but it was very beneficial. Very.

Well, let me close. And there is no better way than to use the last line in my lament about picking cotton. All of this "stuff" that I disliked so much taught me a great deal and has been helpful as I have gone through this wonderful thing called life.

Larry Walker is a practicing attorney in Perry. He served 32 years in the Georgia General Assembly and presently serves on the University System of Georgia Board of Regents. Email: lwalker@whgmlaw.com.

This story was originally published November 28, 2015 at 9:11 PM with the headline "WALKER: Ten things I didn't want to do ."