The Rising Fortunes of the Carver Family
After being hired to sell carpet at Culver Rug Company on a 6% commission and no salary, Dad excelled. Within two years, he had captured the market in Hilton Head, South Carolina during its rapid growth. Almost all the carpet being installed he sold. He was earning more money than the rest of Culver Rug Company combined.
A different conversation now took place between my dad and Earle Culver:
- Become a Vice President at Culver Rug Company;
- Receive 25% equity in the company. You have to sell the equity back at market value when you retire; and,
- Moved to a salary abet a very high salary. I don’t know if there was a commission component or the 25% equity served as the commission component.
My father seriously debated accepting the offer. If he left Culver Rug Company, the new business at Hilton Head would follow him. If he accepted the offer, he would be tied to Culver Rug Company and have greater income stability but less performance pay. In the end, he decided to accept the offer.
I would note that Earle Culver and his son Eddie treated my dad as a member of their family. In return, my dad opened new Culver Rug Company stores in Savannah, Hilton Head, South Carolina, Amelia Island, Florida and Kiawah Island, South Carolina. Eddie was especially gracious towards the end of my father’s life continuing to pay him full salary and benefits as he struggled with health concerns that would eventually kill him. I remain very grateful for Eddie and how Culver Rug Company treated my father throughout his life.
The family moved from lower middle class to upper class overnight. My siblings Andrea, Mark, and Kimberly would never know of our days in the lower middle class. Not that our childhoods were bad – we were quite happy. But membership in the German Country Club and later with the Savannah Country Club would follow. A ski boat, 28 foot cabin cruiser, a Tybee Island beach house, and a Amelia Island Plantation condominium also followed during my teenage years.
Curt and High School
High school is a bit different than elementary/middle school. While elementary school was most excellent, high school was better. I was fortunate enough to attend Benedictine Military High School. Other than being raised in an era where paddling was still in vogue, BC proved both challenging and fun. Same small classes now in ability groups. BC had lots of clubs and social opportunities which led me to join an eclectic mix of clubs including the oceanography club, radio club, and yearbook staff as a photographer. I learned a great deal and was well prepared for West Point based on the exceptional educators at BC like Mt Varnadoe, Father Bertrand, Mario, Wilfred, and Sister Johanna.
Sometimes high school is something where you get together every ten years to see how much everyone has gained weight. BC has proven different. They brand themselves as “The 400” – a band of brothers. This branding is accurate. I have a circle of close friends who remain friends to this day with a broader circle of classmates I can see at numerous class events throughout the year. I am looking forward to retirement and the increased ability to join monthly lunches, alumni events, and an occasional high school football game.
““Have no fear / these are nowhere near the best years of your life.”
Brad Paisley, Letter to Me
Eileen and I had the opportunity to attend a Brad Paisley concert and he noted that if high school is the highpoint of your life, you had a very short or very sad life. High school was a continuation of my journey with friends and habits of the mind acquired. Like Nativity, it was part of my foundation that I continue to build upon. As for the best years of my life – I think they are still ahead of me.
Teenage Sports
With the family’s additional income, I learned golf and tennis. Golf was learned at the Daffin Park. They only had right handed clubs so I learned right handed. My dad bought me used women’s left handed clubs so I play cross-handed with left handed clubs and a right handed grip. In the early days, we would play at Bacon Park but this soon expanded to other golf courses in Savannah, Hilton Head, and Amelia Island. Dad quickly became much better than me but I narrowed the gap in my senior high school year by playing much more golf than he could.
Corey and I played a good bit of tennis as well either in singles or doubles matches. He had the advantage in that he was more athletic than I. I had the advantage that I was left handed and most folks served into my forehand. It evened out to being competitive matches. We never had any formal lessons but would find an open court on Wilmington Island and play for hours.
Corey and I would play soccer and basketball as well. I don’t think I was ever even with Corey in soccer but I did enjoy the sport and would play for the rest of my life. As for basketball, I was better than him for a while and then he consistently beat me.
Once we got to high school, I would spend time at drill team and Corey would play soccer or basketball depending on the season. During my senior year, the drill team was nationally ranked and proved to be a less travelled path to a BC athletic jacket. I came in 3rd in an individual state competition much to the surprise of my teammates and myself. You can watch a video of the drill team if you are so inclined to watch teenagers throw M1903 Springfield rifles at each other. I was center of the middle column.
Carver Combat Skiing
I would be remiss if I did not mention the local legend of skiing with the Carvers. It was very much a combat sport. We could swim at three, ski at a young age, and If you were silly enough to get outside the wake, well there are consequences. Let me give you a couple of vignettes.
At one point, Father David was skiing with us over in Turner’s Creek. The channel was narrow, the water was flat and the boat was at a comfortable 35 miles an hour. Corey was driving the ski boat and I was the spotter. I noted that Father David was outside the wake on the left side and Corey immediately spun the steering wheel as hard as he could to the right. The boat slid doing a 360 degree turn and Father David accelerated from 35 miles an hour to more than 50 miles an hour while experiencing tremendous centrifugal force. While holding on for dear life, Father David noticed that the channel width was less than the length of the ski rope and he was going into the marsh at a speed in excess of 50 miles an hour. He tried to sit, uttered an obscenity, and went into the marsh at speed.
We skied in many narrow channels around Wilmington Island and a favorite trick was to slide the boat around a bank corner and pull the skier across land. As a youth, I learned how much land I could jump over, how much land I could ski over, and how shallow the water could be and I continue to ski.
In another outing again with Father David, Corey took him out to Wassaw Sound noting the large number of hammerhead sharks in the sound. I suspect he left out of the story that almost all of them are small bonehead sharks. Father David skied until he was ready to stop and dropped off in the water. Corey refused to pick him up for two hours.
Curt and Jobs
We were raised with chores and working. Sometimes this was yardwork and given the size of our yard, it took a day to cut, another day to rake, and a third to do the shrubbery. We were pushing lawnmowers and not riding anything. The walkways needed to be swept, carpets vacuumed, and trash emptied. Dad needed assistants when building a floating dock, repairing the dock, fixing the well or other plumbing related tasks, electrical work, roofing work, or building storm walls. The main room in the house used to be a car port. My dad and I converted it to a room with a lot of brick work. I keenly remember how cold I was inside a floating dock in November as I worked with my dad to repair the dock. Chores and work were just a part of being a member of the family.
This included cutting and raking the grass of our neighbors. They would hire my brother Corey and I after months of buildup for $75. The one exception was our neighbor Mrs. Greenfield for whom we would reluctantly do two days of work for $35. In addition to the tasks listed above, we also worked additional jobs.
Dodging Bowling Balls
My first external paying job was setting up pins in a bowling alley at the German Country Club. Young boys would stand in-between two lanes and after the bowling ball struck the pins, leap into the lane to return the ball, push a lever with your foot, and race to slide the pins in place. The bowler would sometimes and sometimes not wait for you to complete the task before a 16 pound ball was launched. You worked for tips only which had to be declared as income for Social Security. While hazardous, it was quite a lucrative job as you typically picked up eight tips after three rounds of bowling. I was never hit by a ball but it did come close a couple of times. You had to hustle. I would used my annual wages from this job to buy a Suzuki TC100 when I was twelve. My adventures on the motorcycle are detailed below. As an adult, I have realized that my mom, with four kids, had to drive me to work everyday I worked.
Piggly Wiggly Bagger
My second job was as a bagger at Piggly Wiggly at Wilmington Island. This role included bagging, carrying groceries outside and loading them into a car for an occasional tip, and mopping the floors when the grocery store closed. I became very fast at bagging groceries which some shoppers appreciated and others did not. My hours varied which means they were sometimes good and sometimes not so good. There came a point where it was time for my third and last job as a teenager.
Assistant Shop Manager
My third and final job as a teenager was as the Assistant Shop Manager at Culver Rug Company. I was the assistant shop manager because there was a shop manager and there were only two employees in shop – me and him. I learned to move, cut, and store carpet. I definitely learned that I did not want to do this for the rest of my life.
In retrospect, I have been working and paying taxes since 1972. I am looking forward to some day not working but it appears I will still be paying taxes.
Curt and his Motorcycle
After working for more than a year dodging bowling balls, I had saved enough money to buy a motorcycle. My dad offered to pay for the motorcycle fully if I would wait a year. In retrospect, I should have taken the deal and invested my money. Driving a motorcycle that can go 60 miles an hour when you are 12 was a bit dangerous so my dad had a point. But I didn’t take the deal and I really enjoyed that motorcycle. My best friend Joey got a motorcycle as well so we would team up and enjoy the beauty of a very rural Wilmington Island. The police did not care that we did not have a street license as we were local kids that they knew. They also knew we were just using the roads to get offroad.
There is a sense of freedom while on a motorcycle. Well, that is not true in the rain or if you are eating bugs at 50 miles an hour. But otherwise, there is nothing like the freedom of a motorcycle. Everyday I was on the motorcycle after school learning to jump, slide, spin out and take care of a motorcycle.
Given how undisciplined the roads are these days, it is unlikely that I will own a motorcycle again but I very much enjoyed it as a teenager.
Curt and Dating
Like many others, I was fairly oblivious on to how to date but I did slowly learn and get better at it. Perhaps the most important word in the previous sentence was slowly. I did start relatively early in the 6th grade. What I was not oblivious to was who I was looking for. I was looking for someone to spend my life with. Someone who I could grow old with. Thus, there were many first dates and nothing serious. There were two who wanted to go further but they were not the right fit for me. One was in my elementary school and one my sister Kym was insistent I date. I liked both but they were not the right fit. I learned how to say no graciously.
In high school, my 2nd cousin Lori (Blakewood) Ogden decided that I would be a good date for all her friends who had never been on a date. Like ever. This became apparent when the young lady’s parents took pictures for 30 minutes. Also apparently, Lori had a never-ending supply of girlfriends in this condition. At some point, probably very slowly, I caught on and there were no more dates coordinated by Lori. That would change when Lori and her new best friend crashed a party at my house in December 1979. You can learn more in Courting Eileen.