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I did this on for Mother's Day, and I figured I would be remiss not follow up on for Father's day.
Tell us about your Dad. Like last time, I'll go first:
He was born in 1908, the last of nine children born to Finnish immigrants. He had one older brother who died as a child before Dad was born, and two other siblings who also died while he was still a child; his only sister was murdered by a jealous suitor when he was just three, and a brother who died at the age of 25 three years later.
He grew up on a farm in a rural community in Minnesota, and attending school through the 8th grade, after which he was pulled from school to help with running the family farm.
He later taught himself enough to earn a amateur radio operator license and to build his own radio station. (later, after meeting my mother, he built her a low power key operated station of her own so that they could talk back and forth.)
After he and mom were married (in 1936) they tried to make of go of it by sheep farming, and he brought in a little extra money by driving “school bus” for local children (he actually used his own Ford model A).
When their ship flock contracted a disease and had to be destroyed, they sold the farm and moved out West where he was able to get work on the construction of Grand Coulee dam, and then after that went South to work on the construction of Shasta dam. They then moved back North to SW Washington where he worked as a carpenter at VanPort, a housing project meant for shipyard workers(WWII had begun by now), until he was inducted into the Army.
He was initially assigned to a howitzer crew, but was quickly transferred to the radio shack after they learned of his experience as an ham. I'm not too sure about where all exactly he was stationed in Europe, other than he spent some time in Holland( from some old photos) and I have a 1945 Army road map he brought back that is for the region around Cologne.
After his release they resettled back in SW WA in a house that Dad built, and while living there he served as master for the local Grange for two terms.
They moved back to Minnesota in the fifties, where he got work in the Iron mines of the Mesabi range, and where I was born. During that time and while working full time at the mines, he also ran an 80 acre subsistence farm with 20 head of cattle. By now he was in his late 50's.
(It is from this period that I have my favorite childhood memory of him. We had a pond in our pasture, and when I was about 8, the neighbor boy and I decided to build a raft to use on it. When Dad walked by on his way to some chore or another, he asked what we were doing. We told him and after looking at the collection of scrap wood we had gathered, said “You'll drown yourself on that.”
He then stopped in the middle of what he was doing and proceeded to build us a proper raft that would actually stay afloat, towed it down to the pond with the tractor and launched it for us.)
When he retired from the mines, we moved back West again. Even though he was retired, he never stopped "working". Between remodeling both of the houses we lived in, making the fire wood to heat them or hiring out his services to local farmers from time to time, he was as active as his health allowed until he passed away in 1980.
Dad had picked up a number of skills over his lifetime, and could put his hand to just about anything. I never saw a repairman in our home, and he never took our car to a mechanic (Even when one needed a complete ring job, he did it himself). If Dad couldn't fix it, it was beyond repair or it just wasn't cost effective to repair it, and every house we lived in was subject to extensive remodeling.( We lived in 4 different houses while I was growing up, and none of them were ever bought on the basis of how they were, but on the potential of what they could be with some work.)
My one regret is that he passed away shortly after my 21st birthday, and so I never really had a chance to develop a relationship with him as “man to man".
So what about your Dad? Don't feel like you have to give a full biography, unless you want to. Anything you want to share is fine. A favorite memory or something your learned from him for example.
Tell us about your Dad. Like last time, I'll go first:
He was born in 1908, the last of nine children born to Finnish immigrants. He had one older brother who died as a child before Dad was born, and two other siblings who also died while he was still a child; his only sister was murdered by a jealous suitor when he was just three, and a brother who died at the age of 25 three years later.
He grew up on a farm in a rural community in Minnesota, and attending school through the 8th grade, after which he was pulled from school to help with running the family farm.
He later taught himself enough to earn a amateur radio operator license and to build his own radio station. (later, after meeting my mother, he built her a low power key operated station of her own so that they could talk back and forth.)
After he and mom were married (in 1936) they tried to make of go of it by sheep farming, and he brought in a little extra money by driving “school bus” for local children (he actually used his own Ford model A).
When their ship flock contracted a disease and had to be destroyed, they sold the farm and moved out West where he was able to get work on the construction of Grand Coulee dam, and then after that went South to work on the construction of Shasta dam. They then moved back North to SW Washington where he worked as a carpenter at VanPort, a housing project meant for shipyard workers(WWII had begun by now), until he was inducted into the Army.
He was initially assigned to a howitzer crew, but was quickly transferred to the radio shack after they learned of his experience as an ham. I'm not too sure about where all exactly he was stationed in Europe, other than he spent some time in Holland( from some old photos) and I have a 1945 Army road map he brought back that is for the region around Cologne.
After his release they resettled back in SW WA in a house that Dad built, and while living there he served as master for the local Grange for two terms.
They moved back to Minnesota in the fifties, where he got work in the Iron mines of the Mesabi range, and where I was born. During that time and while working full time at the mines, he also ran an 80 acre subsistence farm with 20 head of cattle. By now he was in his late 50's.
(It is from this period that I have my favorite childhood memory of him. We had a pond in our pasture, and when I was about 8, the neighbor boy and I decided to build a raft to use on it. When Dad walked by on his way to some chore or another, he asked what we were doing. We told him and after looking at the collection of scrap wood we had gathered, said “You'll drown yourself on that.”
He then stopped in the middle of what he was doing and proceeded to build us a proper raft that would actually stay afloat, towed it down to the pond with the tractor and launched it for us.)
When he retired from the mines, we moved back West again. Even though he was retired, he never stopped "working". Between remodeling both of the houses we lived in, making the fire wood to heat them or hiring out his services to local farmers from time to time, he was as active as his health allowed until he passed away in 1980.
Dad had picked up a number of skills over his lifetime, and could put his hand to just about anything. I never saw a repairman in our home, and he never took our car to a mechanic (Even when one needed a complete ring job, he did it himself). If Dad couldn't fix it, it was beyond repair or it just wasn't cost effective to repair it, and every house we lived in was subject to extensive remodeling.( We lived in 4 different houses while I was growing up, and none of them were ever bought on the basis of how they were, but on the potential of what they could be with some work.)
My one regret is that he passed away shortly after my 21st birthday, and so I never really had a chance to develop a relationship with him as “man to man".
So what about your Dad? Don't feel like you have to give a full biography, unless you want to. Anything you want to share is fine. A favorite memory or something your learned from him for example.