Things I Remember about my DAD
Where does one start on a subject that one could go on forever. I guess one of the most important things is that Dad brought us all up in a Christian home. What ever we do or where we go that will always be with us in our hearts. As long as I can remember, as a small child I knew nothing else. I remember clearly the day and the place in children’s church that I gave my heart to Jesus and how I couldn’t wait to tell my Dad. He always encouraged me to sing in church. At about 4 years old I remember they had me sing for the alter call the song, Come into my heart. As a small child I don’t think I was old enough to be scared. I just remember that there wasn’t hardly a dry eye in the church. I know that Dad was proud of me.
Dad loved to listen to his records of the old time gospel quartets . After church every Sunday we would go home and he would put on his records, sit in his chair, and enter into a world of his own with tears running down his face. He always said he wanted us boys to sing in a quartet someday and I guess we didn’t come through with that dream for him. It was nothing for him to travel across several states to go to a all night singing. One time I traveled with him to Texas to see, I think there were six quartets that night. He was on top of the world and loved to talk to all of them as they sold their records. He would go up to any of them and talk to them as if he was their best friend.
Since Dad was so into his gospel music, he had Me, Marsha, and Jim take piano lessons. I remember going to these weekly lessons and the piano recitals we were in. I look back now and realize that this was Dads dream and us kids didn’t have that same dream of that gospel quartet that he was raising. But I did learn a lot that I was able to use later in life.
I remember at around the age of 8 Dad decided to visit his sister, Alice Noyes who lived in Kansas City. Now this was the first time I had a trip to a large city. After the trip of around 265 miles we entered what seemed to me a city that went on forever compaired to our little town of Osborne. I remember walking down the street in front of their house with all these homes so close together. We had a nice visit with his sister Alice and here family.
I remember when I was around 12 years old, the Puderbaughs from California was visiting Grandpa and Grandma Alflen and the motor on their car had went bad. So you know Dad, always helping people out, overhauled the engine in the lean too at grandpas greenhouse. I was so excited because he let me help him. He was finishing up and let me put the bolts in the bottom pan of the motor. I was tightening up the bolts and ask Dad “how tight do you want me to tighten these bolts” when I heard this snap. I knew that I had twisted a bolt off and thought boy I am going to get it now. To my surprise Dad was very cool even though we had to take the pan back off and drill out the bolt. Dad could be stern at times but also had a side to him that made it a learning experience for us kids.
I remember all the years as a child that Dad would always take us for vacation to Colorado. This one year Dad was working on the road in Atwood Kansas. He was staying with a family who rented rooms and knowing how Dad was, he became very friendly with them. Well they told Dad about their cabin they owned in the Red Feather Lakes in Colorado and that he could use it if he wanted to. So we loaded up everyone and traveled what seemed forever to find this cabin way back in the sticks. Here was this beautiful cabin with bedding and cupboards full of food. There was a note on the cupboard stating to use what you need but please replace what you use. Behind the cabin it was kind of steep and covered with trees. Us kids had a wonderful time hiking and climbing on the rocks. I remember how Mom fixed pancakes for breakfast that first morning and how great the food tasted in the mountain air.
I remember on the many trips we took to Colorado that we always visited the Garden of Gods, Seven Falls, and the long climb up Pikes Peak. Dad would tease Mom by driving real close to the edge of the road next to a shear drop off. She would yell at him and he would just laugh and continue on the road. We also would always take the beautiful drive up to the Cave of the Winds. We would always beg Dad to take us down in the caves, but because of the cost he would always say its too expensive. Later in life on my honeymoon I made that trip again but this time I took my new wife down in the caves. Wow! As kids we really missed a sight of all the stalagmites and stalactites and will go there again given the chance.
I remember that when we would camp in the campgrounds, after we got all set up Dad would sometimes disappear. We would usually find him in the next camp setting by the fire talking to strangers as if he had known them for years. Dad was always able to walk up to anyone and talk to them as if he was there best friend.
Dad had a unique sense of humor and was always playing jokes on people. As a child, I remember that Dad wasn’t home much during the week. They would sometimes have jobs half way across the state, so he would come home on week ends. Mom had her hands full with us kids. On this one week end Mom wanted to surprise him with a super clean house. She had us help her and worked hard on it for 2 days. Well when Dad came in the house, with out thinking, he said. “when are you going to clean up this house”. Mom said “what” and proceeded to empty most all the chest of drawers and scattered stuff through out the house. She then said “now there’s a messy house”. Dad just stood there dumb founded not knowing what to say to fix what he said. Mom had to stay up all night putting back everything. I think Dad learned his lesson on thinking before talking, Well he did a little better.
One time on a family get together we decided to go hand fishing in the river. Most of us were out in the water feeling around for fish and as usual Dad had to have some fun with Harvey. He was very goosey and would jump at about anything that touched him. So Dad dove under the water and proceeded to touch Harvey on the leg. He yelled “OHH there’s one.” He just got settled down when Dad hit him again and this time he headed for shore screaming “he’s got me he’s got me” He was ready to shoot Dad when he realized what just happened.
When we lived out on the farm Dad told me he wanted me to build a fence while he was gone for the week. So I spent several days building this fence on the north side of the mulberry trees. I was so proud of my work and when Dad got home I proceeded to show him my handy work. Well he shot me down and said “now look down this fence” and when I looked down it, it looked like a snake. I told him what different does it make if it is a little crooked. Well anyway we fixed fence the rest of the day making it straight. Nobody told me to run a string to make a straight fence. Dad didn’t always expect perfection but did teach us to try to do things right.
One night as we were coming home from Sunday Night church we were driving through the snow when all of a sudden a bald eagle flew in front of the car, and we hit it. We stopped to see how he was and found him stunned laying in the middle of the road. We were afraid he would freeze to death in the snow so we got him in the car and took him home and put him in the garage for the night. The garage was in two sections with a shop and a attached garage and in the shop we had sows with piglets. As soon as they smelled the eagle in the attached garage they began grunting and all the piglets huddled close to them for protection. When Dad picked him up his wing span went past his outstretched arms by several inches. The next morning we opened the door on the garage and he flew away. He was a beautiful bird.
Dad loved his cars and to him there was only one kind which was Chevrolet’s. Back in those days there wasn’t any speed limit which was a good thing as Dad would have had many tickets. I remember the 54 Chevy which just had a 6 cylinder motor in it. Dad was always tinkering with it to get it to go faster. So he took out the hydraulic lifters and put in the old solid lifters to make it go faster. Then he put in special heavy duty valve springs to try to get a few more miles faster. I remember that old 54 getting up to 112 miles per hour, which was pretty fast for a 6 cyl.
He was always racing the other guys back to the job site whereever it was. Of course some of them were Ford men so it became quite a challenge between them. Of course those Fords had 8 cylinders motors for several years. But in 55 the Chevy came out with a 8 cylinder motor, and Dad was about to make his big move. In 58 he ordered from the factory his new toy with the new big block V-8. I remember him figuring it all out and since he couldn’t get it from the factory with a overdrive he planned to remove the transmission and install the new overdrive transmission before he drove it out of the garage. I remember as each week went by he would go down and check if it was in yet. Well when it finally arrive sure enough he tore it all apart putting in the overdrive and also changing the rear end to a higher gear ratio. He carefully broke the engine in but could hardly wait to try to see how fast it would go. Finally the day arrived and we took it out and as he shifted to second gear and overdrive we were up to 120 and then he shifted to high, and it kept climbing. I don’t know if he really knew just how fast it would go but all I knew was that those Fords couldn’t keep up anymore. What was amazing was that if he drove it without kicking in the 4 barrel carburetor it would get almost 25 miles to the gallon. Those were the days and I think that was his favorite car.
Dad loved his favorite hobby, riding trail bikes. I remember we each ordered a Super Bronc, which came in this box all in pieces so we had fun putting them together. I think the most fun we had riding was a trip we took to the top of Goat mountain. It was several miles to the top with switch backs and a steep climb most of the way. After we got on the top we set up camp with a view of MT. St. Helen just a few miles to the south of us. We built a fire and enjoyed our meal in the open air. We had these 2 person pack tents that were actually really meant for one. We both finally settled into our sleeping bags and were discussing the events of the day. All of a sudden dad hollered out “Oh No.” I said “what’s wrong”. “I got a cramp in my leg“. I could remember that earlier that day he was pushing that bike up that mountain. We lay there laughing crammed in this small tent as he tried to rub out the cramp. Then here it came again “Oh No” I said “now what’s wrong” “ I got another cramp in the other leg“. So in the middle of the night while it is pouring down rain, Dad squeezes out of our tent to walk out his cramps. The next morning we got up to a beautiful site of St Helens. That was one of the most memorable bike trips I took with Dad.
Dad was a successful businessman and a mechanic most of his life. You can say that Dad was a self taught man, as he only completed the 8th grade. As a child I remember he worked doing road construction. He started by running turn-a pulls building highways across Kansas. Many times as we would travel across country and if he saw some road equipment anywhere we had to stop so he could check out anything that might be new. As he got a little older he became the mechanic for all the big machinery on the job. He didn’t go to any big schools to learn this as he could just take a book with all the parts in it and rebuild just about anything. I remember one year during the off season in the winter he decided to rebuild the turn a dozer. I went with him one day and couldn’t believe my eyes. Here is this big machine that has tires about 8 feet tall all in pieces. It had a automatic transmission with all these bands and clutches and he had parts every where. I heard the boss comment to some other guys how he was amazed that Dad could rebuild this large machine by looking at a book. It’s amazing what a 8th grader can do. Of course that was the way dad was, he could do anything he put his mind to. Maybe he inherited some of this from his dad who did things the same way.
Later in life he opened a auto mechanic shop which he could rebuild any thing that drove down the road. He built up the business and was well liked in the community.
As I said in the beginning, These are a few of the memories I have of Dad. Through the years since Dad passed, I hardly ever have a day goes by without a thought of my Dad.
In Loving Memory;
Gerald
