StoryCorps: Joe Buford

From: StoryCorps
Series: StoryCorps
Length: 02:20

Joe Buford (BYOO-ferd) tells his literacy tutor, Michelle Miller, about what it was like before he could read. Read the full description.

Piece Audio

Playing: StoryCorps: Joe Buford
From: StoryCorps

Buford_small Joe Buford (BYOO-ferd), 63, has a high school diploma but kept a secret, even from his family: He couldn't read. "I could memorize things," he says. "I call it drawing the words...Nobody in my family really knew how bad it was with me and how hurt I was over it." Buford's wife didn't know about his reading problem until after they were married, he says. "Some mail came one day and normally, she's telling me what came and what [bills] needed to be paid. But this time, she gave it to me and said, 'Here, read this.' And so she found out that I couldn't just read something from top to bottom. That tore my heart out." Before Buford had children, he worried that "what was wrong with me would be passed on to my kids." He was afraid they wouldn't learn to read. "It just broke my heart," he says. He was terrified of the prospect of having to read to his young daughters. "So one day, I asked both of them could they read? And they said, 'Yes. We can't remember when we couldn't.' That just made me feel so happy that what was wrong with me...I didn't pass it on to them." After his children were married, Buford decided he would try to learn how to read. He turned to the Nashville Adult Literacy Center, where he worked with volunteer Michelle Miller. When Buford realized he could learn to read, he was so excited. "I jumped up and ran through the house. It made me cry and I'm thinking, 'Wow, it really is sinking in.'"

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Piece Description

Joe Buford (BYOO-ferd), 63, has a high school diploma but kept a secret, even from his family: He couldn't read. "I could memorize things," he says. "I call it drawing the words...Nobody in my family really knew how bad it was with me and how hurt I was over it." Buford's wife didn't know about his reading problem until after they were married, he says. "Some mail came one day and normally, she's telling me what came and what [bills] needed to be paid. But this time, she gave it to me and said, 'Here, read this.' And so she found out that I couldn't just read something from top to bottom. That tore my heart out." Before Buford had children, he worried that "what was wrong with me would be passed on to my kids." He was afraid they wouldn't learn to read. "It just broke my heart," he says. He was terrified of the prospect of having to read to his young daughters. "So one day, I asked both of them could they read? And they said, 'Yes. We can't remember when we couldn't.' That just made me feel so happy that what was wrong with me...I didn't pass it on to them." After his children were married, Buford decided he would try to learn how to read. He turned to the Nashville Adult Literacy Center, where he worked with volunteer Michelle Miller. When Buford realized he could learn to read, he was so excited. "I jumped up and ran through the house. It made me cry and I'm thinking, 'Wow, it really is sinking in.'"