Some things I learned from my Dad...



I like this picture of Dad, back in his single days before he met and fell in love with Mom. His name was also...John. He used to be the adventurous type, driving from place to place on his Harley. He'd tell me about the hill climbs he did on it...and this was before motorcycles were the rage.

Dad was born in a log cabin in a small town in Northern Michigan. He had to drop out of school and go to work before he finished grammar school. The two things that he seemed to really enjoy...hearing him tell it, were motorcyles and dancing. In fact he met Mom at a dance and I think that's what got her attention. He was know in our neighborhood as the Waltz King...but he could do a pretty mean polka too.
Accordians were his favorite instrument and he played one. Not well...but he played.

Anyhow when I was growing up he made sure that I had a set of encylopedias so I could learn some of the things that he didn't know about. Those and just a few others were what I cut my teeth on. When I was little I was always sick so then in addition to books he turned me on to jigsaw puzzles. His admonition always was, "When you're working on a puzzle, always look at the big picture first and you'll begin to see how the pictures will begin to come together." That's the beginning of my 'conceptual' thinking.

He never said in so many word that he loved me until I was 27 years old. He grew up without a dad around to learn from so he was awkward with words. But he showed it.
He was always there when I needed him, he wanted to show me how to 'fix' things but I wasn't mechanically inclined so while he was playing Mr. Fixit somewhere I was reading or doing something else.

But from him I learned the 'worth ethic' by his actions, I learned about loyalty, compassion. He had feet of clay...but he managed to walk tall on them. There are so many things that I didn't understand about him when I was growing up...but I do now. We weren't the closest father/son team on the planet...but we loved and respected each other. The times we didn't understand each other fade away as the good things about our relationship come to the surface. I love him and miss talking to him. But one thing he did leave for me was tapes about his experiences in life...and some of his accordian music.

Thanks, Dad for being who you are and making me more of who I am.

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