Who's your Daddy GAW (Part 2) *Winners announced*

I like this, and I'll tell about my dad. I'm 46, he is now 72. He never carried a knife (but should have lol). He was a teacher for 30+ years, but my earliest memories were of going to his second night job with him, collecting and reporting the cash collected from the local bus company (BAT in Brockton Mass) in the 1970's. I saw an example of the machine he used today at the Brimfield antique show.

We are not the touchy feely type, but I love and respect him.

IMG_20180904_134737 by Justin Lyttle, on Flickr
BAT 333 Brockton 6-1977 unk by mbernero, on Flickr
 
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Not an entry but wanted to share. Very touching GAW Glenn.

My Dad served in the Navy during WWII in the Pacific Theater. He got his parents to sign for him and joined when in 1943 he was 17 (about the age I was in the following picture).
My Dad lower right:


Here is a picture of my Dad, younger Brother and I on an annual fishing trip to Wisconsin. I am guessing this is 1975-76? Of course back then, before the Feds started withholding highway money to states with a drinking age below 21, the drinking age was 18 in Wisconsin. I am guessing that I am only 16 or 17 at the time with a Michelob. My Dad starting taking me on these annual trips when I was five and then my brother when he was old enough. We often brought friends - great times and great stories! Of course as I got older I stopped choosing to go. (We had one final trip to this lodge years later with the 911 attacks happening on the second day of the trip.)
 
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glennbad glennbad this is a great GAW it has been great reading all of the posts so far. Thank you for hosting this and bringing out some touching stories, thoughts and photos of fellow porch member's families. I admit I was holding off on posting until I decided if I wanted to enter or share anything about my father. But in the spirit of getting to know one another in this awesome community I thought why not :)
I wasn't part of your last GAW but would like to be a part of this one. I can't pass up the opportunity to own a custom knife from you, sir :thumbsup:

My father was an AW in the Navy from the ~1968-1988 (the year I joined the Navy!). He spent most of those years flying in a P-3 Orion hunting subs all over the globe. I remember he would always bring me cool stuff from exotic places. When I was really young, he brought me back a full-size pachinko game from Okinawa:) My earliest memories of fishing and being outdoors were with my father and I always admired him when I was young. However, my parents were divorced close to my 6th birthday and I didn't get to spend a whole lot of time with him after that.
I have a decent relationship with my father now and see him on a semi-regular basis, but I definitely take more after my grandfather in mannerism, spirit and even physical features. After my parents divorced my mother and I lived with my grandparents for the majority of my childhood so I was heavily influenced by them in many ways. Most notably for me now, my grandfather always carried a sharp knife in his front pocket, had a hanky in his back pocket, loved to spend time in his shop tinkering with things, loved his tools, loved to fish, loved to shoot guns and be outdoors, didn't say a lot but what he did say meant a lot, and he loved good homemade (grandma's) cooking. Next to family, those are all things I really love and carry on to this day. I wish I could talk knives with my grandfather one last time and show him all the cool stuff in my collection :) I'm thankful for the influence he had on me and better appreciate and live the values of his generation. I feel it made me a better person.
Good luck to everyone!
 
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waverave said:
glennbad glennbad this is a great GAW it has been great reading all of the posts so far. Thank you for hosting this and bringing out some touching stories, thoughts and photos of fellow porch member's families. I admit I was holding off on posting until I decided if I wanted to enter or share anything about my father. But in the spirit of getting to know one another in this awesome community I thought why not :)
I wasn't part of your last GAW but would like to be a part of this one. I can't pass up the opportunity to own a custom knife from you, sir :thumbsup:

My father was an AW in the Navy from the ~1968-1988 (the year I joined the Navy!). He spent most of those years flying in a P-3 Orion hunting subs all over the globe. I remember he would always bring me cool stuff from exotic places. When I was really young, he brought me back a full-size pachinko game from Okinawa:) My earliest memories of fishing and being outdoors were with my father and I always admired him when I was young. However, my parents were divorced close to my 6th birthday and I didn't get to spend a whole lot of time with him after that.
I have a decent relationship with my father now and see him on a semi-regular basis, but I definitely take more after my grandfather in mannerism, spirit and even physical features. After my parents divorced my mother and I lived with my grandparents for the majority of my childhood so I was heavily influenced by them in many ways. Most notably for me now, my grandfather always carried a sharp knife in his front pocket, had a hanky in his back pocket, loved to spend time in his shop tinkering with things, loved his tools, loved to fish, loved to be shoot guns and be outdoors, didn't say a lot but what he did say meant a lot, and he loved good homemade (grandma's) cooking. Next to family, those are all things I really love and carry on to this day. I wish I could talk knives with my grandfather one last time and show him all the cool stuff in my collection :) I'm thankful for the influence he had on me and better appreciate and live the values of his generation. I feel it made me a better person.
Good luck to everyone!
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I remember seeing P-3's in the sky all the time flying out of Weymouth Naval Air Station.
 
Not an entry, but a thanks for a generous gaw as well as a chance to read some nice memories. My wife and I are blessed to still have all four of our parents. All four are in their 80’s.

I’ve tried to get Dad interested in various pocket knives, but he holds steadfastly to his trusty Victorinox Classics.
 
My dad was the greatest man I ever knew.
People have done grander things and on a larger scale but to me, he was superman.
He was kind, understanding, supportive and a strong force to back me up when I needed it.
He loved God and loved his family and did everything he could for both. The world was a better place with him in it and a worse one without his love and humor and kindness.

Thank you for this giveaway and for giving me a chance to think about my dad.
 
Thank you glennbad glennbad for this thread. I truly appreciate the GAW, but more importantly a venue to share the cliffsnotes story of my Dad.

There's many people in the present or past that have certain characteristics or skills I would love to have, but there's nobody I'd want to be like more than my Dad.

He lost his father when he was 9, and learned quickly how to be a man. He had his first job when he was 11 or 12, became a full time mechanic at 16 and continued until he retired. On a mechanic's income through the 80s and 90s, my mother was able to stay at home with us, and my brother, sister and I had such a great childhood. The only times he missed work was to see us in concerts, baseball or football games or the like. He had over 6 months of sick days accumulated when he retired!

He often laments about how poor of a speller he is, or how he wasn't the best student - but he learned so many important things out of necessity. We all like to think we have common sense, but he has more than anyone I have ever met. Car problems? Call Dad. Plumbing issues, any issues with utilities, woodworking, construction, financial advice, legal advice, historical information...call Dad.

I acquired my love of pocket knives from him. When I was a lad, I remember he always had a small brown Case stockman, and he did everything with that knife. And he still always has a knife in his pocket, but to him they truly are tools. He uses one until it's no longer useful then gets another one - usually from me. He doesn't know model or pattern names, but knows that it's got to be a good knife or it won't last. I've asked him before what pattern of knife he wants, and it's always the same "I don't know what it's called. I need three blades. One long pointy one to do most work, one flat one to clean gaskets, and one smaller one that is always sharp because I never use it" A stockman it is Dad.

And the times I've squirmed while he turns his knife into a pry bar, or screw driver, or wire cutter, or pipe cutter, or hammer. I'll try to stop him..."Dad, you can't do that with your knife!" And his reply is always a smirk and some comment like "I wish you would have told me that the first 100 times I did that with this knife" or "the tool you have with you works better than the tool you don't"

Either way, I have him to thank for showing me what a man should be, and more importantly what a Dad should be. And now that I'm older and wiser, I'm certain to tell him this every once in awhile. He's the greatest.
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My Dad with my younger son in his woodshop a few years ago.
 
This is the first of these I've ever posted on to be "in" for. Got a little dusty in here reading all these...

I lost my dad in Feb. 2017 the day after his 65th birthday. It was totally unexpected. He was an optician and would blunt the point on some of his knives, especially clip points, so they served as a precision screwdriver to adjust someone's glasses. I don't think he liked clip points, I only think he bought them because they made the best screwdriver. He preferred to always have the tool on him so he could help out when needed. More than a handful of times, I witnessed him see someone struggling with simple glasses adjustments while we'd be out at a restaurant or something, or have a lens pop out, and he'd go over with his knife, tighten things up, straighten them out, and let them get back to their family. He was a completely selfless man. He retired early, a couple years before his death, because the optical chain he worked for worked him way too hard and without enabling him to hire sufficient staff or invest in his people and he'd finally had enough. But, he still always carried those blunted knives so he could help people out if he could. I could ramble (as could all who are posting, I'm sure). But man, I just miss my dad.

I've lurked here for a while, and only in the past half year or so been into collecting. The reason for that is my dad. He had a variety of pocket knives, and many of them looked like the ones in this GAW. They were tools to him and he beat the hell out of them. I think his favorite was a buck 110 or 112 (would need to get my hands on one to feel which one felt like my dad's knives), but I'm guessing that simply because he had so many of those. Maybe those were his "safe queens," which would also be pretty fitting that my dad's "nice" knives were totally normal every day knives for many others. I have no idea the make or model of the others I saw him so frequently carrying, and I really wish I did. Collecting knives helps me remember my dad, and that's why my collection has expanded so rapidly.

When I was home last month helping my mom move out of the house I grew up in (and the house my dad grew up in before me), I had maybe 4 knives on me for the trip. She told me my dad would have laughed and really loved seeing all the knives. As I made her wait for a second while I cleaned some gunk off a blade, I thought how my dad would make fun of me for babying a tool and I stopped. This blade is staying gunked up until I need to clean it for it to function. Attached is the visual evidence of the only semi-cleaned knife.

Thanks for the catharsis, folks. Cheers to all those you've posted about.
pic1.jpg
 
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My dad and I always got along well, but our relationship has gotten even stronger as I get older. My wife frequently chides me for “turning into my father” but I think that is almost inevitable...
We have the same taste in movies, food and sports, but can argue about politics!
My dad lives alone, and has for many years, so we vacation as a family. This picture was taken last summer in Palo Duro Canyon on our way to Colorado. It was about 110 degrees when my wife took this picture! While looking for a good vacation pic I found this picture of us when I was around 4 or 5 and thought it was perfect for this post.

 
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This is my Dad, I could write many pages on the things I've learned. I know how to use a coal fired forge because of this man. I learned mechanics from this man. That was his trade for many years. I learned to build things and craft things from wood from this man. That was the thing I liked to do. Many many more things could I list. I could tell you he beat colon cancer, then tells "Well at least I don't have to listen to that asshole talk behind my back no more" But this I will tell, once when I was about 12, I got permission to take my .22 into the woods in search of squirrels. It was one of those perfect fall days for it. It had rained, making it easy to walk quiet, but the sudden drop of water from the trees would tell me where a squirrel was on the move. I moved into a grove of hickories. There was a slight misty fog in the timber, and the light was filtering in in that way no cathedral could ever match. I sat on a log my back against a big shagbark hickory. And I waited, soon enough the woods forgot I was there, and life there resumed. As I began to watch I saw a squirrel, the very quarry I was here for. But he was being funny and I began to simply watch. Presently more came out and a few seemed to be playing tag, nimbly jumping from impossibly small limbs to another. A woodpecker began an earnest search for a grub nearby, and how that sound echoed across the ridge in the mist. Then I didn't want to take a shot. It just wasn't right that day, it felt almost religious. And I felt an intruder in their world. As quietly as I could I left their world that day. When I got home my Dad questioned me, "No squirrel? Can't believe you didn't see any,day like today" I mumbled something about I saw them but it wasn't right. Embarrassed about how I'd felt. I went and wiped the .22 down with the oily rag kept in the pouch he'd sewn from leather, and put away the rifle unfired. He stopped me on my way back out, and said "Boy, I'm proud of you, today your a true hunter"
 
Misplaced Hillbilly said:
4fxwtd.jpg

This is my Dad, I could write many pages on the things I've learned. I know how to use a coal fired forge because of this man. I learned mechanics from this man. That was his trade for many years. I learned to build things and craft things from wood from this man. That was the thing I liked to do. Many many more things could I list. I could tell you he beat colon cancer, then tells "Well at least I don't have to listen to that asshole talk behind my back no more" But this I will tell, once when I was about 12, I got permission to take my .22 into the woods in search of squirrels. It was one of those perfect fall days for it. It had rained, making it easy to walk quiet, but the sudden drop of water from the trees would tell me where a squirrel was on the move. I moved into a grove of hickories. There was a slight misty fog in the timber, and the light was filtering in in that way no cathedral could ever match. I sat on a log my back against a big shagbark hickory. And I waited, soon enough the woods forgot I was there, and life there resumed. As I began to watch I saw a squirrel, the very quarry I was here for. But he was being funny and I began to simply watch. Presently more came out and a few seemed to be playing tag, nimbly jumping from impossibly small limbs to another. A woodpecker began an earnest search for a grub nearby, and how that sound echoed across the ridge in the mist. Then I didn't want to take a shot. It just wasn't right that day, it felt almost religious. And I felt an intruder in their world. As quietly as I could I left their world that day. When I got home my Dad questioned me, "No squirrel? Can't believe you didn't see any,day like today" I mumbled something about I saw them but it wasn't right. Embarrassed about how I'd felt. I went and wiped the .22 down with the oily rag kept in the pouch he'd sewn from leather, and put away the rifle unfired. He stopped me on my way back out, and said "Boy, I'm proud of you, today your a true hunter"
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Great post, David.
 
Thank you Prester John Prester John this is a really good thread. I've really enjoyed reading it. Reading these posts is what brought that particular memory out. It sticks out because one it was one of the times my Dad said straight forward he was proud of me, but two, because we shared this unspoken moment. I think he knew full well why I came home empty handed, and without saying so directly that he understood why I passed on shootin that day. My Dad has 2 very distinct classes of "hunters" those are "gunners" who kill for the joy of killing, no respect for others or for the animals who take as much as they can even if they can't use it. And "True hunters" those who respect other men, and their land, the land in general, and have a deep respect for his quarry, those who takes only what he needs, or for the needs of others. Those who know deep down when NOT to take the shot, that is something else he taught me. And if I hear my Dad refer to someone as a gunner I immediately loose something for that person, and if he refers to someone as a true hunter that person gains vast respect from me. He don't say that about many. From what I've seen whether they actually hunt or not the porch here has a good deal of "True Hunters"
 
I'm really enjoying this thread also. Thanks to everyone that has contributed so far! Reading these remembrances of the men in your lives is truly special, thanks for sharing them. To those that haven't yet, what are you waiting for?

I am reminded of a little funny story, one I had shared during the eulogy I gave for my father in law. One time we were over for dinner at my in laws house. The ladies had left to go somewhere, and they left us to watch dinner cooking on the stove. my father in law and I must have got caught up in some sports game on TV, and ended up burning the carrots cooking on the stove. We both ended up blaming each other for not watching the stove.
 
This is a great giveaway and I really want to thank you for the theme of it too. My dad wasn’t around, but my grandfather was there for me my whole life. He passed away a few years ago, and this is really nice to just get to day a few words about him:

My grandfather was born in Louisiana. He was part of a family of what he called “sharecroppers”. He lived in a little shack with his family and had nearly nothing. He had no shoes or underwear. Every year he would get a pair of overalls and two shirts. He once told me he kept his shirts “nice” by wrapping the nail he hung his clothes on with a piece of an old bandana. This way the rust from the nail wouldn’t stain the back of his shirt.

He hated barbecue because it reminded him of being poor and eating possums his dad cooked over open flame. He would tell me about being able to taste the natural gas in food cooked in the oven, something he said I probably wouldn’t understand because I’d never eaten food made in a wood-burning stove.

My grandpa came to California once we was old enough to leave Louisiana and worked as a mason, a mechanic and eventually worked at oil refineries for 30 something years til he retired.

When I was young I was scared of him, he worked a lot of long hours and we were always told to be quiet or “he’ll wake up and spank you” by my grandma. I didn’t have much of a relationship with him early on in my life but, when I got into my teens, we started to hang out and I found out how awesome he was.

My grandfather knew how to do everything. Every bit of maintenance on the house, the trees and plants, electrical work, car maintenance, anything that needed to be done, he did. Thankfully, he took the time to show and explain so much of it to me. It just blew me away that someone could know so much about so many things. He never used the internet, but knew how to do stuff without looking for info on it anywhere.

He always carried a pocket knife and that’s why I do too. Always a tiny little thing too, dwarfed by his giant hands.

Sorry to ramble. The man meant a lot to me and I could speak on him for hours. When my grandpa passed away, there was only one thing I wanted when I went to the house. This little Böker was what he’d been carrying for his last 10 or so years with us.
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And here he is,the man himself, L.E. Bailey, in his prime.
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I can't deny I'm a little disappointed that more people did not participate in this GAW. It was wonderful to read about the father figures in your lives. However, I understand, talking about family can sometimes be a touchy subject, and bring up some old memories and such.

Never-the-less, we need to pick some winners. My random.org number generator came up with the following winners in this order:

1. jblyttle jblyttle
2. Sabercat Sabercat
3. JoeGoblyn JoeGoblyn
4. @Bigfattyt

The way I'd like to work this, jblyttle will get first pick of the prize knives. Then Sabercat, and so on. Keep in mind guys, if the knives I offered might be a little too small for big hands, I'll see what I can do to accomodate you. I've got a bunch of project knives, so I'm sure I can find something to your liking. DO NOT feel that you have to choose one of these knives. I'd rather you get something that will be useful to you.

Once you choose the knives, then we'll get to work on what to do with them. I'll probably post some WIP pics if the winners don't mind, so we can share the progress of each project.

jblyttle jblyttle , contact me first. Once I work something out with you, then I'll contact Sabercat, and so on.

Congrats guys, this will be fun!
 
glennbad said:
I can't deny I'm a little disappointed that more people did not participate in this GAW. It was wonderful to read about the father figures in your lives. However, I understand, talking about family can sometimes be a touchy subject, and bring up some old memories and such.

Never-the-less, we need to pick some winners. My random.org number generator came up with the following winners in this order:

1. jblyttle jblyttle
2. Sabercat Sabercat
3. JoeGoblyn JoeGoblyn
4. @Bigfattyt

The way I'd like to work this, jblyttle will get first pick of the prize knives. Then Sabercat, and so on. Keep in mind guys, if the knives I offered might be a little too small for big hands, I'll see what I can do to accomodate you. I've got a bunch of project knives, so I'm sure I can find something to your liking. DO NOT feel that you have to choose one of these knives. I'd rather you get something that will be useful to you.

Once you choose the knives, then we'll get to work on what to do with them. I'll probably post some WIP pics if the winners don't mind, so we can share the progress of each project.

jblyttle jblyttle , contact me first. Once I work something out with you, then I'll contact Sabercat, and so on.

Congrats guys, this will be fun!
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Holy cow! Thank you! This was a great idea, and I thoroughly enjoyed reading all of these. I've actually read most of them twice because I enjoyed them so much.

Thank you so much!
 
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