Since the family had moved from Iowa to South Florida, he made sure I could ID snakes from a distance.
Rattlesnakes were rare in the south but kind of easy. He made sure I knew the difference between a coral snake (very bad) and a scarlet king snake (no danger). I had to be able to recite “red touch yellow, kill a fellow…red touch black, venom in lack” from memory.
When it came to water moccasins and water bandits he told me you won’t be able to get close enough to safely know for sure so just leave them both the hell alone. He was right. Watched a lot of older kids grab the wrong snake when we were out catching them.
I was always surprised by the people who were old enough to have children who lived in South Florida and didn’t know the first damn thing about snakes, or worse they had very bad information they were passing onto their kids. I once heard a person tell their kid “if you leave it alone, it will leave you alone” and it took most of my will power to not say “Well that ain’t right, moccasins are the aggressive aholes of the snake world” and will swim off the bank to come F with you in the water.
And some people who try and take their kids camping today? Wow. It’s a good thing they stay within 10 yards of the SUV. Cause everything they need is “in the truck.” I remember learning how to navigate with the sun, make a fire and learn what stuff is safe to eat (not much, most of what grows in the wild will F you up bad). Always reminded me to bring some “long term” food like jerky.
Not my biological father, but my grandfather: Self-esteem is EARNED, between the quality of your workmanship in what you do and trying to make somebody’s day a little better than it was before you crossed paths.
Hah. We see people in the news every day who have a megadose of self esteem they never earned-- they just deserve it and that’s enough for them. People who have a lifetime’s experience at accomplishing nothing… but are superior nonetheless.
What Dad taught me would take a book and even in adulthood I probably have not yet realized it all.
This is because our public education system with its focus on “MUHFEEWINGS and Self Esteem Uber Alles” couldn’t be a better incubator for mass-production of narcissists if it were purpose-designed with that intent.
That’s actually true. All water moccasins do have elliptical pupils. It’s a very bad idea to get close enough to one to see the shape of its pupils though. Most non venomous snakes have round pupils but there are several exceptions. For example, Coral snakes also have round pupils.
My father always impressed upon me to finish what I started and do it right the first time and not, as he would say, “half assed”. Do most adults know that today? I don’t know but that drive to finish whatever I start has stayed with me my entire life.
Some basics of woodworking and car repairs, and how to NOT get injured while working with heavy or dangerous tools.
Pretty basic stuff by 60’s and even 70’s standards but was becoming rare by the late 80’s, at least where I lived (midwestern US in a UAW town, go figure). My best friend’s dad was a much bigger car guy but I can’t tell that he taught his son much about how to work on them. So many of us gen X’ers are largely self-taught in the things that used to be taught by parents, or we just never learned them at all.
I was 9, my brother was 7 and cousin was 5. We would flip the Sears Roebuck, Ted Williams fiberglass rowboat over and drag it into the river, then go get and carry a 7.5HP outboard engine from it’s storage shed about an 1/8 of a mile over a hill to the river.
My grandpa taught us to throw a folded oiled canvas tarp over the back of the boat to help protect the boat from the outboard clamps.
We would get the engine on the back and tighten up the clamps. We would go back to the storage shed and carry the 5 gallon metal gas can with the built in QD line and primer bulb, put it in the back of the boat and hook it up to the engine.
I was taught how to prime it, put the engine on choke, and would have to stand on the rear built in seat for height, put one leg on the outboard motor for leverage and pull the starter. It would start and off we would go, no supervision.
Parents would get in trouble for doing that in certain parts these days, but the life experiences, freedom of exploration, and just the opportunity to have to “free think” that this provided, I think, was priceless and immeasurable.
I actually thought of this one the other day, even if I haven’t done it in a while: hammer a screw driver through a stuck oil filter to get leverage to turn it.
Nothing. He worked basically 8a to 8p six days /week, sundays off, and two weeks vacation /year. All I learned was that there is no phucking way in hell I was following this example.
Unfortunately he passed when I got to the point where I made in less than week what he made in a year.
