One of the most transformative experiences of Dale Earnhardt Jr.’s life came after he was packed off to the Oak Ridge Military Academy in North Carolina when he was just about to enter his teens. Self-admittedly, his few years there helped him learn discipline, accountability, and responsibility. But there was a small cost he had to pay in return.
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The first two weeks at the Academy were a mandatory stay-in period for new students. Meaning they were not allowed to head home. They were instead taken to a nearby mall on the first weekend to purchase whatever they wanted. As a fresher, Junior had not been aware that they did this and hence, did not carry a lot of money with him.
And so, as he walked around a drugstore in the mall calculating the best ways to spend the $15 in his pocket, he noticed his roommate indulged in a shocking act.
He narrated on the Bless Your ‘Hardt podcast, “I am walking down this aisle and I come up to see my roommate. I walk up to him and he’s eating those little pretzel sticks you dip in chocolate.”
“He’s eating one of those in the store, and I’m like, ‘What?! Oh, hey, what are you doing?’ He sets it on the shelf, and I was like, ‘You’re not going to eat the rest of that?’ He goes, ‘No.’ I was like, ‘You ain’t going to pay for that?’ He goes, ‘No.’ And I was like, ‘Holy s***!'” But this was just the first instance of thievery that Junior witnessed.
When Junior’s running shoes got stolen
There aren’t many ways for a kid to entertain himself when enrolled at a military academy. This led to Junior making a race out of the running drill that his PE instructor commanded every morning.
To be faster than the others and not slip in the early morning dew, he had purchased a pair of running shoes with metal spikes. He said that the shoes had helped him run a lot faster than his friends and that he finished the drill in the top five alongside kids who were much older than him. Even the PE instructor had been impressed with how fast he was considering his short height. But the joy that Junior felt that day was short-lived.
“Next day, shoes were gone. Someone took my shoes out of the locker,” he said. He added with a melancholic voice that he never got to see them again. His mind is still not able to grasp what use the thief could have had for such a unique item. Dale Jr. was brought back home at the age of 14 and admitted to the Mooresville High School.
