Pop

My Dad was the kind of Dad that you could always depend on, and he always seemed to make the right decisions and of course he wanted his boys to be the same. As a young man there were times when i did something that was not right and my Dad would make sure that i paid the consequences for my misdeed, in order for me to learn from my mistakes. Dad wouldn't beat you or anything like that, what he would do was talk to you and make sure when he was done with you, that there was no doubt in your mind that what you did was unexceptable and you knew exactly why. Although it took me awhile to figure it all out, the lessons i learned from my Dad have always stayed with me. I remember when my Dad used to take me with him to work. You know how kids are in the morning when you wake them up, they complain, and say they don't want to get up, well when my Dad would come in the room and tell me, i was going to work with him, i would be up in a flash. It was always a privilege to go with my Dad. I remember going with him to work when he was driving caterpillar, i used to spend the whole day out there with him, he used to let me drive that cat. We would plow up a whole field and it was really cool driving that thing and when the day was over, we would be covered with dust from head to toe, which as far as i was concerned as a kid, made it even more cool. I was in my preteens, so everything my Dad did was cool. There was this one time when my Dad told me he had to move the caterpillar to another orchard, a little ways from our house. My Dad went over to the farm and picked up this big truck with a trailer, and he told me to sit inside and put my foot on the brakes, and he was going to drive the caterpillar up on the trailer. It was a big deal for me to be able to do that. I know,I know. I was just a kid, what did i know. My Dad loaded that big ol cat in that trailer and we headed out. My Dad driving, me riding shotgun, i didn't get much better then that. He drove to this area and stopped before he crossed this bridge over this small creek, pulled over and asked me if i could drive the truck over the bridge to where he was going to park the caterpillar. Now i couldn't have been more then 11 or 12 years old at the time. I couldn't believe my luck and of course i told him yes i can do it Pop. and i'm thinking oh please please let me drive this truck, please, please, please. I wanted to drive that truck so bad. My Dads thinking about it, cause he has to park that cat quit a ways away from where were at. so while he's thinking, i'm hoping and praying that he'll give me a chance to drive the truck and that little bridge is starting to look like the Golden Gate Bridge and that little creek is starting to look like the ocean and i'm praying that one of my friends will just happen to drive by and see me driving that big ol truck, please, please, please let me drive it. I'm sitting there thinking and all these different scenarios are going thru my head, when my Dad climbs in the truck and says, " never mind " My head was like this big giant balloon and Dad just let all the air out, I should have known, because like i said before, my Dad always made the right decisions, no telling what might have happened if he had let me drive that truck across that bridge. man talk about a let down. That was o.k. i think i still made points with him because i wasn't afraid to try. my Dad was still my hero, there was nobody in this world cooler than my Dad. When we would come home from work and i would hear my Dad tell my Mom that i drove the cat, and i did a pretty good job, my head and chest would swell up. And if any of my brothers or sisters were in the room and they gave me that " you brat " look, well that made it all the better. Too bad i didn't listen to my Dad more and pay attention when he would tell me, i was screwing up, it sure would have made my life so much easier, but i had to go out and learn the hard way. Whenever i screwed up Dad would have his talk with me and when he was finished, he would walk over to me and pat me on the shoulder and say, " you'll be alright" and that was it. For some reason i always remember that, in fact i do the same thing now. Like my sister Connie said, "it's the little things in life"
Dad was always real organized with his stuff, especially with his tools. I remember when i used to ask him if i could borrow his tools to fix my bike, he would never say no, but he would always say, make sure you put them back. Ok Dad, no problem. I always fixed my bikes right there on the front lawn, so of course i would loose his tools in the grass. My Dad would find his missing tools when he mowed the lawn, if you know what i mean. And of course i would get my butt chewed out for screwing up the blade on his lawnmower. The next time i asked to borrow his tools he would raise his eyebrows and take in a deep breath and shake his finger at me, ( no not the middle one ) and tell me with that look only he could give you and say, ok but make sure you put them back this time. I think i used to hold my breath the whole time when i asked him because i always expected him to say, no. Of course he had every reason to but he didn't. I know a lot of Dads would take the tools and lock them up and never let their kids use them again, but thank God Pop didn't do that, because i learned how to fix things, and make things. Just the other day, i needed this tool to tighten the spokes on my bike, well i went to the bike store to get one and the tool was something like ten-fifteen dollars. I had the tool in my hand and i said to myself. self you can make this, so i went home and made it. The money was no big deal, it was just the idea that i could make it myself, thanks to Dad of course, because he never discouraged me from fixing things. I wish you all could see some of the things my Dad used to build, he was very good at it and i was lucky enough to acquire some of his skills, in fact all my brothers did. Thank you Pop.
My brother and i worked with my Dad, when he ran that ranch out there by Elkhorn. I thought for sure it was going to be a piece of cake working under my Dad, WRONG, My Dad expected you to carry your weight, so we had to work just as hard as everyone else, ( when my Dad was looking ). Hey my brother and i were still young guys and we liked to have fun,we always had a ball with the boys from Mexico, even though we couldn't speak Spanish very well and they couldn't speak English at all, we still found a way to communicate with them. Dad would even go along with us if it was something funny, we all got it from him, he was the consummate practical joker, he used to come up with some good stuff, like when he would drive that old, half jeep, half pickup vehicle of his out in the field to pick us all up at the end of the day. He would drive by and it was up to you to jump on because he wouldn't stop, or when he would stop and when you went to jump on, he would take off real fast and you miss the vehicle and land on the ground, either that or he would slam on the brakes when you went to jump on and you go flying into the back of the vehicle landing on the other guys or the dogs, nobody ever got hurt, but we always had a good laugh, even when it was at our own expense. Dad loved working out there, but for me, i couldn't get into that line of work. So i moved on to other things.
I spent a lot of quality time with my Dad right before he got sick and i'm so glad i listened to my sisters, because they used to tell me to go see him as often as i could. And just spend time with him and let him talk, so i did. Dad told me a lot of things about his past, about the way it was for him when he came over here from Mexico. I remember him telling me about the time he went into this bar and stood up to this big dude, and how the dude respected him for that. Mom would be sitting right there listening and correcting him on some of the small details of his stories. Pop wasn't always so mello, he did have a little wild streak in him. Now i know where i got that urge for that periodic walk on the wild side.
I sure miss those Sundays when i used to go visit Mom and Dad, and Mom would make us a delicious breakfast with her home made Tortillas, and we could just sit there and talk about anything we wanted to talk about, most the time the conversation would end up with them talking about how it was in their day. I always enjoyed that. Some of their stories were very sad and others were very funny, but you know what, their stories let you know just how strong they had to be to endure all the hardships they went thru. their life together and their love for each other was truly amazing.