Bob

Sort of a guest blogger for this one. I promise to get away from the tear jerker’s soon.  I’m not doing it on purpose.  I write about things that affect me as they affect me.  Sometimes it might take me a month or more to get things down “on paper” but most of what I write is “fresh”.  I can’t say that I’ve been tearing up every day for the last few months, just that I’ve seen some really cool material (or had a chance to write it). 

Some of you may remember my post “Bottled Memories”. That post was written about a man named Bob Hines.  If you haven’t read it yet, please do.   Here, in a post lifted from FaceBook, one of his sons talks about him a little more:

I was thinking about my Dad today and how much I miss him. He passed away about 7 years ago. I think that our dads could possibly be the greatest source of wisdom that many of us will ever have. I am finding myself more and more like my father everyday; in the things I say and the things I do.I was getting on to my 6 year old the other day and i looked up and saw myself making one of those faces that my dad used to make at me when i had pushed him to his limits; I had to laugh.

Quite often when I find myself seeking advice all I have to do is ask myself what dad would have done in this situation or what advice would he have given me. It makes the answers pretty easy, because I know what his answer would have been…do what’s right son. It’s pretty easy to say, but I watched that man live it…day after day after day, so I know it can be done.

If I had to list the three greatest things my father left me when he died they would not be the physical things of this world, they would be the lessons learned through his curiosity, patience and diligence. Dad was always curious about how everything work, sometimes out of necessity, but mostly just for the pure pleasure of solving the problem or figuring out how to fix what ever he was working on. Dad was a teacher by day and a tin smith by night, and on Saturdays he was working on what ever he could get his hands on to fix…Sundays were the only days that dad would not pick up a tool and he was pretty adamant about us not working on Sunday either. I don’t believe there was anything my father could not fix. If he could imagine it he could do it. That was because of his diligence. He never gave up on anything he was working on until it was fixed. No breaks, no rest, only constant focus and dedication to the job at hand. It’s hard not to just give up sometimes, and he was human. I saw him beyond aggravated on several occasions but it was typically at the beginning of the project, and then his patience kicked in and refreshed his focus and brought him back to the problem over and over and over again until it was solved. He didn’t stress so much over the things he could not control, and he didn’t argue with folks, even when he certainly could have won the argument. He had more patience than anyone else I have ever met. Dad taught me that a man can do anything with just patience and diligence, but looking back it was his curiosity that turned his work into something that he didn’t view as work at all.

If you are reading this and your dad is still living, call him more, go visit him more, do what you can to spend all of the time with him as you can. He is not getting any younger, but he is certainly getting wiser. I wish I had not been so hardheaded when I was younger and that I had realized sooner that everything he was doing was to teach me and help me and guide me and prepare me for what life was going to hit me with.

I miss you dad,

I will see you again one day.

When you see good people, truly good people, dismissed by their offspring you can’t help but wonder what went wrong.  It’s refreshing to see children who remember a good parent properly. 

I know that over the years Bob’s sons had an occasional issue with “the old man” because I’ve heard the stories from the sources.  That’s growing up I guess.  Now, years later, all of the stories are about how “the old man” was so very right.  I’m with Scott on this one.  If your Dad is still alive, find a minute or two to give him a call.  It might be one of the last chances that you have to get one more bit of life changing wisdom from a fading resource.