Charlie Ward Scott decided early in life he didn't want to be a farmer, and he couldn't wait to get off the family's Jones County farm.

He was born in 1926, and he worked part-time at a grocery store near Rhems while he was in school.

"Daddy said, ‘If you're going to work there all the time, let's go ahead and buy a store,'" Scott recalled.

Scott was just 15 when his father, Ward, left farming, took a job at Camp Lejeune and bought a filling station and country store near Pollocksville. Teenager C.W. was in charge of the store when he wasn't in school, operating it along with his mother, Ruby. He had one sister, Becky Thompson, the current Craven County register of deeds.

His father even named the store after his son - C.W. Scott's Grocery. Charlie Scott became C.W.

Scott remembers gasoline was 19 cents a gallon, with a hand-crank that filled a glass globe with gasoline at the top of the pump. If the customer asked, he would clean the windshield.

Scott went into the Navy for two years near the end of World War II and was stationed in the Philippines and New Guinea at a PT boat base.

He returned home to the family store, but in 1948 the family sold the Jones County store, moved to New Bern and opened Scott's Market on Wilmington Street in the Sunnyside community near National Cemetery.

"We were known for our ice cream cones," he said. "People come from all around for the ice cream. We put three scoops on it for 15 cents."

Scott left the family business in 1968 to manage Armstrong Grocery.

"It was owned by Wallace and Nichols out of Warren," he said. "I ran it for them until the Benders bought us out in the '80s."

Scott's first wife, Jean, died in an automobile wreck in 1959. He and his second wife, Bea Wetherington, married in 1966. Scott said her first husband had died of cancer. Together, the Scotts had three children and have been married 43 years.

Scott stayed busy with work throughout the years, but early in his career, he found a worthy cause that he continues to this day.

Scott was 27 when he joined the Lions in 1953 and since his start with them has been involved in the Lions' food basket program for the blind and visually impaired. It began as a Christmas project in the late 1950s, and later was switched to Thanksgiving, with Easter baskets added in the 1960s. The Lions have loaded their baskets at Armstrong Grocery since the 1ate 1960s.

Scott said he works through the Department of Social Services, which identifies the needy. It takes him about a month to prepare, sending each recipient a letter, choosing the variety of foods for the baskets, and organizing the volunteers and delivery schedule.

"We have a good variety," he said. "It's isn't just dinner. It's for the whole day - breakfast lunch and dinner."

He has seen a lot of hardship over the years.

"A lot of the houses, you couldn't hardly get into them, it was such a hard way of living," he said. "But the people are so thrilled to see you. I do it simply because it is a good thing to do. When you go helping somebody, it is the thrill of your life. The Lions, our motto is ‘we serve,' and that's what we do."

He said he has never considered leaving the area.

"I guess there's a good life here - the people and a good church," he said.

He retired from Armstrong's in 1995.

"I always tried to treat people the way I wanted to be treated," he said.

Scott says he doesn't really have a hobby other than his Lions' work. He does enjoy watching University of North Carolina basketball and Atlanta Braves baseball.

"When I was young, I wanted to be a ball player," he said. "I loved to play baseball. I'd rather play baseball than eat when I was growing up. I played all the positions except catcher."

These days, he continues to be active in Lions' projects despite having heart bypass surgery twice in the past five years. It included one period in which he was in a coma.

"During that time, I left this old world for about 10 days," he said. "They said I was gone.
They were even making funeral arrangements for me. The doctors came in and said I was their miracle man."

Many others would say the same for he and the Lions.