My Dad was a rugged individualist, I guess you'd say. He described to me when I was a kid, how he imagined the early settlers in America dealt with serious health issues. A very seriously aching tooth, for example, would have been knocked out of place by a serious hammer-blow directed against a stout stick of wood. Having had issues with teeth, the worst being an abscess in the root area, I've often wondered whether I could stand up to the rigors, the GUTS, it took, to achieve resolution. Teeth aside, I always greatly respected the old man's pluck. He had answers ready for the various "life's little foibles" which presented day by day. He peaked scholastically at the 8th. grade, but took drafting classes nights to achieve needed understanding to become a Tool and Die Maker. He went on to train, in apprenticeship, a number of young guys aspiring to the trade. He built, during the early days of WW-II, the first die set which blanked out the entire Jeep dash panel in a single "hit'. I've revered, and also hated, him, the latter for another story, but must say, he left indelible values instilled in his second son; the first, my brother, born 14 years before I was, died of pneumonia at age 5 weeks. FS
I went through the 4 year apprenticeship and spent 39 years working as a Tool & Die Maker. I learned many skills that have been very useful at home too. My attraction to the Rube Goldberg style of engineering helped a lot too.
In short, Dad was an 8th grade drop-out. Some people in the past have looked at that a personality flaw in that it might show not only a lack of education, but perception, and perceverance as well. The truth of the matter is he had a knack and facination for numbers and the same facination with wood. He could add, subtract, multiply and divide any sequence of numbers in his head and come out with the correct answers much to the chagrin of many a challenger. His love for wood though. That was the key to everything he did because every piece of wood he touched meant something to him and generally not what the norm would agree to. Hence, his ability to have special knives made just for milling the trim work he was constantly called on to make for multi-million dollar homes. He specialized in doors though. Alex Haley, Voute', Mrs. Merritt (one of the heirs to Johnson and Johnson), Jeff Gordon, Billy Smith, and many more popular people searched out my dad for his entrance way craftsmanship. So, what philosophy did he hand down? I'm getting to that. Although dad was like everyone else in the world and liked money, he would Very often turn work down. I once saw him refuse 50K to build a single door for a woman of note. It wasn't that he couldn't do it or that he didn't have time even though people were willing to wait for 5 years in his back log in order to have one of his doors. He told me that he did not want his NAME attached to the rich woman. When he finished a door he burned his name into the top of each door thereby making him a part of the hand carved masterpiece. A kind of symbiosis as it were. One became alive because of the other and to diminish either one was to diminish the whole. To sell his door to the woman was the same as selling himself to her and to my dad, she was not a good woman ergo, not a person whom he wanted to be associated with. Philosophy? In a word........... INTEGRITY!! .
PERSONAL INTEGRITY. A virtue gradually becoming scarcer and scarcer, as I see it. 50, 60 years ago, did anything approaching "road rage" exist? Impatience with others around us, exhibited so frequently today. Just my impression.
Generosity is what I remember from my father. He was generous to a fault however. When my siblings got married and raised a family of their own, they always depended on my father for financial support. In fact, one of my brothers already had grandchildren but still depended on my father. My father is not only generous to his family but also to other people so you can see some problems there. I was born and raised in an apartment and we were still in that rented apartment when my father died. He had spent all his money or should I say he had given them all away to people. That's how generous my father was.
I was influenced by my father in many ways, he loved gadgets and was building his own short wave radios in the 1930s and taught me from a very early age how to wind coils and construct a radio from scratch. He owned the only car in the road and we had the first TV before they had even begun transmissions, all things I absorbed. Shortly before he died at 54 he was making miniature TVs and other gadgets of that era (the '60s). He had no detectable racism and loved music and books, all of which I have absorbed. Sadly I never really got to know him and because I was a wartime baby I never bonded with him, due to his absence for the first 5 years of my life. It was only in later life and after his death that I grew to love him and appreciate all that he gave me. One trait I inherited and didn't like, which took me most of my life to get rid of was "being right" and arguing for the sake of it. I was terrible at that but thankfully it has completely gone now.
My father was a person with a high value of right or wrong. His trade was steam fitter and usually was the supervisor on the job. He had a great sense of humor and would plan for days just to get a joke out. One time he was in the compensation hospital. He would walk alone the halls and he noticed that he would see the same people at a certain time. When he noticed a nurse looking his way he put his head on the wall than lifted it off shake his head and walk away. He done this until the nurses curiosity got the best of her and had to ask, he replied did you ever listen to this the nurse said no, well listen. Then he asked did you hear anything and when she answer no, he said yes it has been that way for weeks. He would also say that the best twenty dollar he ever spent was to give it to a man who never repaid him. He said that it only cost me twenty dollars to find out how honest the person is and I think that is cheap because he could have asked for more.