Remembering Dad

My Dad's birthday was over the weekend.  He would have been 75.  The kids and I went out to the Dairy Queen and had a Peanut Buster Parfait, his most favorite thing in the world, and we told Pa-Paw stories until we laughed so hard tears were running down our faces.  Gosh, he could be fun, and his unintended mistakes were even funnier. 

When I think back on the man that he was, I think what best sums him up was his work ethic.

My Dad's father died when Dad was just 6 years old.  He had been a coal miner, and the very harsh life of a coal miner in the early part of the 1900's took its toll.  He was just 50 years old when he died.

After Grandpa died, money was tight.  Dad did what he could to help make ends meet.

During the fall, he would collect paper bags full of apples, load them onto his little red wagon, and haul them into town to sell in front of the courthouse.

In the winter, he would take his little red wagon down to the railroad tracks, and pick up the coal that had fallen off of the tracks until his wagon was full, and then he'd sell the coal in town to whoever needed it. (He would always fill his Moms' coal hopper first.)

As the garden came in, he had a couple of extra rows that he maintained.  He grew potatoes, strawberries, carrots, green beans, etc.  As things came into season, he would pick the fresh vegetables and head over to the courthouse just before 5:00 so that he could sell fresh veggies as people were leaving work for the day.

As he grew older, Dad took on a paper route.  He found an old bike at the dump and spent $1 on the necessary parts to fix it up.  (Remember, back in the 40's, $1 was more difficult to come by and would have bought a lot more than it does now.)

He used that bike to run a paper route in town for years. Every day after school, he would deliver news to the residents on his side of town.  He was all of 10 years old at the time.

I think back on Dad, and his mother a lot at this time of the year.  They never received nor expected public assistance.  Granny grew much of her food in the back yard.  Chickens provided meat and eggs, and a family friend would sell them beef when the cows were butchered in the fall.  All of the kids chipped in money from their various jobs to make certain that there was food on the table, a roof over their heads, and clothes to wear.  They were very heavy users of the library, garnering all of the free information and knowledge that they could. 

Granny cooked food from scratch.  No restaurant or take out meals for her!  Everything was cooked fresh - much of it pulled from the garden hours before it sat on the table.

You know, Dad grew up to be an Engineer.  He paid his way through college by serving in the United States Air Force.  Never asked anybody to give him anything, and he raised us with a very strong sense of earning your own way and paying as you go.  We didn't always have the newest, latest, or greatest whiz bang things.  BUT, we always had a roof over our head, clothes to wear, and food on the table.  We had nice things - things that our parents could afford to give us.  We were heavy users of the library, where we could read books and learn as much as we wanted.  We were transported to different worlds, and our horizons were widened.  We also had the unconditional love of both of our parents, and we were very fortunate that my Mom was able to stay home with us until circumstances demanded that she went back to work.

I am grateful to both of my parents for instilling such a work ethic in me. 

The lessons my Dad taught me about hard work, generosity, and honesty have served me well.  You gave me some pretty awesome gifts!

Happy Birthday, Dad.