My old man...OT kinda, he was a son at one time

Unbelievable!

When I was a teen, that burdensome, cantankerous, chore-ridden, discipline-driven, son of a who-knows-what did NOT know a damn thing.

For some ridiculous reason, we had food, a warm home, and the opportunity to get where you wanted to be.

Fast forward a few decades, be damned, he'd been wiser than I may ever be. And perhaps a whole lot more tolerant than I could achieve.

Good work ethics, desire to achieve, recognize the wealth of good education, and the honesty of a good day of labor, what was he thinking?

We had a Ford 8N, followed by Farmall, just to keep things on topic.

D.

When I look back on the days of my youth, I can see my dad had a LOT of patience that I didn't realize at the time. I knew how to work, but there were the other things I don't need to get into here. LOL Jim

At age 18, I thought my dad was a fool. At age 35, I knew who the fool was!

my dad never had to lay a hand on me his words was enough. but one time i was 12 he was making a new door in the house. course he was already mad. dad told me to get something at the same time mon did. long story short he grab me and started spanking me with his hand. it did not hurt. but all at once it dawn on me.my dad wad spanking me. then boy did i start to cry. that was the only time he ever laid a hand on me. our first tractor was a f-12 then later a f-20

My dad never touched me,but was verbally abusive to me my sisters and mom.He never spent anytime with any of us unless it was making us work on the farm.Never shed a tear when he died.

Funny how that works ain't it?
Hopefully your kids will figure it out too.
Mine did. I'm waiting on the grandkids to figure it out too.
Problem is, by the time they do, I may not know squat! LOL

My dad grew up on a Belgian truck farm, one of the younger sons. Older sons had all the authority when Pa was gone. This did not sit well with my dad, so he stayed away from farming his whole life after he grew up. Went into sheet metal and was in charge of all the aft ventilation system on the USS West Virginia after it got back to Bremerton Washington from getting bombed at Pearl Harbor. One thing he always said that I found funny was his dad bought a F 12 Farmall and all the kids wanted a John Deere GP. He called the F 12 "the gutless wonder".

Waiting for my 25 year old son to figure it out.

I'm with you. I have a 23 and a 24-y-old. The 24-y-o was good growing up, and later gave me MOST of my gray hair.

The 23-y-o was a HORRIBLE teenager and caused me to be on a first-name basis with the law enforcement folks in three counties, and is now my best buddy and praises me for putting up with him, and makes more money than I could have ever dreamed of.

So, you never know!

Ray: Sounds a lot like my dad. Filthiest mouth I think I ever heard, and it was typically directed at my mom and myself. I spent a lot of time and agony hating that man...

And what did I have to show for it?

Growing up just like him!

Once I got my head out of the bottle, just like dad, just like his dad... Realized it was now up to me to break the generational curse.

Dad's been gone 19 years now, I've been sober 18. Sometimes the old memories of him still haunt me, but I now realize they are just memories, can't change the past.

I can look for the good, he was a good provider, honest and a man of his word. I now have those attributes, I just need to concentrate on being a better father and grand father, an example that wasn't given to me, I have to work for it.

About a month ago I came down with a bad cold/flu?
I was having one of those restless fever ridden nights, had a dream about dad.

In the dream he was at his shop, it was Sunday, his day to go in and catch up on paper work. I saw him through the window and by the time I got turned around and back to the shop, he was gone. I woke up crying.

Maybe some healing is happening, sure hope so!

I have an 81-year-old brother that still hasn't figured it out. Hasn't gotten any smarter than he was as a kid.

Can't remember if the current wife is his 3rd or 4th marriage - but the house and cars are in her name!

"When I was a boy of seventeen, my father was so ignorant I could hardly stand to have the old man around. But when I got to be twenty-one, I was astonished at how much he had learned in seven years." Mark Twain

My son used to want to help when I was working on something, lot of times I had him to hold the flashlight. he thought I was just giving him some to do that wasn"t much help. since he has grown up he wishes he had a son to hold the flashliight for him. I told him holding the flashlight was something I really needed at the time and he was a BIG help. I am proud of my eagle scout son!!

Once I moved back in while driving truck and helped dad through a few lean winters we got along OK, as long as I forgot about the loans not getting paid back, or the time I bounced a check because he took twice what he asked for, or paying for my truck twice when I bought him out on it, the muffler on the (new) tractor I bought for mowing the lawn getting laid back onto the hood, or the 7 ft finish mower getting tweaked because he didn't feel like starting a backhoe, dozer, or bobcat to smooth the lawn out. Several hundred miles between us has helped more than anything.

That is known as "Fool reversal, inverse rectal cranial inversion syndrome" I had a big dose of it.

My two sons are just now realizing they have it and are hopefully gonna start looking for a cure soon.

Gene