Folks Of Interest Dads that made us who we are

My dad taught me a great deal about general auto maintenance. He's always had some sort of older vehicle to wrench on. The most important thing he imparted to me was the love of Chevrolets. He's 74 now and it's kinda embarrassing how much he still helps me out on construction projects. He's had this Harley since '69. He's the kinda guy that is friends with everyone usually from the moment they meet. I guess I'm kinda like him that way.

 

I’ll never surpass my dad’s mechanical or automotive knowledge or skill. But I surpassed his wisdom a long time ago.

I miss him and love him dearly but I’ve got along pretty well in life by doing the opposite of what he would do in most situations. He was a mediocre father and lousy husband. I’m not trying to piss on his memory I’m sure if he were still here he’d agree, as he started following Jesus Christ a couple years before he died and he really changed for the better, quite miraculous actually.

 

Here is a few cool photos of my dad, born in 1934. Always into car/bikes. I'm 54 and have always had a couple hotrod project of my own.

 

Few more. Got emotional last night digging through the old photo album. Thanks for starting this thread.

 

You guys getting emotional...
Makes me emotional.

 

Thanks so much for all of the emotional outpouring with this thread. I wanted to add some more about my Dad. When I was 14 my Dad gave me a 1953 four door ford customline. It has an old wore out 239 flathead in it. I was so proud of that car, being it was my first. I overhauled the motor under an old shade tree in our back yard. Dad let me handle most of it on my own. Dad owned a service station in town, Kerr-Mcgee . I worked for him pumping gas 19.9 a gallon. It was a way to earn money for my school clothes. My mom and Dad divorced when I was fifteen. There where five of us kids, me being the oldest. When mom left Dad raised all of us on his own. Always provided us with some skills and good pay to help ourselves through high school. We always had cars in the yard 54 Ford customline , 56 Crown Vic, 58 Ford Fairlane. And my old trusty 48 Ford F1. Man I wouldn't trade the world for the memories I accumulated in my High School years. What a wonderful man he was. I really appreciate sharing all with everyone out there. Thanks again.

 

Bang... Nail on the head.
Been lookin' at this thread and wondering how, where, what, when, and especially why(?)
My Da-- Just can't. No
WARNING THIS BECOMES LIKE AN OPERA
I had a father (absentee alky#) told me "Don't drive truck", ...
...As he related all the adventure and life's lessons of livin' on rhe road.
He showed us the world of classic culture, ( he easily knew his way around the piano keyboard ) At the same time we went to the junkyards for parts for his flip cars. We enjoyed some Sundays for a time, with a buddy who owned a Piper Cub, collected and toured survivor Model A's
When I was 12 ( Handing me my very 1st issue of HRM ) he took to 'The Hiway'. The next 25 years we would 'visit' maybe once a year.
Cancer took him at 65. It was an easy parting.
Now Dad (stepdad), from age 7; I knew from earliest memories as my pal.
He rescued us from a 19th century, no plumbing, drafty house, on a gravel road.
His gig was pumpimg gas, lube and oil changes patching tires.
Only twice I recall him drinking beer.
At 13 yrs he bought a franchise to service deliveries to four hi-rise apt buildings. 1000 units, all newspapers available: N.Y.T., Herald Tribune, Philly Morning INQ, Evening Inquirers, Evening Bulletin, Wall Street Journal Some horse racing rags and various sensational tabloids.
3:50 AM "GET UP!" wash face, teeth, shoes on, out the door, 'Hello night sky'.
Three and half hours ( we split it, 2 bldgs mine, 2 bdgs his ) fast walking hallways.
Sunday Mornings, a huge mountain of paper bundles. Finish by maybe 9:30
Then we catch breakfast. Winters I'm going to school, Saturdays go play at uncles Gulf station,
Four PM off+out and running evening paper deliveries. Usually done by 8:20PM.
Home and supper at 8:45 PM. Almost seven years at this. Plus 5 yrs apprentice at the Gulf.
Last 2 1/2 years he got a real job. I was left to hire other kids to help PMs and Sunday morns.
He lost his health. Took a mailroom job at Gulf Oil.
Then he lost Mom, she cleaned out the bank and anything she valued and disappeared.
Let me just say I disappointed her, in my loyalty, Pops was an honest man. He taught me to never lie (tried to) Honesty came to me at age 30, And yes I have had the therapies needed During this era I divorced my 2nd wife for never giving me a straight story. No. #1 wife was disloyal and caused mucho pain. #2 was not gonna be allowed to hurt me. I never explained this to Pops and he was enamored of #two ( I chose his Mom's name for my daughter ).
Wound up living with her and willed everything to her.
I didn't give a crap about the money or property, but yeah it hurt.
((( He always stood by me, Traffic Court, wrecked cars, and still kept me in wheels, until I started to bring my own cars home
I was always loyal to him ( except when I ditched school )))
Nothing close to The Hurt from numero uno.
Today I wonder what effect the hours upon lonely hours of formative years of running up and back hallways; Aside ftom good legs.
I wound up with a great life. I've seen, except Asia, most of the World The USA, all corners.
Upon his passing I learned to drive my tractor trailer while bawling out my heart.
Ah geez I 'm doin' it now

 

Big hug, Tom...

 

Thanks for everyone sharing their stories especially the ones that are harder to share. Amazing how we are all somewhat shaped by our dads both good and bad. I know I wish I could go back and do lots of things different even with my own boys, but also pretty sure we all do what we can to some extent. Anyway, thanks again for all the stories.

 

I was fortunate,
my dad worked in home improvement doing windows siding and pretty much what ever the customer needed. a carpenter by trade he called himself a mechanic
I worked with him from the time I was 4 till I was 20 whenI went to work in the aviation industry

When the new cars came out in the fall he would always stop on the way home from a job to check out the new models, (throughout the 60s) he planted the seeds and my love for cars grew.

He gave me my first car at 13 (61 Willys wagon) and help me get it running
He layed the foundation to my mechanical career
For the most part he thought me how to enjoy work

As I do work today I can hear him in the back of my mind.
and
I really don’t miss him because I feel that he is still with me every day

Thank you dad

 

My Dad was so poor growing up, his family couldn’t go to California, from Oklahoma during the Grapes Of Wraft. They had to stay here in the dust bowl! He had to quit school to help, feed the family ,as he was the oldest. Went to war in 1942, as an aviation mechanic, came back to Oklahoma in Oct of 1957! Started his version of the ranch. He insisted that all of us kids got a four year diploma! We did! But…. I made my career on what he taught me in our ranch shop, rebuilding everything! Some of my fondest memories are on rainy days….we would fix flats in the shop with the doors open….watching it rain! Lost him some 14 years ago! Miss him every day! He is the one that told what I have in byline!
I raised My son like that, he raised his son similar, and now my grandson is racing his son…similar I hope! By the way, that boy is the seventh generation on the ranch!




Bones

 

I could have picked him from a line up...based on your avatar.

 

Yes it is all his fault.

 

Dad? Dad, hmmmmm.

Mom & dad got married when mom turned 18 in March. My older sister was born in September, the same year. A year and 4 days later, I was born. 6 months later, I have a 1/2 sister born, mom and dad are divorced. I haven't seen him since I was 2. My younger sister has 4 brothers and sisters, I have never met any of them, and they lived 60 miles away. I heard that he died around 20 years ago.

Mom met the guy I call Dad about the time I last saw my other dad, and they got married a year later. He adapted my older sister and me when I was 4 years old, and he raised us as his own children.
Dad wasn't much of a car guy, he usually had a 3-4 year old car (that mom drove) and an older truck (that he drove) that he maintained. He worked in concrete construction. Dad worked long and hard hours and provided a pretty decent life for the 4 of us. He had pretty high moral standards a high work enatic and engrained them upon my older sister and me.
Dad had two passions in life. He liked auto racing and fishing. The fishing he perused hard, bought a boat, and every weekend through the summer we went to the lakes so he could go fishing with his buddy and his buddy's family. They started off renting a cottage at the same lake every weekend. Then his buddy bought a cabin and we all stayed there for a couple years. There was a little trailer park that had 4 trailers in it, and mom & dad bought one of those old trailers. It was only a couple miles from his buddy's cabin. A few years later Dad bought the trailer park. Every weekend was head for the lakes as soon as dad got home from work Friday evening and we would leave the lakes every Sunday afternoon. I hated fishing. We did that lakes thing from the time I was about 5 until I reached 16 and had a job at a gas station that I had to work evenings and weekends at. That meant I couldn't go to the lakes fishing any more. Darned, that was just too bad.
The reason we came home every Sunday afternoon was because dad's buddy was into stock car racing. He was one of those guys that dirt track races those 34 Ford coupes with the flathead V8. They raced Sunday evenings at the dirt track in our town. I loved dirt track racing, even as a little kid. About the time I was in 6th grade, mom & dad built a new house. I suspect the new house probably put a crimp in the weekend activities, because dad spent some Saturdays working instead of going to the lakes (this was before they bought the trailer at the lakes). That new house was about a 1/4 mile from Dad's buddy's place. About that same time, dads buddy's oldest son (think he was 16 at the time) started driving the race car, so the racing was a higher priority then fishing for a few years. On the Saturday's when dad's work got rained out, he would go to his buddy's place and help on the race car. Often he took me along (I suspect it was because it was the only way mom would let him go there). The father son racing team didn't last very long, maybe a couple seasons, but then the father hired a driver, and the son ran his own car. Two race cars out of the same garage! By then I was old enough to go to the garage by myself.
More changed came along. Mom and dad had a daughter (his 1st child), when I turned 11. Dad bought his own business, running a jackhammer breaking out cement. Business was good (that was about the time they bought the trailer at the lakes). Dad's buddy quit racing, the local track quit racing the coupes and went to late models and he didn't like them, but his son was really getting into it. I spent a lot of time in that race car garage in my early teens, but still had to go to the lakes on Sundays until I got the job.
Dad wasn't real happy I was spending so much time at the race car garage. He wasn't real happy I was really getting into cars either. About that same time, my older sister started to rebel. It was a pretty rough few years. In my opinion, dad was much harder on me then he was on my older sister (the younger sister couldn't do anything wrong). I was toeing the line, getting decent grades in school, staying out of trouble. I was doing lawn care for 6 neighbors, making money. My older sister was pretty much doing the opposite. She ran away when she was 13, but I got in trouble from dad for it.
At 15 1/2 I got the job at the gas station. I got it because I excelled in the auto shop classes at school because of what I learned at the race car garage. I went to school, then went to work until 9 pm every Mon-Fri, 8 hours on Sat, and 6 hours on Sunday. I rode a 10 speed to work until I got my license. Then I didn't come home until curfew.
Dad and I couldn't have a conversation without butting heads. After I graduated high school I only slept at the house. The next May I got married and moved out. In June I owned my 1st dirt track race car (of many that were to come). In Oct the same year, we bought a house. The only thing my dad approved of was the marriage, but I'm pretty sure he questioned my motives for the marriage (we are still married, 47 years now). It took 2 years before dad and I would even speak to each other. His 1st granddaughter changed everything. The fact that that 1st grandchild arrived two years after the marriage took place was not lost on my dad's thought process (he even expressed that at the time).
Dad and I patched things up, but it was never a warm and fuzzy relationship. Other then the marriage, I'm not sure I ever reached his expectations or approval.
He taught me a lot of things, many I didn't realize until well after the fact. Except for those few years, we had a decent relationship. He did open the door for me to get involved with dirt track racing, even if it was unintentional, not what he wanted to do. That early dirt track racing got me to where I am. Dad passed away about 8 years ago.

 

Fear is a powerful motivator !

 

Yeah, can't talk about the guy who fathered me without getting angry.

 

My Dad Everett Mc. Born in Cherokee Nation Oklahoma ( Indian Territory ) 7 Brothers 1 sister family emigrated to Calif in 1938, Had a small Body Shop in San Pablo,Ca. supported us 3 kids and Mom,He was always self employed and moved around alot Always worked long, hard hours until he could no longer, was still building cars in his 80's. featured in HOTROD Magazine Jan 55, and again in Rod & Custon, Nov. 56. a few articles in The Restorer Magazine= Model A Fords. passed away in 2009 5 days short of his 87 th birthday. I wish everyday he was still available to answer my questions. He had very little formal education, but was a Master Mechanic & Engineer.My Dad & I got our pilots Licenses at same time, His best friend was a Certified Airplane Mechanic who walked us through the process while we worked on and rebuilt airplane engines and structural components etc. an amazing man with alot of personal faults like the rest of us. We all just have to accept our parents and be thankful we had them.

 

My Dad was my best auto mechanic's instructor . He was a master mechanic with no weakness in any area of automotive or truck repair. He was involved with drag racing in the '50's , being the mechanic on a real A gas '38 Ford standard coupe powered by a bored and stroked 331 Cadilac (395 cubic inch ) , and also raced the family's '57 Chevy 210 wagon in legal stock class and won ! He took me to my first drag race on my 11th birthday where we got to see Don Gartlits and 7 other T/F front engine dragsters .
I was hooked ! When I started drag racing he let me borrow his truck and camper to tow my buddies car 140 miles so I could drive my first race. Soon after that he was my crew chief on my own drag car for 12 years , he might have missed 2 races in 12 years.
Helped me with all of my car projects and house projects for many years . He was a strict disciplinarian , but fair . I had to put him and Mom in assisted living and take away there car keys ,sell there vehicles a few months ago , but they didn't fight it . Still one of the hardest things I've ever had to do .

 

@twenty8 has the right of it here. @427 sleeper, not every child gets a good father who teaches them right and wrong, how to do things like work on these cars that you have as a hobby and how to get along in life. I'm glad to read so that so many people here had good relationships with their fathers. I am angry about the way the man who fathered me treated the wife and family he was supposed to love and protect. The only thing that he taught me was to never be like him. I can't speak for @twenty8, but it's not my intention to bring anyone else down. I'll leave it at that.

 

I understand and respect this. But a blanket, "Mic Drop" kind of statement will always get a "Mic Drop" reply from me.(not that that's right , either...) I realize that not all were as fortunate as other's in the Parenting situation, and that Suck's. All we can do is try to impress our vision's on the next generation, and hope that they succede where we have failed.

 

My son is a better father to his kids then I ever was to him and his sister. It seems that sometimes, being a bad example can change a family tradition for the better.

Knowing what not to do may be more important then knowing what to do. Kids don't come with an instruction manual. All we can know is what we have seen, either from our parents, or from someone else's parents.

 

My dad was a professional aircraft mechanic and a pioneer in the world of bush pilots. He was a hero in many ways, but never really helped me work on my cars as a kid. He did show me how to run a paint gun and taught me a very hard work ethic.

 

Always brothers here though, always brothers here.........

 

My Dad was a much better Dad than I gave him credit for while I was growing up. Because my parents owned a Mom & Pop grocery store/gas station, their family time was limited by 12 hour work days, 24/7, but they did the best they could with what they had to work with (me). Out of necessity through the Great Depression era, my Dad was able to build and repair just about anything, and my oldest brother (my best friend) was lucky enough to spend time with Dad (pre business ownership), learning more skills than I ever did (maybe he was a better student?). I developed an interest in all things mechanical at an early age, and my folks always encouraged and indulged my interests, with Dad pitching in when he could. My Mom worked in her uncle's auto parts store when she was young, and SHE taught me how to make gaskets!
As a kid, I could always find faults with my parents (as most kids can), but as I grew older, I realized how lucky I was to have the parents I did. I'm sure I could have been a better child for them.
I'm sorry for those of you that had bad relationships with your parents. I realized early on that I was not parent material (mainly due to my self-centeredness) and it always scared me. Parenting is tough and fraught with pitfalls. I wasn't up to the task until I gained a daughter through marriage when I was older and more mature/settled, whatever you would call it. She has been a total joy and is the apple of my eye! Even though we don't share blood lines, she is MY daughter, and I am thankful for her every day. Parenting is not always easy or fun and takes effort. Unfortunately, some people that sire or incubate children just aren't up to the task.
We also need to remember that not all families are "Ozzie & Harriet" or "Ward & June Cleaver", just ordinary people with problems of their own (admittedly, some are self-inflicted), just like us.
Back to regular programming....

 

View attachment 5832215 I am Lucky that my Dad is still around. This is him and me next to the wagon in 2003. Mom took the picture on the very hot sunny day.

He has raced Pontiacs since 1957 or so and in 2003, he was commissioned to write the book on Pontiacs for Car Tech. The first book sold many copies and was retired in 2013 because it was only in black and white. Since the demand was still around in the early 2020's, I worked with a private publisher, with permission from Car Tech, and had it republished. I made a few changes to the covers and incorporated one of Mark Ervin's drawings on the revised rear cover.

Dad and Mom had seven of us from 1954 till 1963 and we lived in several "fun to be" areas. I now know we were plain old middle class suburban kids but we had lots of pals and things to do. Mom and Dad kept us busy buy letting us do our own things with all the neighbor kids.

Dad helped lots of the local kids and grownups with their bikes and cars and toys and appliances. He taught us Hand kids the same so most of us can fix things. And, until our drag strip closed in 2011, he was still racing and researching with his wagon.

So many of us had similar Dads and Moms and it is easy to see why we gravitate towards sites like this one.

Thanks for allowing us to share stories like these!
Tom Hand