As I read over JJ's memories of her dad, I started thinking about my own dad.. and remembering all kinds of things.
Dad was a television repairman. He spent a lot of time out 'on the road' going into peoples' homes and fixing their errant tv sets. Sometimes he brought them home with him to his shop to work on when the problems were more than just a tube here or there that he might carry in his toolbox. Interestingly, probably most of the people who would read this blog statement won't have a clue about tubes in tv sets..all the circuits are 'printed' now. But Dad was really into electronics. I often wondered if he had lived longer if he would have been into video equipment.. I feel sure he would. And he would have had a computer too!!!
He was good at almost anything he did. He knew all about gardening and would have made an excellent farmer. I think Charlie and Bill inherited that ability to grow things. Dad knew how to graft branches on trees, and could grow plums and peaches on one at the same time.. interesting. He knew so much.
He built a big barn behind our house on 7th Street Road and then we got our horse, King. We were the envy of every kid in the neighborhood.. hehehe.
Dad knew all sorts of games.. and when we were needing to be entertained as children, he took spikes and hammered them into a board and we used Mom's jar seals to toss them at the spikes.. each spike had a score under it.. so we had an original Ring Toss! Fun!
I remember once he went out in the back yard with little cans and "planted" them here and there in the ground.. then went into the woods and cut sticks to make golf clubs for us, and then whittled the balls! He knew about whittling too.. and was really good at it. He made us toy guns, sling shots, and whistles that actually worked out of wood or tree branches. I think P2 still has one or two of the guns he made him out of a piece of wood.
I never got the hang of the stilts he made for us.. I just never had the right balance. But he could walk with them all over the place and encouraged us to try.
He made picnic tables, lawn chairs, and built his own house and kept on building his repair shop.. He was very skilled.
Growing up, we had a tv in every room except the bathroom.. and probably would have had one there if it had been big enough.. I remember seeing the 6" screen tv he was working on. It had a green screen and you had to wait till it warmed up to function. Back then, there wasn't much on the tv, and it signed on at noon and off after 5pm.. Can you imagine?
The first program I remember watching on tv was Howdy Doody..
They don't make programs like that any more.
Dad took us to church every Sunday- and he and mom went too.. We took the neighbor kids as well. It was sometimes crowded in the car, but the distance wasn't too bad. No seat belts back then, but far less traffic and speed wasn't an issue either.
Dad knew how to have fun.. he showed us that we didn't need fancy sleds to sled-ride. He'd use the top of Mum's washer (yes, the lid was removeable).. but the best of all was the cardboard from a new tv set he'd sold a customer.. WOW! We could put 6 kids on one piece and it FLEW down the hillside! More than once a Flexible Flyer would sit on the top of the hill while all the kids jumped on the cardboard.. Dad would ice the top of the hill with a bucket or two of water.. and off we'd go!
In his later years, he had grandchildren, and they all loved going to the big house in Logan's Ferry. As we grew up, we always had swings.. and when we moved to LF, it was one of the first things he did.. put up a swing. Wendell tells about the day when he had to climb a tall ladder on a tree to put the ropes on.. Dad had given up climbing the tall trees by then, but the desire was to have swings for the kids.
We had sheep in LF.. Muttonhead and Lambchop.. Interesting.
I bought him a tractor.. the Farmall A that JJ now owns. Cute little thing.. Dad used it to plow his garden for a while.. Wendell had to show him how it was done. He'd never driven a real tractor before. Then came the high lift (boy toy).. he'd never driven one of those before either, and kept slipping the track off.. Our cousins from down the road would come up to help get the track back on for him.. no charge .. Such a great family! He bought the highlift to plow snow in the winter. The driveway was really long and wound up into the hills. We called it the mountain..for it was, actually. With this toy.....er... tool, he was able to dig holes and smooth out the land.. and dig up the gas line too!
Our kids adored him.. P2 rode with Gramma and Grampa from church every Sunday to their house for lunch. It was a great time for him.
JJ had her own spot at the dining room table.. and don't let ANYONE try to take it..it was at her Grampa's side.
He was pretty special.. We rarely took a family vacation, but we had great fun at home.
Oh, he was an amateur photographer also.. took all his own pictures and developed them too. Many of the photos I have are ones he took.. and developed at home. I have inherited that from him I'm sure- I'm a very visual person and love pictures of anything and everyone.
If he were living, he'd be 91 this year. He never even knew we were going to have Amanda.. she never got to know him. Wendy was not 2 yr old when he passed away.. and she has little to no recollection of him either.
There is so much more I can remember, but I'll leave it at this. Anyone want to post a memory?
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