Spent the afternoon with my dad...
 

I was left my dad's tool boxes when he passed away 2.5 years ago. Two of them have been in my basement in a corner since bringing them home...the rest of them are in a storage unit.

I finally started to clean them out, tossing out random pieces of steel that have no meaning to anyone, but meant something to him...pieces of steel that were deleted out of a die during an engineering change or were replaced with the newest profile as per customer needs...things he made that are no longer needed.

I pulled out his old Machinist's Handbook, and found school pictures of my brothers and me, as well as all the pictures of my kids that I gave him over the years. I also found a pocket knife that I got him when I was 16, and a Zippo I had engraved for him for Father's Day in 1989...never lit.
I found parts from dies we built together, such as the whistle for the American Whistle Company, a wiper arm die we did that made the wiper arm for the Chrysler 300, and bearing caps for another customer.

It was then that I realized how well we worked together, yet rarely saw things on the same level outside of work and politics.

I spent the afternoon with my dad...what a great afternoon it was.

You are a fine son to honor his memory as you do.

I cherish the memory of my wonderful dad daily.

I can't imagine what you felt when you opened that manual and saw those pictures, to realize that your dad put them in there knowing that each time he grabbed it, he'd be looking at people who meant so very much to him.

Nice tale, JP. You honor him by sharing such things.

Thanks. The memories it brought up were strong. When I opened the book and saw those pictures, tears were streaming down my cheeks.

I have a large 8 drawer Kennedy with twin side boxes filled with his tools in storage that I still need to go through. Once I get the basement and gun shop arranged and space cleared for it, I'll have the kids bring it in so I can do it all over again. It is filled with tools that my brother and I made for him as we were getting our feet wet in the trade. We'd made high precision 1-2-3 blocks, angle plates, V-block, grinding vices, sine vices, and other tools. Dad taught us precision first...his thought was that anyone can hack on a mill, that it took skill to be able to produce a high degree of precision on a grinder, especially on the antiquated grinders we had.

I know the memories will pour in when I finally get around to opening those drawers and start going through them.

Pop's life revolved around work and family...work first, then family. Prior to age 13, he was just the man that was gone before I woke up, and didn't come back home until after I was in bed. I'd see him on the weekends, where he'd punish us for not obeying during the week. It wasn't until we began working for him on our 13th birthdays that we really began having a relationship with him...and what a relationship it became. We were father-son, teacher-student, coworkers, and finally close friends.

I sure do miss that old bastard...and I truly mean that in a kind, respectful, and loving manner.

That's a great story. Thanks for sharing it with us. I have an old tool box of my dad's and rummaging around in it brings back a lot of memories for me, too. For us it was carpentry that we did together. He taught me so much. Dad's been gone for 25 years now and I still miss him.

I am acutely envious of your experiences.

Good on you for appreciating them!

Thanks for sharing with us Jon! I have a bunch of Dad's projects that I inherited. Some will have to go but I'm not ready yet....after 8 years.;)

It's nice to reflect/remember jpl. At least, fortunately it is for me.

Huge amounts of gratitude/appreciation, etc. for my Dad. Learned a lot about a lot of things from him in 30 some years. Some of it I couldn't duplicate if I tried, but other things he knew a little about by sharing that he knew very little about them, I explored and expanded geometrically on myself. Certainly not the artist/craftman/general.contractor/materials.cost.estimator/architect/builder/plumber/designer/car mechanic - all self-taught/acquired & hard worker he was - that's for sure. After reflecting on this overnight, I realized the believe it or not aspects to my Dad's achievements. ALL the above talents were only utilized as his partime self-employed jobs/talents. As he was self-employed for over 40 years (no paychecks) in his own territory management/repping business, and operated a fulltime construction real estate business too, with my Mom's fulltime help of both businesses. I came to realize some (many) fall flat on their faces, failing for one reason or other when trying to build and maintain a family real estate business fulltime, not to mention taking care of everything involved by managing the land and financing procurement, design, Gov't. permits/requirements, materials, sub-contractors, building, leasing, and maintaining the varying buildings over time. Heck, some ppl can't succeed in just one simple employee job in much of the above construction / real estate endeavors. He only did it partime, succeeding in it, is what is still amazing to me. Almost 30 years ago, when Dad was winding down his repping business to retire on his RE holdings when he was in his early 60s, I took a friend of mine to my folk's home in Omaha to visit. My friend was from upstate New York, held a MS in electrical engineering from R.I.T. NY, working fulltime in Texas as a tech employee for Texas Instruments, and was about to get his fledgling real estate rental business started by buying a decades old duplex. After he quizzed my Dad in relating the history of his construction business the previous 35 years, he was a little taken aback as to how he could duplicate any of it. Soon after he bought the duplex he sold it, claiming RE was not for him - certainly nothing he could make a profit at. Upon my Dad's death, my Parent's estate attorney, a neighbor, was similarly surprised/amazed at the assets he and my Mom had built with no formal edu besides a GED when mustering out of the Service from WW II. If there were ppl I could be more like, in my case, it'd be my folks - both WW II veterans. I feel for those around here and elsewhere w/o one or more parents, especially for those that seem to relate disasterous upbringings in their family. I have to mention that He and my Mom raised four boys, sending us all to private edus and colleges at their expense for room/board/tuition & transportation. Just not a lot of folks do that now, or in the past. I feel very fortunate reflecting on times like that being raised by my folks.

Oh well, great reflections here too, jpl. I have a garage full of tools used by my Dad too - most I still use. But the biggest thing I reflect on is the advice and example set by them. Holidays will always be hard for me when remembering my folks.:)