BS: No father on Father's Day

Subject: RE: BS: No father on Fathers day
From: catspaw49
Date: 15 Jun 08 - 09:03 AM

By the time I was 23 I had lost both my Mom and Dad as well as all my grandparents so these days have often been a bit sad but always filled with great memories. My Dad came from a generation that often worked just to live with never a thought towards "being happy in your job." Having a good paying job was far more important than liking what you did. But I was always proud of Dad for having a passion for his job without ever saying so.......He said so in the way he did it.

The following I have posted before but it fits well here. I came from a railroad town and a railroad family. A strike in the 20's all but completely closed the huge yards that were there but as a kid I went over to the roundhouse and turntable often just to watch what little action was left. We moved to Columbus in '59 to make it easier on my Dad who ran between Columbus and Pittsburgh on the PanHandle Division of the Pennsylvania Railroad.

My Dad was an engineman on the Pennsylvania Railroad for the whole of his adult working life. He started out of high school on the Section Gang and went into engine service a couple of years later. He was in a Railway Batallion during WWII and came back to the Pennsy as soon as it was over. The PRR was early in converting to Diesels but Dad fired the last of the steamers. Advancement on the roads was based on seniority and although he had qualified as an engineer he stayed as a fireman for many years until he could hold a regular slot on the board. So when the last of M1's and K4's made their final runs on the PanHandle Division in the early 50's, Dad fired those engines. I remember years later in about 1962 when the last of the steamers were cut up for scrap in the Columbus Yards, it was about as close as I ever came to seeing him cry at that point in my life. From '58, he was an engineer for the rest of his days and even with the Diesels, an engineer still had a reputation of some sort and the Ol' Man was known as a "smooth rider"....a term used by those in the caboose to describe a good engineer who could stop and start, take in or run out slack as needed, without disturbing their rest or their pinochle game.

Railroaders back then were still a special breed who loved what they did. Over 35 years later, one of the most poignant memories I have of my Dad is from a time when he was quite ill within only a few weeks of his death. He had me take him to the Columbus Yards so he could pick up some things out of his locker. We cleaned it out and packed up his "Grip" for the final time. But on the way out we sort of had to "detour" through an engine shop and though I protested, he went that way. Walking through the shops, we stopped at an idling GP9 and he slowly started to climb to the cab. Again, I protested that this was way too much effort that he shouldn't be wasting, but he looked down at me and said, "Just one last time." So we climbed up and sat in the cab for awhile as his hands touched the throttle, air brakes,dynamic brake, and all of those things that had been his world for so many years..........and if I was ever closer to him, I don't know when it would have been.

The rails were close at hand for people to see and hear and feel and as the country grew, they grew with us. For those who long for older and simpler times, the sound, feel, and the smell of a great steamer is all that is needed to trigger visions of a different life in a different world, far removed from this current time and place. And today as on many other days, I miss my Dad......W.J. "Unk" Patterson, Engineman, Pennsylvania Railroad. I'm sorry too he never knew my kids and sorrier still that they will never know him.


Spaw

Subject: RE: BS: No father on Fathers day
From: Lin in Kansas
Date: 15 Jun 08 - 08:42 AM

I was only 11 when my dad died, but I still miss him, 50 years later. Daddy was not usually the disciplinarian in our family, but I remember that we kids would rather have Mom spank us than have Dad talk to us--he could make us feel so bad for disappointing him.

He made beautiful leatherwork: purses, belts, and moccasins. I still have a couple of small things he made for me, and a belt he made for Mom. Although he did nothing "big" and was in poor health most of the time that I remember him, he was always a wise and loving father to us kids.

Lin

Subject: RE: BS: No father on Fathers day
From: Bobert
Date: 15 Jun 08 - 08:34 AM

"Me an' my ol' man" diodn't see eye to eye on much but I sho nuff miss him... It's been 4 years now since he passed an' fathers day ain't been the same...

Okay, here's the brag part... He lost his mom when he was 9, his father was a drunk and somehow my dad ended up living and working on a farm in New Jersey, didn't attend much school but in his late teens made off to Detroit where he got a decent job selling clothes for Bonds Department Store... He was a sharp dresser back then and inspite of lack of formal education impressed someone enough at Ford Motor Company to hire him to sell "industrial engines" on the road... That was his break becasue from there he went on to a very successfull career as a Ford Motor Co. exec and then a private consultant which he did until he finally retired well into his 70's...

My dad, however, was a conservative Republican when I grew up and my mom was a commie liberal Democrat so dinner converstions were heated events (no, not juust the food) and by the time I got into my teens he and I butted heads on everything but...

...my proudest day was the day he marched in the Moritorium againt the Vietnam War... yeah, he'd come a long way...

B~

Subject: RE: BS: No father on Fathers day
From: Georgiansilver
Date: 15 Jun 08 - 08:21 AM

I also find difficulty in coming to terms with having no mother on fathers day as well as mothers day....he misses her and so do we...and at any time of celebration...she's just not there anymore...he is!

Subject: RE: BS: No father on Fathers day
From: maeve
Date: 15 Jun 08 - 08:18 AM

I'm missing my dad too. I miss him every day.

At each of the many family-oriented holidays I also think of those who, as is true in our case, have no living children yet would have liked to be parents.

Subject: BS: No father on Fathers day
From: Cats
Date: 14 Jun 08 - 11:55 PM

Every year we are encouraged to send pressies and cards on Fathers day but there are many of us who don't have Fathers alive any more. So, just take a moment and ask yourself, 'what did my Father do that I am proud of and that I should remember him for on Fathers Day?'
I'll start... My Dad was George Wallis. He ws a member of the Lingfield Bonfire Club and made the torches for the Bonfire procession. He was a conscientious objector in WWII and served in the fire srvice. He helped save all the children in Lingfield School when it was bombed. He sat me in front of the TV when the Berlin Wall went up and told me it ewas my responsibility to make sure I did all I could to make sure it came down in my lifetime and he took me on my very first anti war demonstration in Grosvenor Square.