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Logan Saunders 0:00
I'm Logan Saunders here with Jim Porther's interview for the Country Dosctor Museum interview. Where did you like grow up and how was the area you grew up in?

Jim Porthers 0:10
I grew up in Wilson, North Carolina. Stayed there, complete young life in North Carolina stayed in the same house for 12 years. Then my mom and dad bought a house. Over behind the stadium, we moved there and when I got through with school wanted to be a highway patrolman. And I knew that you could go take a Marine Corps, and they would take in a heartbeat when you got out. So went in, went in the Marine Corps 40 MPs. And I found out that them guys are tough I said I don't want no more of this. Then I transfered to the [Inaudible] Marine Corps stayed in Marine Corps, right on up to 1963. And I got out in 1963, and went to work in Raleigh, North Carolina, with a critical machine awareness block. And I worked for them for seven years. And then I left him and went to work for a company called. What was it? What it was called Machine [Inaudible] Company. And they changed their name to RC33. And that's what they are today. So that's where I grew up. What I did while I was growing up, during the 1950s I went to Marine Corps.

Logan Saunders 1:44
Alright. As you think back about your life, and like, look, I grew up in a rural area, what are some of the challenges you or maybe a family member had to face? And like even people that when they're facing these challenges, help them through it, such as like friends, families, neighbors, church or maybe healthcare professionals?

Jim Porthers 2:02
Well, this is a strange story. Your mom she influenced me a whole lot in my life. Even though as a grown man, she influenced me and my wife introduced me. Your dad was 10 years ago. He got asphyxiated by carbon dioxide. They had pronounced him brain dead. So he took him to Duke and they put him in what they call compression chamber. And they put him in there for three or four days. That was post equalizes, brought him back up. But they said it wasn't working. So they just took him out of that. And I've never seen anybody pray as hard as your mom prayed. And my wife prayed for her two. And he was in that thing for about four days. And then all of a sudden it took about that's it. He's not going to make it. This new day to leave him in there. He's not going to make it. They took him out. While he was at he had a brother. There were some boys. He had a brother that slapped him on the foot. He said, You sorry rascal? Why did you do this? And Steve looked at him says, You don't give a foot no more? Everbody in there went wild, even your mom She just broke down to tears. And because she had prayed real hard and I admire her for her pray at night she did. And after he got out of the chamber, he got well, he had to stay in rehab for a while. But you could tell he became stronger, stronger, stronger, and his faith, his family helped him through all this. Today, you will never know anything happened to him. He is just as strong justa sharp mind as he had before did and he was a lieutenant with the Nash County Sherrif Department. But he did go back to work. And when he did that, he just said he had enough. So he retired. And he works on cars and stuff like that. And I admire him for that. He's pretty smart. I've never seen anything he can't do. And I'm amazed at him. I'm amazed at your wife, his wife as she prayed for and how they prayed through this time. And I knew strong Christian people because only the end God could have pulled him out of what he was.

Logan Saunders 4:46
So you'd say did like the main thing that helped him get through that would be like the faith and like the support of his friends and family.

Jim Porthers 4:53
No doubt about it.

Logan Saunders 4:57
Going back to the maybe like you young young life when you're Growing up like like your grade school years or middle school years, what were some of the like the what was kind of life like back then maybe challenges you face in?

Jim Porthers 5:11
Then, you didn't have much. My mom and dad. My dad was a preacher. He didn't make much money at preaching. What they do that every time he went into church is Sarah was what they took. They gave what he took that night $5 We've got a good night. So he didn't have much money. And he worked for a company called Wilson Furniture Company. He sold furniture, and I would go ride with him sometime. And see how he operated, how he sold to those people. And he amazed me and how he could sell. He was just as smooth as it could be in talking with him. He sold a lot, a lot of stuff or a truck. And he delivered that stuff to the people. And he had he would go back to store Kirby back to store. Then he would take me home. Then he would come home that late that afternoon. And I was standing at the yard waiting for him and I'd run out there and see it in a jump on the running board at a truck, trucks used to have a running board on it and board on a truck. I would slip off and fall on that truck he run over me six times. Till doctor told father said can't you teach this boy to stay up from under in his truck. He told me said Jim, you're not gonna come on my truck no more. Just leave it alone. But I used to greet him every day.

Logan Saunders 6:56
Um, as you got kind of into like your teenage years, or you're like, just getting out of high school years. I know you said you entered the Marine Corps. But like what were the what was kind of the main thing going on in your life right now?

Jim Porthers 7:08
I loved football. I ate and breathed football, and I was good. The University of North Carolina Jim Tatum, who was a coach came to our school and Jack Tillery, Henry Taylor, all three of us were linebackers. Well, they took all three of us to go to the University of North Carolina for linebacker, well, he retailer and [Inaudible] they took I took but before I get to play the first game for I was playing in a high school game. To last high school game we go play and I got blindsided by three of the boys from Goldsborogh they had a vendetta against me because I hurt one of their boys the year before know, so they were going to get him. They hit me so hard to spit my head right open the face guard was my face. We didn't have all the smoke. I was told then by Jim Tatum, the coach, they couldn't take me because if I had another concussion like that, it will kill me. So he would take the risk from me. So [Inaudible]. So I had to fall back on something. I said, okay, I hear in the Marine Corps, if you go to Marine Corps and take the MP class, you come out, you naturally be an MP. And that's a good thing for you when you come out, you can be a Highway Patrolman it will really ended and I found out I didn't want to do that, half the time you're sitting around the other half you're out in the rain at letting people in and out of the gate. So I went into Marine Corps, the regular Marine Corps, and became a Sergeant to supply companies. And that was a good time of my life, I enjoyed every minute or so that's what I did.

Logan Saunders 9:34
How long like how many years did you spend in the Marine Corps?

Jim Porthers 9:37
Six years.

Logan Saunders 9:41
Once you got out of the Marine Corps, what were like what was what did you go to them? Like where did you go straight into a workforce or did you take time or where did you go from there?

Jim Porthers 9:49
No, I went straight into workforce I had to because I've gotten married while in the Marine Corps and but I was ready to get out. My wife was expecting. And I said I gotta get a job. I can't be in here no more. So got out. And I went to work for a company called Manushape Machine and Welding. And they were based in Raleigh. And I worked for them for six years. Then I moved to Rocky Mount. They wanted me to take over two stores in Rocky Mount, and one in Greenville, managing so that's what I did. Then after I left them a company called RC33. They want me to go to work with them selling their stuff, which is welding supplies. And I did that and then when I was called to a company called Brasswood Equipment Company and they needed a saleman. And I went in, I went in one day, and the owner came up to me and said I want to talk to you visit, II said, Okay, is it wish you'd like to change jobs? says I don't know what do you got. He offered me a great big, raising in my plate. And he wanted me to sell [Inaudible]. So I went in and went to work with him. And the best move I've ever made in my life. I work with that man for 26 years. He was a great boss. He never told me one thing to do. He never bothered me the whole time I was in. He did care. What I did as long as I was making him the kind of money. Thank you, me. So I was selling. I could sell. And I took it after my dad everybody said I took that after my dad So I work with Brasswood Equipment Company for 26 years until I retired.

Was there anybody that when you were growing up like earlier on in your life that they face a challenge or like a like a tragic incident? Maybe and then you know what helped them get through that?

Yeah. When we were growing up. You didn't have the stuff they have nowadays. You had to make do with what you had. One of the boys it was in my group do we hung around with the boy has got a 44, it was something else to have a 44. Another boy had a Henry, I don't know if you know what a Henry J was but Henry J was a real small car. So they they taught each other how to race. So we went out on Lake Road in Wilson in that folder for any day they put us off. We couldn't go with them. They took off. And all of a sudden that 44 coming back and the man told us, You better come with us, Henry has hit an embankment and the car flipped. A we can't find Walter. So we all went down and we found him fifty foot from the car laying in the middle of the road. When that happened, his sister she come down and he was just all broken up. And I don't blame her I would be too. And she told us she says you boys. Just stick with me. Help me through this. And I'll be alright. So we never let her down. All of us it was there that night would go visit her. Stay with her talk with her with her mom. And so that was something that was special for me to get to know somebody else that close and it would never happened if they didn't have that accident that night.

Logan Saunders 14:07
Alright, I think that's it. Thank you