My Dad not a shade tree okie wannabe like me but a true oaky…
The best times of my growing up was hunting & fishing and playing catch with my dad! He loved all FOUR! Hunting fishing baseball and me… most of the time in that order 😊
Most of the time I didn’t know where he was or what he was really thinking..,,
For sure my dad lived his life in a way that his life became a story needing told. I knew no one then nor now that lived life like he did.
When we were fishing together or playing together or working together of course I knew where he was but it was seldom just him and I
Was I so preoccupied as a kid that I can’t remember where my dad was most of the time
Mostly I remember what other thought of him and almost in every case I could see they was right because I thought the same thing
However I do remember the following…
He was very strong in his back and shoulders! If he could get his back and shoulders under something he could lift it! Like a hare (a harrowing tool for leveling plowed-land), or two 100 pound sack of potatoes (One on eight shoulder) and then run up a hill! I literally saw him lift one side of a Farmall tractor long enough for someone to put a stand under it so that the tire could be changed
I think maybe the only time I heard him come close to fibbing was when he told me and others he can’t ever remember being tired, tired to the point that he just wanted to rest.
He was the hardest working man I ever knew so maybe that’s where he was, maybe he was milking cows, feeding the pigs or the chickens or fixing fence or taking care of the cows or working on our farm equipment but as a kid I just don’t remember where he was most of the time
He Played just as hard as he worked!
I don’t think he was out drinking at the bars cause I never remember him coming home drunk
I don’t think he liked hunting fish by himself so when he was hunting and fishing I would often go with him
His favorite type of fishing was noodling and limb line fishing! Of course noodling is catching fish with your hands and Liam Lane Fishing is setting out shorts hand cut fishing poles on the sides of the banks of the river. Neither was done leisurely it was a big event and often included the whole weekend and everyone involved went out it hard and whole souled!
His favorite river to Noodle in and set out long lines in was a river called ‘deep fork’. Lots of drifts and muddy water in red steep muddy river bank! Family and friends seldom fished deep fork without my dad!
This type of fishing I hear is a lost art! They still noodle in Oklahoma but they do it in big lakes and they use diving gear! My dad never used diving gear (goggles and an air tank) but he caught more fish noodling than anyone else
Now keep in mind most of the stories from here on out centers around my preteen and teen years. Evidently other youngens my age didn’t see noodling as the adventure I did because almost always I was a kid and often the only kid that hung in their with them as willingly as I did.
Of all the times we went noodling I can only remember two of my cousins, Ronnie Guinn and Kenny Bishop joining us.
I remember one incident that will forever stick in my mind with noodling was one of my dad’s plumbing helpers oscar went noodling with us. John Ford another frequent noodle along with my dad and Leland, we’re all noodling in deep Fork and John said he felt a big one up under the bank and he was gonna go down and get it and oscar ask if he could do it so oscar took a big breath and under he went and we could see the commotion under the water, the water was kinda boiling up from all the commotion underneath, and as soon as he come up so did the blood. A beaver had tore his belly opened. No he didn’t bite Oscars fingers or hand he went straight for the gut and tore a big hole in it and when oscar come up I remember seeing what looked to me like a little piece of gut pushing out of his belly. A sight I’ll never forget.
Nobody panicked including oscar so they wet a bunch of toe sacks wrapped them around his belly and two of them at a time literally carried him back to the truck and took him to the hospital where they sewed him up and sent him home the same day.
He never got infected but I don’t remember seeing him going noodling with us again however I know he did continue to noodle!
Another dramatic incident I remember was when I was probably about five years old! Dad and John and Leland and myself were squirrel hunting! As they often do the squirrel run into a hole in the trunk of the tree! Probably his nest!
As we often did we would make the hole bigger with a chopping axe so we could get to the squirrel. Once the hole was big enough to extract the squirrel they would feel around (yes i said feel around) for the squirrel’s tail knowing full well that if they grab the squirrel’s body he would bite bite them and a squirrel can bite. Once they were able to grab the squirrels tail everything happened quick (I never did it this way I would stick a stick in if I could see the squirrel tail to rake out). Once they found the squirrel’s tail they would grab it and swing the squirrel by the tail as hard as they could bashing his head against the trunk of the tree. Food was about to be on the table!
However this time it didn’t quite go that way! Leland was cutting the hole to find the squirrels tail when the axe glanced off the tree trunk and cut deep into his leg! His calf. With blood gushing down his leg and literally down the tree my dad climbed up to help his younger brother! Leland climbed on my dad‘s back like a monkey wrapping his arms and legs around my dad and my dad climbed down the tree with Leland on his back. John jumped in and help Dad carry Leland home which was probably about a mile away! Dad went back up the tree and finish the job his little brother wasn’t able to complete!
as my dad and John held Leland down my grandma cleaned his wound. Without batting an eye or looking overly concerned my grandma put a couple of stitches in her sons leg with no anesthesia…. I stood by and cried and screamed with Leland!
My dad never told that story but John and Leland probably told it hundreds of times!
Besides hunting and fishing I know he loved to play baseball but again we usually went to the games together and often palyed on the same team together. photo front row on knees is (l-r) Leland, unknown, my Dad (notice his beech shorts he played in, that says a lot), unknown, Ray Guinn. Standing row (l-r) Me, John Ford, Oscar, and three unknown.
He like music OK and he had strong opinions about certain musicians but I don’t remember ever hearing him listen to anything but the car radio and seldom did he do that.
He wasn’t very talkative when we were together but he didn’t neglect me either we just never talked much together!
There were only a few times that I think I really disappointing my dad and both times involved me not telling the truth, lying!
I don’t remember him ever really lecturing me about any of my shortcomings or faults or mistakes.
I didn’t feel like then nor now that he didn’t care enough to be more involved in teaching me life’s lessons, in guiding and directing me! Maybe he felt uncomfortable in even trying or maybe he didn’t feel he had the right too or maybe he simply depended on his example to provide the discipline in the lessons in life… to direct my thinking by giving me the desire to be like him…
Looking back now I realize I didn’t know where he stood about a lot of issues but I know what he liked about sports and hunting and fishing and qualities in other people
Even though I can’t remember or don’t recall where he stood on a lot of issues I think I was pretty good at guessing because all I had to do to guess right was have to think to myself where would a good honest moral man stand on this particular issue and most likely I would be right
I don’t know if he just didn’t have strong feelings about a lot of things or if he simply wanted me to make up my own mind but I never realized all this about my Dad until I started writing this.
I know he felt deeply and strongly about some very personal things but there were few things he expressed strong feelings about, even when it came to the things he enjoyed doing and the people he enjoyed doing it with.
The stories others would tell about him and what a hard worker he was I knew to be true because I saw it firsthand! The stories about how strong in the shoulders in back he wet a new to be true because I saw it first end
When I heard stories about what a great fisherman and Hunter and baseball catcher He was I knew that to be true because I saw it firsthand
But there was also things that I never heard stories about, like him being a great softball coach or dancing the two step, or keeping his opinions about politics and religion to himself but didn’t matter he was what he was and I know who he was because I saw it firsthand… by comparison I could see nobody’s good at everything but he enjoyed at all!
My dad was an open book but he didn’t try to be and you mainly come to recognize that by hearing what other said about him or what you saw firsthand
Some things that he was great at I only heard about like being a boxer but I never saw that firsthand. and I only knew he was a good boxer because of how I got my name Rocky. He was a big fan of Rocky Graziano, not Rocky Marciana but Graziano.
Rocky Graziano, was an scrappy little italian Welterweight and Middleweight boxet. He held the World Middleweight title from 1947 to 1948. He won his first big the night I was born.
Now thinking back my Dad fascinates me but as I was growing up I was just very proud of him cause everybody liked him, everybody thought the world of him and trusted him and even said that they had never heard him tell a lie and I knew that to be true because I saw it firsthand.
He was known to be overly generous and would give you literally the shirt off his back and I knew that to be true because I saw it firsthand
I can’t remember anyone he spoke really bad about except maybe say they wasn’t the best worker he ever worked with or something like that but it was never really bad or demeaning or downgrading and I always saw that firsthand.
I really don’t recall or can’t remember anyone that’s spoke bad of him except that may be he too generous or to forgiving or just too damn nice! Which my mom often pointed out to anyone with a list of ear…
In high school he seldom went to my games I would usually stay over after school and go with my buddies and spend the night with them but when he did go to my games he never really commented about how I did or didn’t do unless I did really good!
he would often brag about others and how good they could dribble or shoot or catch or hit or noddle or hunt but that was okay because in my mind I he was almost always right and I never took that wrong! I never took that as he didn’t care or he didn’t notice
If I performed some task below par he seldom said anything, if I did OK he might say something in passing but if I did really good he would often say I did good.
For instance if I caught a few fish he would seldom say anything but if I caught more fish than anyone else (oe the biggest fish of all) he would often say I did good! Really good!
He never called me Rocky he always call me Rock.
If I played a fairly good game he would seldom say anything but if I made a couple of fantastic catches or throws or hits he would often say but I did good and point out pacifically, in some detail, the good I did
The same way with other people, if they did something exceptionally well he would mention that they did good and I knew he was right because I can’t ever remember him getting such things wrong.
I don’t want this to sound like I wish he would’ve noticed me more cause I know he did notice or that I wished he would’ve bragged more because I understand why he didn’t – I think in his minds eye if he come off as a braggart it would’ve of diminished him speaking well of them when they did do good and he did notice. ie. words he didn’t want to diminish or risk speaking about the good he saw in others at the risk of coming off like some kind of braggart.
If he said I did good I know I really did good and it wasn’t just Bragg because I felt the same way…
He would never brag about anyone if they were mediocre but if they were exceptional he would often mention how good they was.
However again there were things I seldom heard him talk about like politics and religion I have no idea what his political affiliation was nor his religious affiliation I just knew he was a good man and that’s enough, that’s all I needed to know!
I Always took that as he never wanted me to thank too much of myself and to never give up trying to be a little better while at the same time to always see the good in others whether you were good and/or better at the same thing or not…
I seldom heard him cuss, he was never potty mouth, maybe every now and then the S word but I can’t ever remember him saying the F word at any time to anyone and I could tell when others used it around him it made him uncomfortable and that was a valuable lesson for me…
We seldom talked about sex or politics or religion but when we did (never about sex) it was mainly positive and seldom demeaning or hateful! People on a farm seldom talked about sex because it was all around us with farm animals and wild critters and even wilder cousins and neighbors – it was just a way of life and not a topic of conversation!
My earliest memories of him with me is being a young boy riding his back and him acting like a bucking horse, pawing and bucking and shaking his head and whinnying and laughing the whole time
I was a little surprise at the memory I had and didn’t have when I started writing this short story about my dad how much I remembered about a few things but how little I remember about most things. Like him being an Intercal part of my life and yet obviously he was! Not just Intrecal but important…
I don’t ever remember us just sitting down to talk but I can remember us talking all day while we were fishing or hunting or working side-by-side.
What i’ve shared about my dad here it’s not a criticism and it’s not a brag it’s all about what I saw or didn’t see or what I noticed and didn’t notice! I’m just surprised I didn’t know more and I should have!
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