parents and work

I read an interesting chapter in Outlier by Malcom Gladwell about the most successful lawyers and professionals today. The author traced back and found that most of the successful professionals came from a family where the parents worked in jobs that showed that hard work and initiative could change their lives.


I couldn't help but think about my own family. My paternal grandfather worked as a carpenter in the depression. My father dropped out of school in about the 8th grade and worked a series of jobs including picking cotton as a migrant worker for cents on the pound. Eventually he left Alabama and found a job as a machinist and worked there for 40 years. As I was growing up my father worked a second job nights and weekends hanging drapes for Sears and for some of the other women who sewed the drapes for the local Sears store. My parents saw that with a little bit of investment and initiative they could start their own business on the side. My mother went back to school with 4 kids at home and got her associates degree in interior decorating. Then she and my father went into part time business doing drapes and shades. My parents set up a sewing room in the basement. My mother during the day would visit people in their homes showing fabric samples. Then my mother would order the fabric and then she would sew the drapes. My father would hang the rods and drapes after he got home from working at the factory and on weekends. My father worked 2 jobs for over 30 years.


Since I was old enough to work I've always worked hard. My first summer job was for a neighbor, delivering 50 pound sacks of potatoes and produce from a truck for 25 cents and hour. At the end of a 12 hour day I remember thinking I was rich because I had earned $3. Of course that was 1969. My second job I got by walking up to the high school kid who was the paper boy on my street that fall and talked him into taking me on as his assistant for 50 cents a day. When he gave up the route a year later it was mine and I delivered to over 80 homes by walking 16 blocks. I was always raised thinking that the harder I worked the more I was rewarded.


My father was never afraid of tackling almost any project. If he needed to do an engine overhaul he would check out a manual from the public library and study it and then go out and do it.

Although he never said it I was always aware that he always regretted dropping out of school. When I was in Junior High School my dad took correspondence courses along with working two jobs trying to get his GED. He never quite was able to complete all the courses to get his degree but he taught me a lot about what was important in life.

As my father struggles with his health and his memory I find it important for me to remember what he taught me. Hopefully I can pass some of the most valuable lessons I learned from both my mother and father on to my child.

I got the nicest compliment last month from one of the teenagers who has been very involved at the theater. They said I have been a role model for them. That was a real honor for me but also scared me a little. I've never thought of myself as a role model. I was always the rebel in life who bucked the system and asked the questions that were uncomfortable. But I guess some of my father has rubbed off on me. For that I will always be grateful.