DAVIDSON

From page A4

I was born on May 1, 1938, in White County, Arkansas, and soon afterwards, we moved to Gould in southeast Arkansas.

I don’t know how it came about, but for a while we lived in a northern governor’s retreat mansion in the country out from Gould. This mansion had 36 rooms (I counted them), and we had all our furniture in two of them. When I was in the third grade, I rode a horse three miles each day to catch a school bus at the Douglas store. I would tie up the horse to a hitching rail, get on the school bus and go to school. In the evening, I would reverse the process and go back home. Sometime later I remember that a family in Gould took us in and we lived in two rooms in their home.

Somehow my parents got enough backing to open a café in Gould, and the rest is history. They were good, hardworking people, and we never looked back. My point is that we were poor, so I do know what it’s like.

My point for this column is simple. If you want to avoid being poor, get a good education. This all begins with reading. I recommend keeping a good book close by. I guess that is why I have spent most of my life trying to inspire my fellow Americans to see the value of education. Without a good education, low-income children are the ones who will wind up on the street trimming trees. The “Bookcase for Every Child” project is truly making a difference. It’s the children from low-income families that need help the most.

Jim Davidson is an author, public speaker, syndicated columnist, and Founder of the Bookcase for Every Child project. Since its inception in the Log Cabin Democrat in 1995, Jim’s column has been self- syndicated in over 375 newspapers in 35 states.