Perquimans People
j&ances an if you went to
Mfquimans High School
tdffeen 1452 and 1*78 and you
lived oo a farm in the country
or even on what might have
been considered a half of a
firm, you would have signed
up for Joe Lee Tunnell's
vocational agriculture class.
And chances are if you did
yow' learned a whole lot more
than how to slop a hog.
That's because in Tunnell's
hly-day, the state didn't set
thft curriculum. The teacher
took care of it. and Joe Lee
took it upon himself to teach a
whole lot more than he had to.
Ask one of his former
students and he'll tell you the
same thing. Joe Lee Tunnell
taught the subject of life.
Tunnell spent 25 years
teaching at Perquimans High
Sdfeool. He would take a
nt as a freshman and
him under his wing the
entire four years he was at the
school.
A boy's education under
Tunnell began with a course
he called "growing up." In
that course he taught the child
everything his father was
supposed to have taught him
but usually didn't.
Along with "growing up"
came the kinds of things a
young man would need to
know to get along in a rural
community.
He taught wood working,
home construction, farming
skills, and leadership.
His freshman class would
learn a motto that Tunnell
would strive to have them
stick by. It vent, "Learning to
do. doing to learn, earning to
live and living to serve."
Vocational ag lasted two full
classroom periods and Tun
nell would get things un
derway each day with some
sort of philisophical
discussion.
He said his students would
often greet him with, "What
sermon are we going to have
this morning?"
And Tunnell would always
come through with some
thought provoking words.
"You can't control the
length of your life but you can
adjust the width and the
depth," was one such phrase
used to set off discussion.
? To hear Tunnell talk you
know instantly that he must
have been either a preacher or
a teacher. A person doesn't
string words together like he
does and not get paid for it.
As he speaks he blinks his
eyes like a hoot owl and when
he wants to make a point or
gets a little excited he throws
his arms out with abandon and
the very motion seems to kick
his voice up an octave.
His nose is hymped from the
when a piece of wood flew out
of a saw and knocked him on
the seat of his pants in the
shop one day.
Tunnell was born and raised
in Hyde County, a county that
even a country boy would have
called back woods.
He wu raised during the
depression, which might
explain how he has grown a
yard full of beautiful camelias
from nothing but cuttings, has
made a table from an old
piano, and hesitates to put
sunflower seeds in his bird
feeder because they run 32
cents a pound.
Tunnell's father was a
merchant, and sold
everything a rural family
would need to survive. There
was also a family farm and
Joe helped out with both en
terprises.
"Being born and reared on a
farm and having taken
vocational education in high
school, plus liking animals
and the outdoors, I decided to
become a vocational
agriculture teacher," Tunnell
said.
As it still is today, N.C. State
University was then the place
to go for such pursuits.
"I packed my little foot
locker, steamer trunk they
called it, and boy I'm telling
you, that was country going to
the city," Tunnell recalled. "I
didn't even see my first
streetlight 'til I was 16 years
old," he said.
They tell one tale on Joe,
which isn't exactly truthful,
about how country he was
when he first arrived at State.
They say he went to the drug
store and ordered a Coca-Cola
and the counter clerk fixed
him his first fountain drink.
Joe tilted the cup back and
took a big swallow, then
spewed it out all over the floor
in shock.
"Mao this Coke is full of
glass," Joe was supposed to
have said.
"You fool," the clerk
responded, "that's ice."
"Don't you know there ain't
no ice in July," Tunnell shot
back just as quickly.
And while the incident never
really took place, Joe did on
one occassion write home and
tell his mother he was going to
a football game the next night,
though he didn't know how in
the world they were going to
see to play.
But despite the ribbing,
which he can dish out as well
as he can take, Tunnell's
country upbringing was
probably his biggest assett
when he returned to
Weeksville (in Pasquotank
County) and later to
Perquimans County to teach.
He was able to provide,
better than any outsider could
have, the kind of guidance a
young man growing up in the
country would need.
The thing that separated Joe
Tunnell from a lot of teachers
was the amount of time he got
to spend with his students.
"If he came to me as a
freshman I taught that boy
four years," Tunnell said. "It
gave me a chance to know that
boy, know what he was in
terested in, what he was made
of, and what he wanted to
do...period."
Prize camellias
& '
Joe Tunnell shows off one of his prize Camellias. He raised a whole yard full of the beautiful plants from cutting^
Each student wai required
to have an agricultural project
at home and Joe would get to
know the boy's family, would
take the child to camp, to
Future Farmers of America
activities, and on field trips.
By the time the boy got
through with his courses he
was a young man, and Joe
Tunnell was like a second
father to him.
Because his course was an
elective, the only students who x
took it were those who were
truly interested. And they had
to be willing to work or they
didn't last.
"Sense of responsibility,
that's one thing our boys
learned," Tunnell said. "In
voc-ag you could do so many
things you couldn't do in a
regular classroom."
"I've had boys build a
complete bedroom suite and
pay for it after they got out of
high school," he said.
Another thing they learned
was leadership, and it carried
over into their adult lives.
"That training paid off,"
Tunnell said. "You take the
Ruritans, the Lions Club and
the Jaycees. The majority of
them are former FAA
members."
Teaching vocational
agriculture was a 12 month a
year job. Throw in after hours
in the shop and the ex
tracurricular activities and
you've got a demanding, time
consuming schedule.
Add to that the something
extra that Joe Tunnell always
gave it and you have to ask
"Why?" There can be only one
answer.
"I just loved to work with
boys and watch them grow
up," Tunnell said. "I guess
that was the main thing."
And in watching them grow,
Tunnell learned something
about about young men.
"He's got to be intrested to
start with," Tunnell said, "got
to have that desire and want'n
to do, and if he does he can
make it."
It definitely helps, though,
to have some adult guidance
from a roan like Joe Tunnell.
Woodworking
Joe Tunnell twists in a screw on a Spruce gun
cabinet he is working on in the shop behind his
house. Now retired, Tunnell spends alot of his
time in the shop making furniture.
ri..u ? oi-.l:
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