Rich Heritage

I'm pretty sure I've lived over half my life already. It's simple arithmetic actually. I have accounted for my long-life genes and even my fantasy age. I have added in any extra years I might get for good behavior and I just can't make the numbers work in my favor.That being said, I plan to stick around for quite sometime yet, just not as long as I've already been here. So, what have I done of any lasting value at all? Not much. But, in some way, a part of me will live much longer through my kids. Poor things.

This gets me to thinking about my heritage. I’ve mentioned my mother. I love that woman! She is loving, funny, smart, a great cook, ditzy, forgetful, creative and very compassionate. I picked up a couple of those traits. You can be the judge which ones. And I will write more about her, as I’m sure she is woven tightly through every fiber of my being. But let me say a few words about my dad.

He is my hero. Dad had it tough growing up.

When I say my folks grew up in rhe country. I’m talking country. Dirt roads. Outhouses. Naked light bulb hanging from the ceiling. No phones. Chop-the-firewood country. Grow-your-own-food country. Butcher-your-pet-pig country.

To get to Grandma’s house, you must take the blacktopped two-lane road for twenty miles from Mtn. Grove (pop. 3,476), take a sharp right in the big curve in Manes (pop. 54), go about five miles to the three mailboxes, turn right onto the one-lane dirt road. Drive carefully and very, very slowly. Straddle the tall weeds growing in the middle. Grab a handful of leaves as the branches from the small trees and underbrush scrape the sides of your car and reach in through your open windows. Pay especially close attention as you navigate ‘the branch.’ This small swift-running tributary to the larger creek on the backside of the property is famous for hiding large rocks and underwater holes that could take out the vital organs of your automobile. The safe passage route was known only to the two families who lived on the other side—and the milkman from the dairy who picked up the milk and brought me blue bubble gum when I stayed with Grandma. It was actually a pretty good security system, I’d say.

Back to Dad. He had few advantages as many would think of them. He worked hard as a child. He doesn’t remember sitting on anyone’s lap or being tucked in at night. However, he always knew that his mother loved him. To write about Dad’s life would take a book. Literally.

He took on shame and embarrassment that were not his to bear. But somewhere inside him was a drive and desire to press forward; to learn more; to have a better life. He was not driven by money. (At least, if wealth was his motivation, he has never acquired it to any measurable degree.) I suppose there was this innate desire to learn. He passed up some opportunities that could have caused his life to have a very different outcome. He was offered some incredible jobs that I will have to go back and ask him about—and write them down this time. But for whatever reason—fate, God’s will, poor choices—he did not take them.

Here’s what he's done:
· School teacher in a one-room school house
· Factory worker
· Watch repairman
· Television repairman, electrician
· Mailman
· Sunday school teacher
· Associate pastor
· Missionary
· Pastor
· College professor
· College dean
· College president

Here’s what he accomplished:
· College graduate after the age of 40
· Masters Degree
· Doctorate
· Built a college library
· Owned multiple properties
· Influenced and impacted thousands of people literally around the world
· Stayed married to Mom for 58 years and counting
· Survived a heart attack and two by-pass surgeries
· Wrote and published a book
· Survived raising me and brother

So, why is this man my hero? Why is he my role model? I adore him. He is loving. He is kind. He is strong. He is highly intelligent in a non-assuming or in-your-face kind of way. He is simple, honest, handsome and humble. He is dedicated, likable, hilariously funny and witty with a dry sense of humor—but I get it! He’s my dad and there are only two people in the entire world who can say that. He loves me exactly the way I am.