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OT: My Dad's tougher than me..

D

DENNIS MIN

Member
All,

Thinking about rounding the bend of fifty years got me to wondering what my Dad did at my age...

He ran construction, before bobcats, before the onset of pneumatic nailers; a Lull loader was a godsend. No SPF, no earplugs, what's a dust mask? Probably some things he should have had, but didn't.

I am convinced that my Dad worked way harder than I do or did.

However, in my defense, I was the human backhoe whenever there was some trenching to do in areas that a mechanized hoe wouldn't fit or reach.

To date, that tough goat is still cutting his own wood for heating, albeit not at the pace of previous years. His house is well heated in winter.

We ate well from his efforts to provide.

D.
 
Your caption really caught my attention, as I was just thinking the same thing. I've got 10 years on you, and it looks like hip replacement is in my future. My father, uncles, cousins milked cows, handled bales all their lives, shoveled and did things the hard way. There were some health issues, but not this early!
 
my dad was tough as nails too,never a day off,,,never told him he was a great man,,,wish I had,,,he was way tougher than me thats for sure ,,and way smarter too,,,
 
It wasn't long ago I was talking with my folks about this very thing. When we put up a new barn on the home place the grandparents came every chance and helped us - right up to shingling the roof. They were both 72 at the time. It's a miracle we didn't kill the poor folks, especially considering they had to go home and do their own chores! I wouldn't dream of doing that to my parents now although they are the same age. They have moved to town and dad is always itching to come take care of some projects. He'd work circles around me, too.
 
Four years come April since my father passed away , toughest little bloke I have ever come across . He gave up most of his own personal dreams to do the best for his family . I can only hope to live up to part of his example .
 
When dad was the age I am now(64) we had switched to round bales so hard baling work was over with. Back when we did bale the small squares two of the men on the crew were pushing 80. One of them was born in 1893 and the other in 1895 and they baled up into the mid 1970's. Now that I think of it I stacked hay with a WW1 vet. I'm not THAT old! He smoked till he was in his 90's and died at 97.
 
Dad was 65 the year I was born (Mom was 42). He worked until he was 75, at which time he had a serious heart attack. Heated with wood. Never owned a chain saw, in fact - never used a cut-off saw. Axe and a crosscut. When I was about 3 or 4, he could stand on one leg, with the other leg held straight out in front of him, and squat 'til his heel touched his butt, then stand back up. On one leg. Two of my brothers were fresh from boot camp, and couldn't match him. A better man than me, by far.
 
I see nothing wrong with hard work. We need more of it. I had a similar father. I miss him more as I get older. Yours sounds like a good man.
 
same here ,,. dad taught me that hard work will overcome many shortcomings ,, I have learned from dad that being wise and seizing opportunity and timing is everything ,,, Just ask 2 Lovers , he used to smile and say ..
 
I remember as a kid, My father came in from his job as a residential home builder.. He and his crew of 4 built a new house every week from scratch.. No trusses, no pre-built walls.. Every thing stick built.. In the winter he would come home , shower , and sit in his chair with a shot of whiskey with his facial color almost purple from the cold.. He passed one house from retiring.. It was to be his and moms retirement home.. The only sh*ts and giggles they had was the Friday or Saturday night sauna nite at our house with their friends.. I saw that and said to myself, not me... So I went into mechanics... So there I was with frozen mud stuck to my Carharts and fingers that are so knotted up that I now have a hard time even picking things up now.. And working on Cat compactors at the landfill with the winter wind blowing up my "skirt", and sea gulls crapping on everything and everyone.. Yep, I sure showed Pop , didn't I ??
 
yup, my dad worked for the phone company, climbing poles all year round. He'd have to carry a heavy (wooden) extension ladder AND all his tools on his belt from his truck through yards (or sometimes hundreds of feet through a field) and then do it all over again until he found the line trouble. Worked 7 days a week for years to feed us 6 kids. When I was in my late teens (he was in his early 50's, IIRC), he came home for lunch with his truck and I tried to carry the ladder and his tool belt from the curb to the pole in our yard, then climbed the ladder. I was exhausted and couldn't imagine him doing that all day, all week. Finally, in his late 50's decided it was getting too hard and moved indoors to a dispatch job.

One thing that I notice, though, is that my kids' and their friends generally have "softer" jobs but they exercise more for recreation. They all belong to gyms and jog regularly around the neighborhoods.
 
I worked as a construction electrician. A few years before I retired, we were working on a school job where we were hand digging a lot of very shallow slots for under concrete conduit going to wall receipticals ect. A young journeyman working with me complained, that he had never worked that hard as a journeyman, and a journeyman should not have to work that hard. After a couple days of that. I told him that a lot of people paid good money to go to health clubs to exercise, and here we were being paid good money and getting good exercise.

Dusty
 
I think i am just as though or thougher as my dad was and the good man worked hard on his farm all his life.
I sure have 5 times his ambition and skills.
 
At my age dad was a truck driver, he hauled cars. Might not seem like much but he had to crawl up and down that old truck both to load, unload and chain 'em down. A few of his friends and co-workers fell off those trucks, some died, some spent the rest of their lives in wheel chairs or needing aids (crutches, canes and walkers). Don't think I could do that, heck the ladders at work are a little tough.
 
I get my toughness from my Mother. 20 years of Arthritis so severe She could not get any relief from the pain. Heart disease couldn't kill her survived 2 bypass surgeries, finally succumbed to the chemo treatments for breast cancer trying to keep going. All just being a petite Lady about 5' tall. May she rest in piece. She deserves it.
 
My dad grew up on a farm, but an illness when he was young left him partially handicapped. After some years of being a share cropper, he managed to buy a small farm. But being a small farm meant smaller income, which meant we couldn't afford a lot of modern equipment, so we had to do more manually. I went to work elsewhere when I finished high school, and still helped Dad all I could. When in his mid sixties, he sold the farm and bought a mobile home on two acres of land where he continued to grow a whopping garden each year and sold vegetables and canned all he and Mom could eat. He grew a garden until he was about 85,which would have put me at about 60, and he could still outwork me.
 
"OT: My Dad's tougher than me.."

but, be a fly on the wall, I'll bet your sons and grandsons are now saying the same thing about.......you!

Time marches on...
 
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