A glimpse inside our childhood - written by my brother, Ernie Swindle. Untitled My Father’s Legacy (Walk & Work) Legacy- ...”something transmitted by or received from an ancestor or predecessor or from the past,” - Webster As I reflect on my life and that of my family, I begin to think of the Legacy my father will leave to me and my younger brother. Others receive property, both personal and real. Some collect a large monetary sum of money that is passed down from the former generation. Legacy of great monetary value and personal gain. I am not jealous of these individuals, really never have been. Envious? Sure, who wouldn’t be at times. It’s at this point in my reflections I realized my (our) Legacy from our father. We, Gerald and I, are lucky to be receiving two things of value from our father. Walk & Work. Don’t be too hasty and assume this is a negative. Hear me out, keep reading. Walk: Dad taught us how to walk. Yes in a literal sense but more importantly as boys, teens, and men. He taught us to keep our head up and to walk with pride, even though we might be wearing hand-me-downs. At times when we didn’t have two nickels to rub together, when eating a saw mill lunch was common. When an RC cola and a moon pie were a treat and you waited anxiously for the next trip to Billy Carter’s store to get a new Dekalb hat. It was important to him that we take pride in how we handle ourselves and carried ourselves. Without pity or embarrassment, look people in the eye, give a firm handshake. Be proud of your heritage, even though my grandfather was a share cropper. Never back down from a challenge, never give up, never quit..., his philosophy was fairly simple - keep walking. Keep moving, don’t just lie around or get kicked around. Walking was his therapy. He walked almost everyday, still does. Not laps, speed walking at a gym but walking. Like folks used to do. He walked around our farm almost every morning. I didn’t know why then but now it seems a little clearer. Raising three boys, working in construction and farming. Lots a time we ran out of money before we ran out of month. He was thinking, meditating and talking with God. The most important walk he passed on to us boys. Walk with God, work for God’s glory not your own. Work: That’s the second prong to my father’s legacy. I’ve never out worked him, never will. He has never backed away from a job, project or task. Never got too hot, too cold, too high, too heavy... Never. He was always up for the challenge and leaned on us to help him pull off some of these gigantic task. We farmed, cut put wood, built barns, houses, decks, sold produce, picked up cans, whatever there was to do we did it. Would not allow us to let our pride get in the way of doing that which was necessary to survive. We trapped animals and sold fur, we shelled corn, picked okra, cut grass, bush hog, every job you can imagine we did it. And might I add not with new or even sometimes proper tools. We used to say to our friends “we’ve done so much for so long with so little, we can damn near do anything with next to nothing!” I didn’t appreciate it at the time, but boy do I now. Especially having owned my own business for almost 20 years, and dealing with a workforce. So it is for these two things, how dad taught us how to Walk & Work, that I will be forever indebted. If I’m lucky, I will pass these traits on to my children. I pray daily that I can. Thanks Dad. Footnote: Earlier I mentioned there were three of us boys. There were three, however my older brother, Tony, passed away before I wrote this down. Written by: Ernie Swindle
Posted on: Fri, 10 Jan 2014 15:40:57 +0000
Trending Topics
Recently Viewed Topics
© 2015