Always Something To Do

Is there a smell, burnt into your mind’s eye, that takes you back to a place and time in your life? Recently, I stopped by my local Ace hardware store and as I opened the door to walk in, I found my childhood self walking down the aisles of home improvement stores with my dad. Here I was, decades later, walking a little bit slower, just to take in that memory and smell; lumber, plastics, paint and more.

Weekends, school breaks and of course, trips to Ohio each summer were not dedicated to the joys of play. Rather, my siblings and I found ourselves as helpers for my dad and his never ending list of home improvement to-do list. There is always something to do. Painting, sawing and hammering away, sun up to sun down. As a child, it seemed like those projects never ended. Can’t we just have someone come do this for us? I would ask myself. Not a chance.

Now, I ponder on those projects with fondness. In hindsight, they taught me a lot, what I call the Porfirio Principles. One, be patient, because if you know my dad it will take him all day to complete something that can be done in an hour. Two, use your imagination picture, as he calls creative thinking. With odds and ends nuts and bolts found in an old rusty tool box, he can find the resources needed to do the trick on any fix. To our family’s amazement, it always works. Three, keep your money. I literally can look around him and rarely do I come across a project someone else completed. He’s replaced shingles on his houses, installed tin roofs on his barn, tiled floors, fixed water well pumps, fixed every vehicle he has owned and every project in between. Once all ten of us grew up and moved out, he has completed almost all projects by himself. A testament to his Porfirio Principles.

My father is resourceful, frugal and talented. Borne out of necessity. To this day, at 89, you will still find him involved in projects, tinkering around the house to keep from being idle. I like to think that he passed along his patience, imagination picture and frugalness to his children (however, I think that one skipped me). My siblings are handy around the house (one is building a Midget Mustang from scratch) and others can hunt out a bargain like no one else (did someone say Goodwill). Thank you Pa for teaching us to be patient with projects, to use our imagination picture and to save a buck or two!