My Dad taught me....

By: JBH Wonders

· Right from wrong and the consequences for doing wrong.

· The difference between honesty and dishonesty and the consequences of being dishonest.

· The "common law" (Ten Commandments) though he may not have known them to recite. Dad especially despised liars and thieves.

· To listen to Mom and do what she told me and the consequences of not doing so.

· How to chop wood with an ax and repair or replace the handle after too many misses.

· How to split wood with a wedge and how to dig the wedge out of the wood when it wouldn't split.

· How to use and handle fire-arms and the responsibility of having one.

· How to hunt squirrels, rabbit, deer, groundhogs, and different birds.

· How to stop and sit down in the woods just to look and listen sometimes.

· How to handle farm machinery without getting hurt or breaking something.

· How to fix machinery after it got broke anyway.

· How to operate a motor vehicle.

· How to avoid traffic by going “the back way”.

· How to “wheel a wrench” on wheel lugs when changing a tire.

· How to change oil in a vehicle (remember to put the plug back and only hand-tighten the filter)

· How to fell a tree safely and cut it up for firewood.

· How to mow the yard in alternate patterns to avoid wheel ruts and make the grass grow better.

· How to ride a bicycle and tie up the pant leg of my jeans first to keep it from getting jammed in the chain. (My first bicycle did not have a chain guard).

· How to swim (he was gentle though, he sent my brother & I to the YMCA)

Dad was wiser than I previously gave him credit for. What he lacked in so-called “formal education”, he more than made up for with a knack for just getting along. He was a hard worker and taught my siblings and me this same value.

He made me physically strong as I was growing up by pushing me to do things I did not want to do. Like playing football in high school. Some athletic disciplines are still with me this day.

Sometimes Dad laughed or teased me about my failures but this always inspired me to push myself and keep trying to get things right somehow just to make him stop laughing and be proud of me. This may have been his strategy-I don't know. All I know is that I am strong morally and physically because of my Dad and Mom’s teachings while I was growing up.