George Ramsey
When George Ramsey took his GED placement test, the 68-year-old came across something he had never seen before.
“When I took the entry test, there was a square root on it,” Ramsey said. “I didn't know what it was.”
But his hard work paid off. Ramsey, an employee at the new Ingles supermarket in Kings Mountain, recently earned his GED through the adult program at Cleveland Community College. And while he doesn't like to talk about himself, others describe Ramsey as a source of encouragement.
Jerry Hopper, recruiter for the CCC program, said Ramsey, who started at CCC after losing his job at a textile mill, stood out to him. “He's a humble man,” Hopper said. “He doesn't realize the impact that he's had on other people.”
Ramsey attributes much of his success to his teachers. People who took time for each student and made sure each one understood the work. “They were a tremendous help and encouragement. These are the people I need to say thanks to at CCC.”
Ramsey, born in York County, has been living in Kings Mountain since 1948. At the age of 16, he quit school to work. “I started when I was eight years old trying to make a dollar, and I'm 68 years old now and still haven't seen that dollar,” Ramsey said.
The 68-year-old has done a little bit of every kind of work - on milk and produce trucks, cutting grass, raking leaves, and of course, working in textiles. Most of the plants he once worked in have been shut down. After he stopped working in the plants he decided to go back to school, for his sake as well as that of his grandkids.
“Without a piece of paper saying you're educated, nobody wants to talk to you,” he said of employers. When he first started at CCC, he “felt like a fish out of water.” But it was a feeling he expected after being out of school for 56 years. After graduating, he started looking for work. “Within six to eight weeks I was working,” he said. Now, he advises kids to stay in school.
“Get it while you're young,” he says, “It's a lot harder to dig out when you're old.”
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