Harbinson Makes Strong Case For “Small Town USA”
A lot of people called it prison when I was growin’ up
But these are my roots and this is what I love
‘Cause everybody knows me and I know them
And I believe that’s the way we were supposed to live
I wouldn’t trade one single day here in small town USA [1]
Joel Harbinson didn’t write the hit single “Small Town USA” nor did he sing it. But he has lived it.
And he wouldn’t trade a day for the 60-plus years he has called Taylorsville home.
“I wanted to come back here,” Harbinson says of his hometown, where he has practiced law ever since graduating from the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill and UNC School of Law. “I never regretted a day coming back to a small-town practice.”
“I practice in ‘Mayberry,’” Harbinson adds in reference to “The Andy Griffith Show” and its fictional setting, which has long been likened to Griffith’s real-life hometown of Mount Airy.
“We’re more ‘Mayberry’ than Mount Airy,” contends Harbinson. “We all know each other. We all have differences. My political beliefs are probably not consistent with most people in Alexander County. I don’t care, and I don’t think they really care either.”
What Harbinson does care about are all things Taylorsville and all things Alexander County. That’s why, among other things, he has served as town attorney, county attorney, school board attorney, and hospital board chair. He was the first attorney ever elected to serve on the Board of County Commissioners of Alexander County. He also served as board chair and led the effort to establish the first permanent community college in the county.
Former high school football hero Joel Harbinson looks right at home beneath the goalpost at Alexander Central High School.
He’s a citizen lawyer in every sense and has a plaque on his wall to prove it. But his devotion to the community extends far beyond the pages of a resume or the richly deserved recognition he has received from the North Carolina Bar Association (Citizen Lawyer Award) or Governor Cooper (Order of the Long Leaf Pine).
Harbinson’s longest stretch away from home occurred in the 1970s when he headed down the mountain to Chapel Hill (as did Andy Griffith!) to attend UNC as a Broyhill Industries Scholar. Early on, he decided to become a lawyer.
“I think I decided about the first semester down there,” Harbinson recalls. “At that time, they had a combined degree program called A.B./J.D., where if you took certain courses and took the LSAT, you could apply after your junior year. I applied after my junior year and there were three of us who got in, so our last year of college was our first year of law school.”
Harbinson’s fast track to a law degree took a detour in 1976 when he worked on the successful presidential campaign of Jimmy Carter, but the pause was probably a blessing in disguise.
“I was a little burned out,” Harbinson said. “I was 21, and probably needed a little time before jumping right into law school, so I took a little time off. And when I came back, I took a few extra courses – I took more courses in law school than in undergrad – and then I finished law school.”
Harbinson graduated and passed the bar in 1979, and knew without a doubt that he wanted to come home.
“I had 50 bucks to my name,” Harbinson recalled, “so my parents went with me to the bank and cosigned a loan. But I told them they would never have to pay on it because my father was a small-town preacher and my mother was a part-time hairdresser, and I was the fourth child.
“I got a $7,000 loan, and said, ‘Oh my God, how am I going to pay that back?’ I got a house that’s right down here where the post office is now that an old doctor had. He had his office there and lived in this big house, and so did I. I was not married then, so I rented it as an office and lived upstairs, all for $250 a month.”
This might sound like lean times for a fledgling lawyer, but Harbinson had a different take.
“It was great! I was on my own. If people come in, I’ll make money. If they don’t, I’ve got a little leisure time. I could go either way with it. And I took everything that came in the door. Everybody was a general practitioner in 1979. You had to do a little bit of everything, and at that time I was one of eight attorneys in the county, and we don’t have many more than that now.
“But all through law school, this is what I had planned. My buddies were interviewing with firms in Charlotte and Raleigh, but I said I was going home. They would laugh at me and couldn’t understand. They would say, ‘you won’t get any big things there.’ But I have had every type of case you could have, from medical malpractice to first-degree murder.
“I was doing appointive work, which was the bulk of my practice starting out. I’ve always considered it sort of your key to the courthouse. You had a duty, I felt like, but it was also the bulk of me making money.”
Visiting with Joel Harbinson in his law office is a great way to learn about Taylorsville and Alexander County.
Another factor informing Harbinson’s decision to come home was name recognition. He was a high school football hero, and then as now, the school is the focal point of the community.
Alexander Central High School was in its inaugural year when Harbinson carved his name in the record book by kicking the winning field goal in the conference championship game his junior year.
“I’d like to say it was a boomer,” Hardison said in regard to the 25-yard field goal that secured the 9-6 victory over Marion in the fall of 1970. “It was a terrible line drive, just terrible. It barely made it inside the upright and it barely made it over the crossbar. I can still see the referees sort of looking at each other before deciding it was good.”
The field goal, as the game film revealed, should have been blocked by the same player who had blocked his extra point attempt earlier in the game.
“He crashed right through the line just like he did the first time,” Hardison said. “But this time the ball went between his arms and just over his head.”
Harbinson would go on to score the first touchdown in the new football stadium when it opened his senior year, and was also a standout baseball player, making all-conference in both sports. A recent inductee into the Alexander County Sports Hall of Fame, he believes strongly in the lasting value of high school athletics.
“Twenty years ago they asked me to speak to the Beta Club at the high school, and they will never ask me again,” Harbinson laughed. “They asked me how going here had helped me to become a trial lawyer, and this is what I said:
“We had great academics and we had great English teachers and great math teachers, but I have to attribute half of it to what I learned out here on the football field and the baseball field. That’s where I learned about mental toughness, and everything that we look for in sports – leadership, the ability to be coached, to work as a team, to be committed. I draw on those things just as much as I do on the academics.”
Harbinson shows few signs of slowing down as he enters his fifth decade of practicing law. He has moved to nearby Statesville to be closer to his grandchildren, and the offices of Harbinson & Brzykcy, Attorneys at Law, now operate on a four-day workweek. Law partner Caryn Lee Brzykcy has followed in his footsteps as town attorney for Taylorsville and school board attorney for Alexander County – the first woman to serve in either capacity – but Harbinson remains active and engaged in his practice and his community.
Remnants of the town’s old drunk tank adorn the entrance of Harbinson & Brzykcy in Taylorsville.
“I love Alexander County. I’ve just been very fortunate to practice here and to have a quality of life that was worth living,” Harbinson said. “And that’s what you’ve got to look at. Do what your passion is in life. My father was called to be a preacher; I have no doubt about that. And I don’t doubt that I was called in some way to be a trial lawyer.”
“We all have a passion, and if we’re looking to where’s the money, where’s the prestige, your quality of life is going to suffer. But if you concentrate on being genuine and factual, and communicating and keeping it simple, and treating lawyers and judges and everybody with respect, there’s no reason you can’t practice anywhere.”
And never regret a single day of it.
Russell Rawlings is director of external affairs and communications for the North Carolina Bar Association.
[1] “Small Town USA” was written by Brian Dean Maher, Jeremy Stover and Justin Moore. The country music song became Moore’s first No. 1 single in 2009.