Father’s day is fast approaching and in honor of all dads, Doc and I are dedicating this weeks blog to all the wonderful father’s out there.
My dad Ozzie, a white standard poodle had a brief appearance in my life. My dad lived on the farm down the road from where I was born and I only met him once. But, I know part of who I am is because of him, and for that I am thankful. Doc on the other hand, had a long relationship with her father. Although he has been gone for a while, I love to listen to the stories about him when all the family is together. Apparently he was quite the character. So the other day, when I decided to write this blog, I asked Doc what was the biggest lesson she learned from her father. Without hesitation she answered, “If you want to get rid of the junk at your house, either recycle it, re purpose it, or take it over to your kids house, tell them it is their stuff and leave it”. To illustrate her point, she related the following story.
Doc’s first house was built in 1907 and to put it bluntly, it was falling apart. Being naive she took on the projects herself with assistance from family and friends. Deciding she did not want a bathroom with a powder blue toilet, sink and tile, she decided to gut the whole thing. Her parents had recently replaced the two white toilets in their own bathroom’s and thinking she could save some money, she asked her dad if she could have one of the toilets. He told her yes, but said she needed to take them both. Even though she argued with him that she only needed one toilet, he would not give in. Not having the money to spend on a new one, she reluctantly took them, storing one in her shed, where it stayed for years virtually ignored behind the rakes, shovels and lawn mower.
Many years later, after Doc’s father passed away she went over to his house, to clean it out and get ready for a garage sale. She decided to bring over the old white toilet to see if she could sell it. As she was taking out some things to the curb for the garbage truck to take away, a couple of men stopped in their truck and asked if they could have some of the things to recycle. With a smirk on her face, she paused, looked over at the old white toilet and said “sure if you take that toilet with you.” They responded that they didn’t really want the toilet, but Doc held firm, “if you don’t take the toilet, you can’t have the stuff.” They looked at each other, hoisted the toilet on to the truck with the other treasures and drove away.
Well, like they say, the apple doesn’t fall far from the tree. Happy father’s day!