Tom: Well, somewhere in that — and I don’t know dates — but I had a girlfriend, and…
Martha: I got over it.
Tom: …we had been dating, and getting pretty close, and one day she said “I’m getting a little age on me, I’d like to know what your intentions are.” [laughter] And I said “well, first thing, my intentions are I’m going to law school.”
Well, I knew real estate backwards and forwards by then. And so, the Woodrow Wilson law school downtown. So I had to hitchhike from Avondale down to Decatur where I could get a nickel car fare to downtown, then I’d have to come back, and I guess any number of times that when I got back at 10, 11, 12 at night after law school, from Decatur Depot to my house in Avondale I’d have to catch a ride or walk. I have absolutely walked from Decatur Depot — it’s a mile past downtown Avondale — I’ve walked the whole distance and never passed a car going nor coming. They was just narrow roads.
It was night school, and so when I got ready to graduate, Dean Kilbright, he said “Tom, I can’t give you a certificate for graduating until you’ve paid your last bill.” I said “well, I don’t have any money, I’m broke.” I said I had a lot in Avondale, so he said “give me a security deed on that.” And I said “alright,” so I went back up and made a security deed and brought it back to him, and he looked at that and looked back at me and said “I don’t need that, I just wanted to see if you would do it.” [laughter]
Martha: That’s not fair.