Fifty-nine-year-old Tommy “Pink” Pinkard, who is earning his second degree in undeclared liberal arts, was sitting in a mall contemplating retirement when he decided to take his first ride on a carousel.
Pinkard said at the age of 59, it was time to start doing the things he had always wanted to do. So he made a bucket list.
“One of the things I wanted to do, believe it or not, was to ride a carousel,” Pinkard said. “That day in the mall I stood up from where I had been sitting and walked over to the carousel operator to ask if an old man could ride a carousel. She said I could. The next day I put on my signature pink hat and went back to ride the carousel for my first time.”
The ride was the first check off Pinkard’s post-retirement bucket list. The next item to check off was to attend his lifelong dream school, Auburn University.
“I realized that the main reason I hadn’t done more of the things I wanted to do in my life was because someone told me I couldn’t,” Pinkard said. “That’s what made me decide to finally come to Auburn.”
Pinkard said his love affair with Auburn began when he was a boy.
Pinkard instead attended Jefferson Davis State Community College on a basketball scholarship until an injury suffered on a construction job left him unable to play.
Pinkard completed his master’s degree in counseling at Jacksonville State University and worked as a counselor for troubled teens at the Social Programming for Achievement Network for 33 years.
Pinkard said his narrow view of the female teens as opposed to male teens as a counselor contributed to his decision to study women’s studies at Auburn.
“With troubled girls you worry about them getting pregnant, rolling their eyes or flipping their hair,” Pinkard said. “Guys are more criminal and I didn’t see the girls as criminals. I could deal with the criminal mind but the female mind has always intrigued me.”
Suzie Krueger, Pinkard’s former co-worker, said Pinkard didn’t give himself enough credit as a counselor.
“He gave a rational perspective to girls who had Cinderella world perspectives,” Krueger said.
Pinkard said his knowledge of the female mind has broadened during his time at Auburn, along with his perspective on life, in part from his education, but also from his observation of how this generation of college students regards their futures.
“I see the kids always on their phones and so forth,” Pinkard said. “It seems like they’re always distracted and not taking things seriously. If I could give any advice to them it would be to not waste the best time of their lives.”
Aside from attending Auburn, Pinkard said he intends to fulfill other wishes on his bucket list, such as dressing like Frederick Douglass at a Civil War re-enactment and continuing to enjoy his photography work.
Pinkard’s sister Peggy Gooden said she admires her brother.
“Most people wouldn’t go back to college after retirement, but it’s always been his desire to be a member of the Auburn Family,” Gooden said.
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