The Greatest Gift

 At my cousin Roy’s funeral a few weeks ago, I was talking with one of his co-workers and he said something about how Roy could fix anything.  He was amazed. “Like how did he know all this stuff?”  I explained that it was almost a way of life in our family.  I mentioned in my earlier post about the tractor shed, how my father taught me so many things.  Roy’s dad, my Uncle Jerry was the same way.  It was a great gift.  

Uncle Jerry was an appliance dealer. He sold and repaired Whirlpool appliances for over 50 years. Naturally, all our appliances came from him.  But, like Daddy, he expected me to fix things myself whenever I had a problem.  He would sell me the part and talk me through the repair over the phone and if I still couldn’t fix it, then I could bring it in or he’d send one of his guys to check it out.  But he was teaching me how to do things for myself.

I tell people all the time that the greatest gift my father gave me was to teach me how to “do things “.  Not just fix things, but how to function in the world. Things like how to apply for a bank loan, how to read a map, how to maintain your property, how to deal with people, real world skills we all need. Hell, he even taught me to cook!   He was a world class steak chef, even if he did cook his a little more well done than I like!  

I tried to teach my boys the same way, and I’m proud to say, they learned well.  Both of them are pretty handy with repairs, etc. So many parents don’t do that, though. And they do their children a great disservice by doing so. 

The band Crosby, Stills, & Nash had a song back in the 1970s, Teach Your Children. Every parent needs to do that.  A child’s education is not limited to school.  Teach your children well.