Learning from My Dad

I come from a family of 14 kids,and one thing stuck in my mind forever.It was something my dad said to me.He said,that if I didn’t watch him,and learn from him,that I would end up paying someone to do any repairs I needed done.My dad was a real handyman.you might even say that he was a jack of all trades.My dad could fix anything,that needed fixing,from the house,to things in the yard,to doing repairs on his cars.I recall doing what he suggested,next thihg I knew,was he had me participateing with hands on,and him guideing me.We did tuneups on the cars,and I learned everything,about gapping spark plugs,rebuilding carborators,setting the timeing,on the engine,and changeing the plug wires,one at a time,so I didn’t mess up the firing order.Another thing we did,was change brakes.My dad showed me everything that he knew about the brakes on his car.We either rebuilt,or replaced every part of brake systems,at one time,or another.I learned how to re-build wheel cylinders,put on new brake pads,and get the drums resurfaced,and even learned how to re-build the master brake cylinder,and how to bleed air out of the whole system,when everything was re-placed,with new parts.When we weren’t doing car repairs,my dad was always doing something to the house,or around the yard.I became a hands on learner,a lot.some of the other things I was taught,were how to mix concrete in a wheelborrow with gravel,and sand,and water,because we built our own sidewalk,from the house,to the road.another thing I was taught,was how to do all the framework,to sceen in our front porch.another thing we did,was re-shingle the house.Now,getting back to the yard.I was shown how to condition our clayee soil,to make a garden.We went to the near by quarry,and got black dirt,and rototiiled it in.We went,and got fine gravel,and rototilled it in,then we went,and got lime,and rototilled it in,and last of all we went,got the main ingredient{ fertizer},and rototilled it in.Then my dad showed me a lot,of about how to plant seeds,for vegetables,and starter plants for vegetables,that didn’t come in seed form.Next thing I knew,was that I was helping my dad plant rose bushes all over the yard,because my mom liked rose bushes.last,but not least,I helped my mom plant flowers all over the yard.When it came to the inside of our home,we converted our plain old attic,into bedrooms,starting with putting in steps to the attic,and partitioning off the attic,into rooms,with flooring boards,frames,and drywall.In the bathroom,on the main floor,we went from an old cast iron bathtub,to putting in a new one,with a shower head.YAH,that’s right.I learned plumbing ,and caulking,and stair building,and everything that comes with putting rooms in the attic.Can you imagine all the money these things would have costed,if my dad had someone do all the things he knew how to do himself?!My dad is gone,but his knowledge lives on in me.