Today is my Dad's birthday, he turns 82. It is also my Grandpa Bruce's birthday although he has passed this earth. Happy, Happy Birthday Dad and Grandpa Bruce!
Dad taught me how to gap a spark plug, saddle and ride a horse, change oil, operate an HD5 Caterpillar, castrate bulls (and sometimes cats but that is another story), seed grain, drive truck, summer fallow, plow and disc, fence, swathe, irrigate - you name it.....he taught me how to do it. I was supposed to be his second boy but arrived his third girl. He took it in stride and taught me anyway.
When I was 11, Dad decided it was time I learn to run machinery and he put me on a tractor, raking hay. No further instructions were given and he went about his business. When darkness fell, the field was not yet complete. Unsure of what to do and not wanting to disappoint Dad, I kept raking hay in the summer moonlight. Headlights soon appeared and Dad informed me that if the tractor doesn't have headlights, you come home at dark! Lesson learned.
Dad also passed on some of the most important life lessons I've ever learned. I still remember the day I was driving the yellow Ford pickup down the Indian Highway (which was then just dirt and gravel) and Dad launched into a lesson. "The color of your skin isn't what makes you a bad (or good) person. It's what's inside you. If you are a liar, a cheat, a thief, a murderer.....those things make you bad, not the color of your skin."
For everything that you so patiently taught me Dad, thanks! And here's to many more years on the planet....
If you'd like to wish Dad a Happy Birthday, he can be reached at 928-927-5301 or 928-916-3686.
Or, send him a note:
Dewey Forsness
Box 794
Quartzsite, AZ 85346
Grandpa Bruce taught me the Morse code, how to carve a rubber stamp out of an eraser, how to spin wool into yarn, how to use a wood lathe and how to build a miniature spinning wheel, how to clean a swimming pool and keep it's pH correct... among other things. Thanks for your lessons, my Grandpa with the blue eyebrows and brilliant brain! Even though you have passed this earth, I think of you often with fond remembrance, especially today - your birthday.
And now, back to the report!
Where the plains meet the mountains. (And the Sun River slices through.)
Sun River Valley.
Sun river
Fall foliage. (Notice the drop in elevation? This is what makes rafting rivers SO exhilarating.)
Damn dam.
A closer look.
Bridge "review".
Deer peer.
Shades of fall.
"Bite" gone?
Big winter.
Up next: Gibson Dam.
*******************************************************************************************************************************************
"Thinking: the talking of the soul with itself. " - Plato
*******************************************************************************************************************************************
www.kittykolden.com
www.thekoldenreport.blogspot.com
No comments:
Post a Comment