Dad was mechanically minded, that included electricity. It seemed he could do anything he put his mind to. I am like that as well. If I need a project done and I don't know how to do it - no problem. I research a book on the subject. If that doesn't help, I ask someone who might know the answer. Ace Hardware in Maynardville has been the source of many of my needed answers. Back to Dad and his electrical expertise.

In his younger days just after World War I , he worked as a lineman setting poles and stringing wire for telephone companies throughout Michigan's lower peninsula. Later, just before World War ll, Dad built highline towers across Illinois. But none of that involved actual electrical transmission.

Dad got his electrical baptism under fire when he talked his way into a journeyman electrician job at Dow Chemical in Midland, Michigan. He must have talked a good line. Back in the days before computers, good records were not kept. A man could get away with it if he sounded like he knew what he was talking about.

The first day on the job, he was to wire up a transmission box. Could he, do it? Of course. But as he stood there trying to figure it out, an old electrician who had been watching him, walked over. "Son, let me show you how to do that. You're going to get yourself killed if you're not careful." He showed Dad and probably a few other things as well.

During World War II, Dad was the supervisor of a crew of women wiring airplane bomber planes at the Bomber Plant in Ypsilanti, Michigan. As I have written elsewhere, that was something to really laugh about. After all, Dad's view was that the only things women were good for were keeping house and making babies. He was a chauvinist of the first order. His language was colorful as well. I imagine he cussed those ladies out on a daily basis. That was back in the day when equal rights were a joke.

After Dad bought the farm at Pulaski, Michigan, he worked as an electrician at the Jackson Bumper plant. Before the war, they made automobile bumpers. Wooden crates for very large bombs were the order of the day during the war. He was one of the two electricians at the Jackson Bumper Plant. Each of them built a toolbox of the same size. They were placed side by side and could be used as a bed. They slept when not needed. Dad needed his rest. He was a farmer by days and an electrician at night.

Somewhere along the way, Dad learned how to wire a house for electricity. He taught my husband how to do it. Dad could do anything he put his mind to do. How many do you know today who has the out and out nerve and audacity to do such things? I haven't come across anyone yet.