Thursday, December 28, 2017
Jack Of All Trades?
By: Donovan Baldwin
The old phrase, "Jack of all trades, and master of none", fits me pretty well.
I've done a lot of things in my life.
As a man, I have been a soldier, truck driver, instructor, restaurant manager, and certified optician, just to name a few things.
As a boy, I helped my father do carpentry, plumbing, electrical work, auto repair, and, of course, had a paper route and did the standard yard work.
My dad was interesting to me. He seemed to know something about everything, and, never seemed to stop learning.
Through his interests, I learned to enjoy opera and classical music, became an amateur radio operator, and learned how to fish, including the part that came afterwards...gutting and cleaning the fish. He made his own cast nets, and taught me how to use them.
A lot of what I learned to do in my life had dirty, grungy sides. Just ask mom when she would look at us in the back yard cleaning fish, or I would come home filthy from a day spent on a construction crew in the hot Florida summer.
Still, it was fun catching the fish, with rod and reel, or with cast net (which my dad made), cleaning them with my dad, and, once mom got her hands on them, eating the cooked fish as a family meal.
My dad was a quiet man.
Few words. Lot of messages, however.
I've done a lot of things in my life.
As a man, I have been a soldier, truck driver, instructor, restaurant manager, and certified optician, just to name a few things.
As a boy, I helped my father do carpentry, plumbing, electrical work, auto repair, and, of course, had a paper route and did the standard yard work.
My dad was interesting to me. He seemed to know something about everything, and, never seemed to stop learning.
Through his interests, I learned to enjoy opera and classical music, became an amateur radio operator, and learned how to fish, including the part that came afterwards...gutting and cleaning the fish. He made his own cast nets, and taught me how to use them.
A lot of what I learned to do in my life had dirty, grungy sides. Just ask mom when she would look at us in the back yard cleaning fish, or I would come home filthy from a day spent on a construction crew in the hot Florida summer.
Still, it was fun catching the fish, with rod and reel, or with cast net (which my dad made), cleaning them with my dad, and, once mom got her hands on them, eating the cooked fish as a family meal.
My dad was a quiet man.
Few words. Lot of messages, however.
Labels: cast net, donovan baldwin, fishing, Florida, jack of all trades
# posted by Donovan Baldwin @ 5:35 PM 
