A Strong Work Ethic is the Greatest Gift We Can Give to Our Children
By: Donald V. Watkins
Copyrighted on September 20, 2026
An Editorial Opinion
When my five siblings and I were old enough to work a job, we could buy our own clothes and personal items with up to half of the money we earned. The other half went to a savings account in each child's name.
As a youngster, I worked as a newspaper delivery boy, a lawn mower, a plumber's apprentice, a collector and reseller of soda bottles, a janitor, a dining hall cleaner, a stadium painter, a dorm room cleaner, a laundry room worker, and brick cleaner before I turned 16.
After 16, I worked as a bag boy and, later, a cashier at Delchamps #18 on Madison Avenue in downtown Montgomery until I graduated from high school. I was the first Black cashier at a white retail store in the state of Alabama. I took an employment test and passed it with the highest test score -- ever -- to get the cashier’s job, which became available to me after the Civil Rights Act was signed into law on July 2, 1964.
Interestingly, white Delchamps customers would not come through my checkout line. And, Roberta and I were the only two employees who were required to mop the store each night. Of course, Roberta was Black.
My high school graduation gift was a Bible with my name inscribed on it and a copy of the Olivia and William Carmichael family photo pictured below to remind me of our family's roots in America and our bridge-building mission since 1830.
When I went off to Southern Illinois University in September 1966, I had saved $2,000 at Union Bank & Trust Company from my Delchamps job for college expenses. In college, I earned an academic scholarship after the first quarter grades came out and maintained it until I graduated in 1970.
At SIU, I worked as a janitor for four floors in the girls' high-rise dormitory in my quad living area. I also worked an 8-hour shift for five nights a week as a photo lithographer for the Daily Egyptian, SIU's school newspaper.
In law school (1970-1973), I worked as a research assistant for the University of Alabama's Center on Higher Education Research and Services and a business law teacher in the undergraduate School of Business, for which I was paid on a combined monthly salary of about $300. I also won $50 in prize money by competing in the 1972 Moot Court Contest. I was also on a full ride desegregation scholarship from the NAACP's Herbert Lehman Fund.
If my siblings and I wanted something as teenagers like a car, expensive stereo set, or TV for college, we had to work for it. My dad taught us how to negotiate pricing for just about every kind of purchase and he identified potential jobs that would pay enough money to facilitate the purchase transaction.
My parents provided a wonderful learning system for real life situations and enhanced a family networking and support system that was already four generations old when we were kids. We have never had to go outside of our family-centered ecosystem for validation or anything else. This ecosystem has always been the primarily source of our strength, sustainability, independence, and success in life.
Today, I am still working in all of my executive jobs, and I love it.
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