Dad's and sons...light is a tool, so is stern talk..

[DENNIS MIN]

All,

Time was many moons ago,

My very tolerant father had to endure his overly inquisitive #2 son in the shed while working on an 8N. I had little listening skills, or attention, or anyhting else that would make things go easier, especially in the cold.

Did any one ever burn their dad"s forehead with the mettalic heat shield from the 100 watt trouble-light, while distracted by a mouse running the purlins on the shed?

What my Dad had to deal with, I am unsure I"ve got the same grace and patience. Swift blistering caused Dad"s selectively interrupted vocabulary.

Meant in a lighthearted sense...find the humor please.
D.
 

[Dean Olson]

"Hold the light so I can see not so you can!"

Growing up in the midwest I was a big boy. Threw a lot of hay bales and delivered water softener salt as a part time job. I also thought that tighter was better and busted more than a few bolts.

Had my share of stern talk.

Many a fond memory, now anyway. Not so much at the time.
 

[to_many_irons]

gramp and dad both
can you see .
yep
well hold so i can .
[ words changed some lol . ]
learned lots from them .
 

[Billy Shafer]

One day after the ranch got the first diesel tractor they bought. It stopped running so my dad and the foreman were working on it. I was sitting in the seat making a pain of myself. Two hours of working and a few cuss words later. I took the top off of the fuel tank and said. This tank is empty. Both of them stopped and gave some very stern looks and a good talking to. About playing some where else.
 

[showcrop]

my dad would have me helping him do things now and then, and more frequently as I grew older. He was very stern and strict and always required that I pay attention so that I would be ready with the next tool or part and not need waking up. That experience and training stood me well in future employment.
 

[pete black]

the one i remember the most and dislike to this day "kids should be seen and not heard". vowed never to say that to our sons.
 

[tomturkey]

I really disliked helping my Dad. Helping him meant, "Here, hold this screwdriver" "Give me the screwdriver" "Here hold this for me".Long periods of holding tools. I'd try to sneak away, but..."hey, where you going?"We're not done yet. It is all very amusing now, very boring back then. I also experienced the shine the light so I can see thing. All seems so funny now gobble
 

[schriffs]

"Hold the light on what I'm working on, not on me"... I learned a lot in the shop, barn, field, etc... mostly from Dad, also from brothers, neighbors, etc. No school can teach that stuff. I still learn something new every couple of weeks! Sometimes I wish I hadn't learned so much, because i don't want to pay someone to do something I can do myself, and I can fix almost anything. That makes for a long to-do list.
 

[JMS./MN]

Kevvie.....it's a generational thing about where to aim the light. Your Grandpa taught me that.....just like my usual job on a WC engine overhaul was cleaning up parts, and that's how I learned what made them tick. For my YT Mag friends, Schriffs (who posts here very occasionally), is my middle son, JD diesel tech, excellent diagnostician, and like his two brothers....the best sons any Dad could have. It's fun to see how they always work together, and with their three sisters as well.
 

[Dick2]

I got growled at when I was a kid, but I learned from it. My son was impossible as a helper; he could slip away faster than a hawk on a dive.

Daughter was my best helper; she would stand patiently waiting for my next order and do exactly as I directed her. She much preferred to help me than help in the kitchen.
 

[Hendrik]

Fully concur.
While helping my dad wrenching, I too tended to overtighten things. Led Dad to tell me to stop that because "when it must be taken apart again, odds are that I (Dad) must do it".
In vocational I tightened a chuck to the main shaft of a lathe so strongly, the instructor could not remove it when he needed the chuck changed. Background was that not long before that I got nearly killed by a 30 lbs chuck that was slung from a lathe, because someone had failed to tighten it properly.
Yes, good memories
 

[Bret4207]

I don't believe I'm anywhere near as patient as my Dad was. But I also try to explain things to my kids, where my Dad would hand me a book and say, "Here, read this and it's all explained." He could read a book and understand complex or completely foreign ideas, I never could get it like he did. I'd give an awful lot to be able to spend one more day with him. He's been gone since 1980.

Yup, I know the thing with the light- "Shine the light where I'M LOOKING, not where YOU'RE looking!!!"

 

[jackinok]

at our house,the youngest boy always got to be "HELPER" older ones moved on to bigger and better things. since i was the youngest boy,and we were close together,guess who got to be helper longest!!LOL.. didnt hurt me none though,and dad when he was older and had a stroke so he couldnt go would poke the older guys with his cane and holler "get back out of the way and let jack do it,you boys are going to be here all day"..they had the brains i had the strong back.dad would make me hold two lights,one so i could see and one so HE could see.he would work all day on something not saying anything "but shine your light here"..that meant his wasnt in the right place so i had to shine mine on it too.
 

[JRSutton]

I can picture doing that with a work light!

But I only burned my dad once.

In the car going to church - I went to turn off his choice of what he selected on the radio - knocked the cigarette out of his hand onto his brand new, expensive, dress pants - burning a series of large holes.

man was he mad.

I sat in church wondering whether or not I should turn him in for using the lord's name in vain.

Needless to say I left the radio alone from that day forward.
 

[JRSutton]

never thought of it that way - but you're 100% right about the downside to knowing how to do everything!!!

Add five siblings who DON'T know how to do ANYTHING, and that list gets five times longer.