Quote of the Day | August 25, 2008: Good Books to Read, Fish to Catch. . . .

From Charles Kuralt's 1990 A Life on the Road:

I had to revise my conception of the people who lived in the country, too. To judge from the news of the day, they were bitterly divided along racial or political lines, contentious and angry. But the people I actually met seemed neighborly and humane.

In Westerville, Ohio, Professor John Franklin Smith taught speech and dramatics at Otterbein College until he reached the mandatory retirement age of seventy.

"I loved my students," he said, "and I think they loved me."

He couldn't imagine leaving the students behind. So when he was forced to retire, he just kept working at the college. He had worked on for fifteen years -- as janitor in the gym.

"During my years as a professor," he said, "I'd walk through here and see the man cleaning the floor. I knew what a mop was and what a bucket was. It was hard work at first, but I got on to it. It is necessary work, and I try to do it well."

I asked him which was more rewarding, being a professor or being a janitor.

This eighty-five-year-old man smiled and said, "Now, don't put me on the spot like that. I think I'd have to say every age in life has its own compensation."

We walked across the campus together.

"I'm still looking ahead," he said. "I don't want to die. There's too much fun in this world, and a lot of good folks, a lot of them. And good books to read fish to catch and pretty women to admire and good men to know. Why, life is a joy!"

Tags: Charles Kuralt, A Life on the Road