Dear E-Flash Friends;
Here’s a Father’s Day story…
We were up on the rooftop at a large shopping plaza. I was working with my dad.
Well, actually, that’s probably not an accurate way of putting it. My dad, who was an expert in refrigeration—and, frankly, anything mechanical—was working on a large rooftop cooling system. I, the 18 year old son, was handing him tools—usually the incorrect one—when he asked for them.
“Hand me that ¾ inch gangly wrench.”
[Handing him the wrench] “Here you go, dad.”
[With a look of sad disappointment on his face] “That’s a power drill.”
“Oh.”
At one point, my dad said, “Do you see the main power switch that I showed you before?”
“Yes.”
“Take the lever and put it all the way down in the off position.”
“Okay.”
I put the lever down. I can’t recall anymore, after all these years, how much electrical power we were dealing with, but it was a lot. Probably like 34 million volts, or something. I’ll have to look it up later. Okay, on second thought, maybe it wasn’t 34 million volts, but it was a lot. It was enough electrical power to fry both of us into small charcoal pieces. (And being fried into charcoal pieces completely ruins the rest of the day.)
The unit we were working on was very large and my dad was on the other side of it. So, he could not see me and he could not see the lever for the power box.
“Did you turn the switch off?” he asked.
“Yes.”
“It’s all the way down?”
“Yes, it’s off.”
“You’re sure it’s down, right?”
“Yep.”
A slight pause.
“The lever is down, the power is off, right?”
“Uh huh.”
There was another momentary pause. And then I heard my dad walking around to my side of the unit. He took the lever and ensured that it was pushed all the way down. As he walked back around to the side that he was working on, I said, “Didn’t you trust me?”
And he said, “Yep” as he went back to working on the unit.
You might think, “Well, that’s not a very nice story, Dan. It sounds like your dad didn’t trust you.”
Au contraire, my friend…
I, actually, smile and nod my head, knowingly, and chuckle whenever I recall that story. In fact, I think back on that story with great fondness because it reminds me of what kind of man my dad was.
He worked around high voltage electricity and other types of dangerous conditions for 5 decades and he survived because he was cautious and smart and well prepared and he knew when to double and triple and maybe even quadruple check whether or not 34 million volts of power was coursing through some wires he was about to touch. In his line of work, some actions did not allow for a second chance if a mistake was made.
Think about working under conditions where one careless error could mean that you would die. And then think about doing that every work day for 50+ years. It’s another reason why I respect my dad.
I, also, chuckle whenever I think of that story because I’ve lived a good bit more life since then. When I think back, now, to who I was at 18 years of age, I shake my head and think, “Are you kidding?!? I would have double and triple checked that lever, too!!!” In fact, I might have had me go wait in the van. It would be safer for everyone.
By the way, I’m still wondering what a ¾ inch gangly wrench looks like.
I’ll be talking about “The Hallmarks of a Good Dad” tomorrow (June 19th) as we celebrate Father’s Day! Hope you can be with us. We have a terrific service planned and we will be honoring and celebrating our dads. Why not bring your dad to church just before you take him out for a nice lunch and tell him how much you love and appreciate him?
Sounds like a good idea, huh? (In my imagination I see you all nodding “yes”.)
See you tomorrow!
Blessings,
Dan
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