Passing the Baton

The wintertime of 1932 was a desperate time for my Dad growing up. There was little money left from harvesting the crops and my grandfather Cyril needed cash for his family. Many men in the community went to California to find work to sustain their families. A state road project in a nearby canyon accepted Cyril's application for him and his team of horses. The family was happy that their Dad had found local work and there might even be a Christmas. Near the first of December, his wife Rachel helped him put on a sheep lined overcoat to protect against the below zero temperatures and prepared a small lunch as he left for his newfound work and the family dreamed of unfamiliar prosperity. 

From my Dad's history we read:

On the second or third day of my father's employment...he came home in the middle of the day. My mother expressed great concern to why he was home...He then informed Mother that his responsibility on the road project was to use his team of horses to remove dirt from a high area down to another area to cover the pipe or culvert they were installing under the roadway. He then explained to Mother...that the men were complaining that he was delivering too much dirt before they could successfully shovel it around the culvert. After the second or third complaint from the men that my father was working too hard and making more work for the men than they desired, the foreman of the contract stated to Father, "Unless you slow down and the men stop complaining, we don't need your help anymore."

 

This, to my father, was surrendering his honesty and integrity for an honest day's work. If he could not do an honest day's work for an honest day's pay, then he would not work. So after the third admonition by the foreman, my father was asked to leave the job and his employment was terminated. 

My mother said, "Is it that important for your position, that you would sacrifice the precious cash that we need for the family?"

My father then went out to the barn and found other work for the next couple days to keep himself busy and to keep his mind off of the problems that he had created because of his stance for honesty and integrity.

It was either on the second or third day after the episode that the same foreman stood at our front door ...and asked if he could come into our home. ...He then said to both of them that they had tried to get other teams of horses and other men and scrapers to pull the dirt down from the top of the hill on to the pipe and culvert, but none could do the job..."Would you consider my apology for our position and your determination to do the right thing and will you come back and do the work? The men have all agreed they will not complain about your efforts."

This made a deep impression on my Dad of the value of hard and honest work. Later in life he said, "My life in addition to other objectives is to help my grandsons to learn the blessings of work." His goal has been a great blessing to me because he spent thousands of hours teaching my children skills and working by their side. The gifts of personal empowerment and self worth that working gives growing children is one of the greatest gifts my father gave me, and my children. 

He marveled later in life as he traveled that he, the boy who slept with the turkeys, could enjoy the incredible places this world has to offer, a world unknown to his parents. The capacity to work hard, and play hard, to feel gratitude for the blessings that hard work brought to him, kept him from a sense of entitlement. His example of work and gratitude is a lasting heritage and legacy I hope to pass on to my children and grandchildren. This story will be one of the ways I pass that baton.