Mr. Jim Story

Item #330

True Builders of America

(August, 1992) My twelfth and final member of the True Builders series was also the most difficult to sculpt, for I chose to depict one who had the most influence on my life, my father. Christened James Hector Clark, he was “Mr. Jim” to all, and I was mostly known as Mr. Jim’s son. My father had many vocations: farmer, banker, entrepreneur, politician, but my strongest memories are of him in his general store in Elizabethtown, North Carolina where the motto was “We Sell Everything.” My first job at the store was in the ice cream freezer section. I was later promoted to work in Dry Goods while my brother worked in Groceries. The statue shows Mr. Jim bagging groceries for a customer and the sides of the counter are plastered with actual newspaper ads from the 1930’s. The counter is surrounded with other merchandise you’d find for sale in a general store: tomatoes, apples, potatoes, and sacks of flour and seed. In those days merchants stayed with the customers until their shopping was completed. The average sale was about $2.00, and many cash-poor farmers paid for their purchases with script until their crops came in. By honoring my father I am symbolically honoring all fathers whose strength of character has been a positive influenceon their children.

Dr. Thomas F. Clark