Carlton Leatherwood's Texas: Andrew Funderburg, a feel good young man

There's a kid in Alpine who got a sophisticated degree from Sul Ross and doesn't give a flip about it. He'd rather flip hamburgers. And I think he is on the right track.

The name of this young man just out of schooling is Andrew Funderburg. I caught up with him on the graveyard shift at Penny's Diner.

He has lived in Alpine five years and graduated from college last December with a major in kinesiology and a minor in history. Kinesiology is the study of the principles of mechanics and anatomy in relation to human movement.

"I started working at Penny's almost a year and a half ago," Funderburg said. "I'm a cook and a waiter, and also a washing dishes person. I do like my job.

"When I started working here, I found that I like cooking. I had cooked for myself but never for a bunch of people like I do now. I really do enjoy it. I wish I had gone to culinary arts school instead of going to college."

I said, "Well, you can still do that."

He answered, "I could. It's just expensive. I would look into the Austin-San Antonio area. It's like $90,000. I'm already in debt for school, around $50,000."

For four years at Sul Ross?

"I lived on campus for two years, and when you live on campus, it is very expensive," Funderburg said. "And I racked up like $30,000 in debt living on campus. Even though I had scholarships."

And it is for a degree that you cannot or don't want to use?

"Well, at the moment I don't want to use it. I wanted to be a teacher, and it would be for teaching math," he explained. "But I just decided that I didn't want to be a teacher at the moment."

What is unattractive about teaching?

"The hidden politics," he said. "You no longer teach, and there's other things going on. You're never really in charge of your own classroom. There's always rules and regulation. You don't teach to teach your field. You teach for a test."

What do you like to cook? Hamburgers?

"I like to do burgers. I also like cooking pork chops, pretty much all the meats," the kid who grew up in Houston said. "What I've really grown to like is cooking breakfast. I wasn't as good at it when I started. Of course, I knew how to cook meat. I've always grilled."

"You do breakfast well now," I put in. "Well, thank you," he said.

Do you make enough to pay something on the loan?

"I do. I make enough as a teacher would make."

How are your hours?

"I work from 40 to 50 hours per week. I make enough so I can pay my bills and still have money left over," he elaborated.

You were telling me that you might invest in a small restaurant, Wings. Is it a chicken restaurant?

"Yes, it is. It's across from the Railroad Blues."

Alpine doesn't have a good chicken restaurant. Stripes, they do some chicken.

"I think I want to own a business before I go to teaching," Funderburg said. "I want to see what the other world is like, I guess you would say."

Are other students like you not going into teaching?

"Teaching doesn't have jobs right now," he enlightened me.

Teaching students are either out on the street or living with their parents?

"What do you mean living with their parents?

"Well, they have to move back in with them because they can't afford to live on their own," I explained.

"Yes, that's true. I have been lucky. I have not had to live with my parents."

"I know they appreciate that," I said.

"Well, I don't know if my mom appreciates that," he chuckled. "She's always asking me to come back home. They live in Kerrville.

"I lived there about five years of my life. I don't know if you have ever been to Hunt, Texas (up the Guadalupe River, I injected). It's near the headwaters and springs. They have a lot of camps out there."

Did you attend one of the camps? "I've been to the camps, but I did not attend them.

"When we were in Houston, we moved every other year," he said. "Yes, I moved around the city of Houston."

Which was your favorite area?

"The Cypress area. But when I go back to visit, it's not the same town that I lived in. (The traffic?) Oh, yes, it looks just like Houston now. I was in Houston for about 12 years. I prefer Kerrville.

"When I was younger I did not prefer it. 'This sucks. There's nothing to do. Everything closes at 5.' It hasn't changed much, but I like the small town environment. That's why I picked Sul Ross."

Did you take advantage of city life in Houston, the culture?

"We visited Galveston," Funderburg said. "The Moody Gardens was one of the attractions. It's very spectacular. I'd like to go back."

Did you see the penquins?

"Yes I did. That's one of the most exciting aquariums I've ever been to."

Did you play on the beach?

"We went down to the beach almost every weekend. I've been on the surfboard a couple of times, but wiped out pretty bad.

"The water is something I like. I don't know if I could live on the beach any more, but I would like part of my life to be on the beach."

Was the beach contaminated with seaweed when you were there?

"Yes, the entire coastline would be covered with seaweed, man of wars, and jellyfish."

How about oil?

"There was a black slime that it was called when I was younger. But then I got to visit Corpus Christi and Padre Island and Matagorda Island, and it's a lot prettier water compared to Galveston."

Up in Galveston they have a lot of pollution from the oil rigs and the ships. So if they had stricter environmental laws, they wouldn't have that sludge.

"But what I've heard the last decade they've done a lot of cleaning up in Galveston," the young man with an optimistic approach to life concluded.
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