Build Your Dam
George Beavers’ journey from backwoods West Virginia to big city Atlanta

You’ve just turned eighteen and two letters come in the mail. One for you, one for your brother. You knew it had to be coming, it was just a matter of time. You were being drafted to the United States Army for the Vietnam War.
George Donald Beavers, my dad, was born in 1946 to a traditional woman and a coal miner in Ronceverte, West Virginia. He was the third child in the family, preceded by Gene and Richard, and was one of the first children in the baby boomers generation. He was named after his father George William Beavers. Soon after he was born, the family moved to a small town in Virginia. While there, his two younger siblings, Drema and Danny, were born.

Maxine, his mother, was a stubborn woman with a hand for harsh discipline. Often times, the children found themselves in deep trouble for some pretty simple things, but as my father says,
“We were just like every other child in every other mountain home, you got beat if you didn’t do what you were supposed to.”
She did, however, try to keep the family afloat with food and clothes, canning and sewing every chance she got.
The family moved around within their small town before eventually settling in one house. This house burned down and the Beavers clan lived in the basement while slowly building the top back up. None of the houses had indoor bathrooms or the luxury of air conditioning, and everyone was required to do their jobs so they could scrape by.

They operated a small family farm. One of my dad’s jobs was to milk the cow at 5:30 in the morning so that everyone could have milk for breakfast. They borrowed a mule from some neighbors and did the best they could to survive. The only reason they ever had coats for the chilly Virginian winters was because their grandmother gave them as gifts for Christmas. The family was very poor and could afford very little luxuries, if any. As a result of the tough home life, as soon as the oldest brother could, he left. He enlisted in the United States Navy and rarely visited home. A few years later, my father and Richard were both drafted into the Army, but they changed to the Navy and were soon sent off to bootcamp.

At bootcamp, my father was chosen to go to school in Florida to learn Morse Code. When this was over he was put on the USS Johnston. In the span of two years, he was sent to Cuba, then to Morocco, and finally to Japan.
For my Uncle Gene the military was the path he chose, but for my father, the military was only the beginning.
Because of the G.I. Bill, my father had the chance to go to college and graduate without any debt. He was determined to find a career that would give him a stable job with a stable income. Therefore, he decided to become a Certified Public Accountant, or CPA.
Nothing can be said to be certain, except death and taxes.
While living at a YMCA and working as a UPS loader and as a truck driver for General Electric Credit Corporation, Dad attended Georgia State University in Atlanta. He finished in three years and worked at a business in Atlanta as a CPA. His job required a lot of traveling and he ended up moving to Texas with his two children, Philip and Maggie, and his then wife, Jean.

When they moved back to Georgia, Dad started his own company, George Beavers CPA, PC. In the beginning stages of the business, he faced a divorce and the death of his father while trying to get his kids through college. He eventually remarried and had two more children, Haven and myself. Later, he remarried again to my now stepmother and gained three more children, Erin, Cara, and Leah.
My father grew up with some pretty terrible stories and faced many difficulties. He came from nothing and made a businessman out of himself. He has managed to make the life for his children that he didn’t have, but always wanted. None of us have ever had to worry about where our next meal was coming from or waking up early to milk the cow or if we would be able to go to college. He has given us everything he couldn’t have. My dad is my hero. His life has been about making sure that his children’s lives would be better than his own. He certainly built his family dam and gave it the best structure of them all.

Dad, I love you, and I hope that you know that all of your kids appreciate everything you’ve been through and everything you’ve done for us.
