[Off-topic] boborone:
Link?

---------- Post added at 05:54 PM ---------- Previous post was at 05:42 PM ----------

I've been wanting tell this about my dad since this thread started.

That man was the epitome of when I was your age.

He was raised on a been farm in New Mexico. Caught a ride to and back from school. Lived that far from school. No buses. Graduated 2nd in his class of 24. Played every sport there was. All year long. Not cause he enjoyed sports, but because he that gave him the opportunity to take a shower every day(but he was still captain of his sport teams). See, they had a 14' well behind the house. Dug by hand. That's where they got their water. Only the girls were allowed to wash at home. And at the end of the day of working the fields, he washed up in the tank from the toilet. Then the water wasn't running and you could still use it afterwards to flush. All year, his mom saved the bread bags to put on his feet when he walked to school in the winter. That way the snow wouldn't make his feet wet. Mostly got ride from somebody going in and out of town. But he still to walk till he got a ride. His mom also kept the boxes from cereal boxes so they could work on the tractors in the winter. Used the boxes as gaskets. Speaking of the fields, every spring his dad would drive down to Mexico and buy Mexicans for the Harvest months. Then after they worked, he would drive em to the station and buy em a ticket for where ever they wanted.

Seems like a long time ago doesn't it? Makes me seem like an old man if that was my dad. Nope, he was born in 1950. I'm 28. Just takes time to change in SmallTown, USA.

His dad went to one of the main doctors in a major city out there when the Vietnam War broke out. The rules were if you had an only child, that son couldn't get drafted. Well there was my dad, his brother and two sisters. All worked the farm. Grandpa paid the doc to write notes so they didn't get drafted.

Bid difference from my mom's family. They all volunteered. Served in every branch and some their class A's are now in the Veterans of Foreign Wars Posts around Texas. My mom was in the Army when she had to quit or give me to the military when she got pregnant with me. She was about to go to Grenada and fight down there.

---------- Post added at 06:13 PM ---------- Previous post was at 05:54 PM ----------

And when I was real young, like 4-8, I used to drive those Mexicans around out to the fields. I also got my first gun and pocket knife on my 5th birthday. Got my first kill that day also. Went to my uncle's ranch and cleaned his stock ponds of turtles. Had one his black workers from South Louisiana Cook up some gumbo for my b day. He ran a Dude Ranch that city folk would come to and ride his horses up into the mountains. Had black people as cooks and Mexican cowboys working his cattle and horses. We had beans and cornbread at least 4 times a week for lunch and dinner. Meat came when we killed something. Otherwise beans provided protein.

Hell just in my lifetime, I have seen alot of things change.

---------- Post added at 06:23 PM ---------- Previous post was at 06:13 PM ----------

Then when he went to New Mexico State University on a full ride he had huge culture shock. Said he would be the guy holding the door for others going into class and would be one left getting the last seat. But he still graduated with some highest marks in his engineering classes.

Hell my family is some of the hardest working people and smartest people you might ever meat. But if you saw what they drove, or what they lived in, you wouldn't think they had two nickles to rub together.

Mom's family paved practically the whole city of Denton, TX. Her grandpa preached to Bonnie and Clyde while they were on their bank robbing streak. All of them were gunsmiths, preachers and concrete workers. All went to school and built great things. My Papa, her dad, who I posted pics of in the pics thread and his bros and sisters went to Thailand and build lots of their highways and big mix max highway interchanges and overpasses. Engineers in concrete. And then worked on guns when they got home. Just simple life for simple folk. But some of the smartest and most intelligent people you'd ever meet.

Just remember that next time you see some farmer or hard working old man in a pair of overalls at the store next time. Those guys have enough money to buy the store and everything in it and in the case my dad's dad, enough to buy you, too. And smart as whip. They just don't show it. They just live outside your norms.