Lucama and Selma
William Aycock discusses his upbringing in the North Carolina towns of Lucama and Selma, and describes how his father inspired him to pursue a career as a lawyer.
Interview on 2011-08-23 00:00:00 -0400
Transcript
00:00:00.000
I was born in the little town of Lucama,
00:00:05.125
which is nine miles south of Wilson.
00:00:09.137
My daddy was a merchant at that time in his life,
00:00:14.133
a big merchandising center
00:00:20.016
for farmers to come in and buy everything from shoes to fertilizer.
00:00:25.374
So I stayed there until I finished the first grade
00:00:32.861
and after that we moved a little further south to Selma.
00:00:40.478
Later on my father became a lawyer
00:00:46.985
there in Selma
00:00:51.049
and held court in Smithfield, which is the county seat of Johnston County.
00:00:56.735
I helped him in his office. I learned how to type
00:01:05.362
at school - public school.
00:01:08.890
Then he became a judge for ten years,
00:01:14.605
what they call recorder's court. I guess now they call it district court judge.
00:01:20.222
I went to court every time I got a chance.
00:01:25.757
I'd go with him to court, especially in the summertime,
00:01:33.326
and I was treated like a member of the bar of Johnston County [Laughs]
00:01:39.762
and he gave me a seat up where they were.
00:01:43.901
But anyway, to make a long story short,
00:01:48.136
I admired him, what he stood for, what he was,
00:01:54.760
and so I decided I was going to be a lawyer too.
This video is an excerpt from a longer interview. Contact the Special Collections Research Center to request the transcript of the full interview.
