Ambition, a Fiddle and Too Much Knowledge
My father, Charles Junior, his brother Carl and sister Mary Francis were born in a rented parsonage in Kernersville, North Carolina, where their father, Charles Senior, served as principal of a secondary school.
After Charles Senior and his wife Mary built their home on Alamance Church Road on land given them by Charles Senior’s father, four more siblings were born, all delivered on the kitchen table of their new home.
This farm home also fostered love of learning, music and exploration. The six children who reached adulthood all went on for higher education, as did all of their children.
At age 9, Charles Junior treasured the rides with his Papa to and from the school where Charles Senior was principal. My father had seized upon the ambition of playing a fiddle and would not let go of it, but violin lessons could not be arranged at his father’s campus.
So he chose to switch to a school with a violin teacher, knowing that Gillespie Park School would mean a daily one-mile walk each way.
To obtain his instrument, Charles Junior set out to sell sufficient issues of Progressive Farmer magazine to earn the violin prize pictured on the inside back cover. The other prizes — bicycle, bat and mitt, telescope, etc. — were of lesser interest.
With subscription sheet and a current issue of the magazine in hand and his sales spiel ready, Charles Junior eagerly approached doors of family friends and bare acquaintances.
Just about two hundred paces beyond Gillespie Park School was the home of Bulah and Sample Glass, relatives of unspecified distance. After several knocks, Bulah opened the door.
“What d’ya want?” “Hello, Aunt Bulah. I’m selling Progressive Farmer magazine and I think Uncle Sample would really like it.”
“Why would he want that?”
“Progressive Farmer has all the up-to-date information on productive practices, with tips on how to improve yields and quality and marketing …. ”
Bulah saved him his next breath. “Why, the old fool knows more now than he’ll ever use!”
Dad related this to me more than once, chuckling over the idea that knowledge had to be put to use in order to be of value.
He loved and played his “fiddles” until his late 80s, when his fingers began to disappoint him.
Chip Sharpe (Charles Cleveland Sharpe III), 80, moved from North Carolina to Arcata in 1973, and lives with his wife, Celestine Armenta, in Bayside. Two of their sons now cherish violins that his dad once played.
