Brag on my Dad
I don't brag on my father here much. I am not sure why really. His moto of "If man made it, man can fix it." comes from a lifetime of skill with all things mechanical. He was repairing his mother's gas powered washing machine at the tender age of eight. Among his seven siblings, if anything was broken, he was the go-to guy to get it fixed. After high school he and his girlfriend (soon to be wife, later to be my mom), went separately to Wilmington to seek their fortunes. She stayed at the YWCA, I think he was staying with an older brother. While there, he got a job with Block. Block was a smallish textile house making shirts, he trained as a mechianic. Through block he found a career he enjoyed, married my still later to be mother, and was transfered to Newport NC in 1964. The shirt factory in Newport was bought and sold many times over its existance and in the 1980's Blue Bell, (who bought the plant and its workers from International, and later sold it to Wrangler) announced that my father was the highest paid sewing machine mechanic on the entire eastern sea board and they weren't going to ever give him a raise again. (infact, none of the several other owners of the plant and its people did. He retired one of the lowest paid mechanics on the eastern sea board.) They did send him to Puerto Rico several times however to set up plants and train their mechanics. My dad helped to destroy the textile trade in the US. Cool! In your face textiles!
My dad's hobbies have always been his garden, fishing, and teaching old skills. At one time the area around the garden had a bunch of children living in it and they would always go to the garden to hang out with my dad. He would plant some suger cane, and a few hills of cotton, and tobaco, just to show them how it was harvested the old way. He did tie and dry the tobaco the old way, but he never did make yarn from the cotton. I think it was because he taught the children the older method of prepairing the cotton- pre-Eli Whitney.
Speaking of sugar cane, he got his hands on a turn of the century cane press that an uncle of his had had. He rebuilt it set it up, grew cane, and crafted the large copper pans necessary to turn the cane into cane syrup. He grew grapes, he made wine, he rebuilt his 1940something International Farm All Cub tractor, and he is known for his collards, which he sells right out of his field.
Back in the late 1970's he found he was getting tired of all of the bean shelling he was having to do on account of his "garden" was well over an acre. He heard through the grape vine that someone had invented a machine that shelled butterbeans and someone locally had bought one. Dad found out who, went over, looked it over, took a few measurements and went home and built one himself. It worked so well that he built several more refining the design as he went until today his "butter bean" sheller shells, all beans plus pecans.
He also built a little table top device used to take the skin off of new potatoes.
Over the course of his life he has repaired local "widow women's" sewing machines in exchange for nothing more than a jar of their jelly. To this day dad has never run out of jelly.
Some of the best eating I have ever experienced was foods cooked in his garden shed, which at one point one of his friends painted "Full Throttle Inn" on the front because there was always something going on there, and it was seldom empty.
In 1976 Newport had its first Pig Cooking Contest. Dad was on the ground floor of that and cooked every year for ten years. The wall of his "garage" at home is covered with plaques and trophies earned over those years. I had to put the word "garage" in quotation marks because while it is true his garage has a big garage door and he keeps his tools and work benches in it, he also has a kitchen and a bathroom, options not found on many other garages.
I am pleased to say that I got most of his gifts, although for some reason I turned out lazy, I have no idea how that happened, I spent my entire childhood trying to keep up with him and mom to no avail. Today is no different.
My dad made the paper again, and once again it was for being good. The full page article, with picture, page two, above the fold was in the Newport Voice vol. 2 No. 11. You've never heard of it? That's ok, if you're reading this you probably aren't from Newport anyway.
This time around it was for his efforts among many volunteers working to clean up the Newport River. Since my father has retired his primary interest are his garden and fishing in the river. As his garden is walking distance from the river, one is often an excuse for the other. As luck would have it his retirement came about at a time that people were starting to take an interest in canoeing and kayaking in the Newport River. A friend of my father's even open River Rats a kayak rental place right there on the river, when he retired from the military. With all of this convergant intererest, it was only a matter of time before everyone organized and removed not only the liter from the river but downed trees that were blocking access up and down the river. Of course now that the work is done, it will have to be maintained but I believe that as along as interest in activities on the river continues, there will be more than enough willing hands to keep the river clean and passable.
