Tinkerings

Yesterday I took a day away from the conference center in beautiful downtown Denver, and went on an excursion up into the surrounding mountains with my good friend, Mary Ann Sansonetti.  What a wonderful trip!

We boarded the bus with about 50 ISTE attendees and family members at around 9:45.  The bus ride was almost continually uphill for the next hour.  The mountains on either side of us were simply breathtaking.  We arrived at the Silver Plume train station with just enough time to eat the boxed lunches provided with our tour.  Then it was “All Aboard!” around the loop to the Lebanon Tunnel Mine.

As we walked down the hill from the train stop to the mine entrance, we saw they were dividing our tour into three smaller groups with two women guides and one man guide.  Mary Ann and I took one look at the guy and both immediately decided we wanted him to be our guide.  His name is Walter.  He had a ruggedness about him that comes from a life of working hard.  We immediately knew we made the right choice.  Walter spoke with the knowledge of a man who has worked in the mines.  His grandfather and father before him were miners.  Walter still competes in mining competitions that sound much like those lumberjack shows you see on television every so often.  And nearly every story he told, whether fact, funny, or sad, ended with an infectious laugh that sounded like it came from the back of his mind where he was remembering more of the story that he chose not to reveal.  It was just his little joke with himself.  He was wonderful.

We entered the mine near the bottom.  When it was in its heyday it rose up through the mountains in layers like an ant colony.  When the mine was first established in the early 1800′s, men dug it out of the rock with hand tools.  They worked 10 to 12 hour shifts around the clock with a goal of digging 10 to 12 feet a day.  Immediately upon entering the mine, we were shown the bracing put in place by the original miners.  Once they got the opening deep enough, they braced it up with wooden beams and then took an 8′ long railroad tie, sharpened it down on one end, and drove it deep into the rock above the beams.  One after one, driven neatly next to one another, those ties are still there.

Walter gave us a demonstration of how the miners worked to dig into the walls as they followed a spider-web of silver ore or minerals that teased them into thinking silver was just a few inches out of site in one direction or another.  The men worked in pairs.  One would hold a 4′ long drilling spike.  He would face the wall of the mine and lay the back end of the spike on his shoulder while his hands firmly held the point of the spike at the place it would begin its burial into the stone.  His partner would stand behind him and swing an 8 pound sledge hammer to strike the blunt end of the spike that was waiting precariously near the back of his partner’s head.  After each blow, the one holding the spike would twist and pull on the spike to free it up so it could be removed.  And he had to do all that before the next blow came.  Needless to say, once you got a partner you usually worked with that one guy for life…no matter how short that might be in the mine.

My mouth was already open as Walter continued.  Each man was given 3 candles for the day.  That was the only light in the mine.  So, in this mine filled with men swinging hammers and stirring up ore dust creating a fog nearly impossible to see through, the one with the hammer kept his eye on the glint of steel that shown from the faint candle light.  That was the target for his sledge.  The steam powered hoist was so loud it could be head in town some two miles away.  These men could not communicate with one another.  If the one holding the spike had to rest, there was only one way to let his partner know.  He had to cover the hammer end of that spike with his hand so that the shiny glint of steel disappeared.

If I was still a minister, I would have had a notebook full of sermon ideas and illustrations after leaving that mine.  Instead, my mind is reeling on how to bring this type of Americana education into the sterilized standards based classrooms our kids endure most days.

Just a few more interesting facts for you:

• A mine shaft was considered profitable if you could find 40 ounces of silver ore for every ton of rock removed.
• The average miner earned around $3 a day.
• Kids started working in the mines at the age of 8 to 10.  Most of the younger children were “runners” because they could get through the mine shaft quickly without having to bend over for low ceilings.
• When dynamite began to be used it had to be heated before it was taken into the mine.  Dynamite won’t work under 54 degrees, and the mine is a pretty constant 40 degrees year round.  A container was developed to hold a couple dozen sticks of dynamite horizontally, each nested in its own tube.  A container underneath was filled with hot water and a couple of candles were lit under that to keep the water warm as one of those 8 year old children would run the container as far into the mine as needed to blast away a new section of rock.
• Because of the ore dust in the air, early miners had a life expectancy of around 35 years.
• As the ore was processed, crushed, separated by size, re-crushed, and the silver finally separated, the ore that was to be refined would drop into a “jig” at the bottom of the track.  When it was full, the men would cry, “The jig is up!”
• If a man was trapped in the mine from a ceiling collapse (and sometimes entire slabs of rock would separate), many times the others would be able to remove the rubble by hand to find him.  One of Walter’s uncles was just such a man.  The rubble was too heavy for hand digging, so someone started swinging a pick into the rubble to break it up for removal.  One swing of the pick grazed the man’s ear and came terribly close to taking his head off.  Another swing hit him in the leg.  As the man was slowly uncovered, he cried with others before him had cried in such circumstances, “Stop picking on me!”

We came away from this day with a much deeper understanding of the sacrifices men and women have made in this country in our attempt to make this a great country.  What a wonderful, awe-inspiring tour.

Thank you, ISTE, for making this part of your tour offerings. And thank you, Walter, for sharing at least part of the stories in your head with the rest of us.  Your laughter is still telling me there’s more I would love to know.

Monday was spent pretty much in the exhibit hall.  Being registered as an exhibitor (with the DEN) didn’t allow me to get a printed schedule of workshops with times and locations, so I wasn’t really sure when everything started.  Luckily, with the time change involved between Tennessee and Colorado I was up early enough to be ready long before anything opened.

Once I realized that the exhibit hall “officially” opened at 9:30, and I was already standing in the conference center at 8, I decided I would look again at the offerings of workshops and see if I could redeem some time.  That’s how I wound up in Hall Davidson’s session on Epson’s Bright Link project and IWB combination.

After that, I spent most of my time in the exhibit hall just wandering around to see what was there.  I put together a little montage of what I saw in the video below.

While Traci Blazosky was presenting on DE Streaming and Glogster in the Discovery Education booth, I struck up a conversation with the founder of Glogster who had stopped by to see her work.  Well, actually, I was noticing him looking at the presentation while standing in the aisle and, being a former sales/marketing guy, thought I should help engage him more in what was going on.  It went something like this:

Me: Are you familiar with Glogster?

Him: Kind of.  I’m Mr. Glogster.

Once I thought the various shades of reds and orange had disappeared from my face, I began telling him how we used Glogster in our classes at Lake Forest this last year.  I mentioned to him that ENA had unblocked the education version of Glogster, but not the regular Glogster.com site.  As a result, we were unable to successfully add DE Streaming videos to our student Glogs.  He verified that the videos for both sites are pulled through the same pipeline and gave me some information to pass along to ENA to help solve that problem for next year.  Sweet.

The afternoon was less eventful.  Well, at least less embarrassing.  I got to meet the founder of BrainPop and pick up a cool Moby ball cap.  I will wear it proudly.

MaryAnn Sansonetti and I went to a social gathering sponsored by Compass Learning at The Tavern.  Since neither of us are customers of theirs, the gathering was a little boring (sorry Compass Learning).  As a result, even the prospect of possibly winning a new iPad in the evening’s raffle couldn’t keep us there much more than about 30 minutes.

In a conference as overwhelmingly big as ISTE, it is the small things that really matter.  Seeing Epson’s new technology.  A chance meeting with a website founder who might help an entire state free up his product.  Lunch with friends from Pennsylvania.  Coffee with a friend from South Carolina.  Late night dessert with both.  These are the successes of ISTE.

This morning I attended a packed session hosted by Epson in the Four Season’s Ballroom.  Discovery’s own rock star, Hall Davidson showed attendee’s Epson’s new Bright Link projector.  I have to say, I was quite impressed.

This past year every school in our district used federal dollars to purchase SMART or Promethean boards for classrooms.  This was a major undertaking.  At our school, we were faced with taking down old static white boards, installing new boards, installing projectors, and more.  Typically, the setup consists of a proprietary board, a projector, and the software required to run the program.  The software connects the computer to the board.  Without the board….nada.

The Bright Link is a short throw projector with built-in Interactive White Board software.  No board is required.  Anything that can reflect the projector’s image and is sturdy enough to press against with a pen (much like the Promethean Board), can become interactive.  In addition, the projector has ethernet capabilities.  This allows the projector to broadcast over the Internet if a teacher chooses, or it can be controlled remotely.  For instance, if the school or district office notices that a projector has been left turned on after hours, it can be turned off from across town if necessary.

The software doesn’t have all the bells and whistles of SMART or Promethean, but it was still impressive.  The downside to all those bells and whistles is the training it takes to create some of the more interesting interactive lessons for kids.  The upside to Epson’s simplicity is that it can pretty much be used right out of the box.  Hall was showing pictures of a room he visited where the teacher had literally just had the projector installed that day and had not used it yet.  He gave a pen to a student and the student intuitively understood what to do to run the program.

The projector currently retails for $1799.  Bulbs are around $169.  Without a proprietary board, any wall, white board, bulletin board, or even file cabinet can become interactive.

If you attended this session, I would appreciate your comments.

It is Monday morning, and the first real “official” day of ISTE is upon us.  The exhibit hall opens today!  ISTE is filled with interesting (and some not-so-interesting) sessions, workshops, and labs.  But the real ISTE happens in the exhibit hall and the Blogger’s Cafe.  Those are the places I plan to be today.

Yesterday I got to meet several people I follow on Twitter.  Those are always interesting and fun Tweet Ups.  You really only know people by their Twitter handle, so trying to put a real name with the icon they use for identification is like playing a game show.  The folks I got to chat with (there were about 40 people in all) were wonderful, fun, energetic, knowledgeable, friendly….I could go on and on.

I tried to make it to the evening keynote last night.  I was in the convention center.  I could see the lines forming to enter the hall.  But I was starving.  I had finished a 4 mile jaunt through downtown in the afternoon, and the cupcake I got at the Butterfly Social just wasn’t kicking in fast enough.  So I twisted the arm of a friend to join me in my escape.

We had been out walking earlier in the day and found a genuine British Pub just a few blocks from the convention center.  We decided that eating off the beaten path would be an adventure, and we weren’t disappointed.  I didn’t say it was good.  It was an adventure.

First of all, it was the only pub I’ve ever been to in the world where the wait staff did not go through a long, tedious list of beers and ales available.  We asked for water when we sat down thinking would order drinks later.  He never asked.  We laughed.  At him.  At us.  At the tip he was missing by not running up our bill with drinks.

I went in really wanting fish and chips.  I could see the malt vinegar bottles on the tables as I passed the windows on the sidewalk.  They offered “New World” fish and chips.  A baked salmon filet is good, but it is not fish and chips.  I was actually looking forward to a meal when I would let myself go and absorb some extra calories of fat and grease, but noooooo.  I had baked salmon.  Don’t get me wrong.  It was good. It was good for me.  But it was not what my taste buds were looking for.

So today I am back in a groove I understand.  I am parked at a window table at Starbucks on 16th and California in downtown Denver.  It is the halfway point between my hotel and the convention center.  I have absorbed the requisite caffeine to get my heart beating again.  I’ve used a fair amount of free wifi.  And now I am on my way to scout out the exhibit hall and begin the learning process that is ISTE 2010.

I hope you have an awesome day too!

As you probably know by now (if you’ve read my blog in the last few days at all), my Friday flight to Denver was canceled due to weather in Dallas where my connection was scheduled on the American flight.  American was kind enough to help me get on a Delta flight Saturday morning with a connection in Atlanta.  I’ve already talked about my time in Chattanooga in my last post, so today I’ll pick up that story in Atlanta.

The flight to Atlanta was one of the smoothest I’ve ever experienced.  From take off to landing, I don’t know that I ever felt a bump along the way.  I only had to go one terminal over to pick up my connection to Denver, so within minutes I was hanging around my assigned gate.  I had nearly two hours to kill, so I had a little breakfast and a cup of Seattle’s Best coffee, played some Brick Breaker on my Blackberry, and basically “people watched.”

This leg of my trip was about 2 1/2 hours.  I was seated next to Jim.  I later learned he works for www.learning.com and was also on his way to ISTE.  We spent most of the flight talking about his company and product, my role with the DEN, solving major education problems for the country, and more.  I don’t usually talk to people on planes, but this conversation was interesting and really helped the time go by more quickly.  We wound up on a packed shuttle van together as well.  In fact, everyone on the shuttle was going to ISTE, so all our hotels were within 2 blocks of each other.

I was bummed that I missed the Discovery Pre-Conference at the Denver Zoo.  It was pretty much over by the time I got checked into my hotel, so I went for a walk down the 16th Street Pedestrian Mall.  I have found Denver to be a beautiful place.  At least in the small touristy area where I’m at.

Last night was spent MaryAnn and Donna (both friends of mine from SC).  We attended a reception hosted by TechSmith.  Oh. My. Gosh.  The food at Maggiano’s was some of the best Italian I’ve ever had.  My thanks to Dave and Jo for helping coordinate the event, and to Sarah for sitting at our table and chatting with us.  I am a Jing Pro user, but they’ve convinced me that I need to get my hands on a copy of Camtasia.

Sunday is another relaxing, site-seeing day.  There is a keynote for ISTE later today that I plan to attend.  Watch for more news and info from Denver every day this week!

There, I said it.  I actually communicated the “p” word.  Word meanings are there for a reason, and today I needed that one to get as close to describing my feelings of utter astonishment, bewilderment, anguish, anger, frustration, and the sudden realization of what total stupidity does for society.

Yes, I am back at the Chattanooga airport after spending nearly 5 hours here yesterday waiting for a flight that was ultimately canceled, spending nearly 45 minutes in line to finally get a new flight on another airline with a layover in a different city.  But the weather problems in Dallas didn’t frustrate me that much.  Missing the Discovery Pre-Conference event at the Denver Zoo today is heartbreaking, but not this frustrating.  I’m not even upset that the airport bookstore, restaurant, and snack shop are all closed until almost time for my flight to board.

No, I’m talking about the stupidity of airport security.

Those of you that follow me on Facebook probably already know how carefully I packed, unpacked, repacked, unpacked, and repacked yet again to get 5 days of clothing and technology needs down to two small carry on bags.  I was quite proud of myself.  Yesterday, I made it through security and only lost my can of shaving cream for being too large.  I could live with that.  I could even live with the frustration of taking my belt off and fearing I would resemble a sagging teenager before I could get it back on again.

But today….oh, today.

I smiled as they put all my belongings back through the x-ray machine.  I confidently told them they would find exactly what they found yesterday when pulled my backpack to search it.  I was nearly giddy as they started going through my toiletry bag.

That didn’t last long.

The security guard pulled out my bottles of Polo Black aftershave and cologne.  “The limit is 3.4 ounces,” he said.  “These are 4.2.”  My countenance suddenly changed to one of shock and awe.

“I can’t lose those today!” I cried.  “That’s over $100 to replace them!  They approved them yesterday!”  Alas, my arguments fell on deaf ears.

“You can check a bag if you like,” the nice man said quietly.  He’d seen it all before.  It was quickly evident he wasn’t getting any personal pleasure from inflicting this pain on people, but I wasn’t ready to accept that yet.

“I will check this bag,” I conceded. “But I have to tell you I am pissed about having to do this after clearing security once already.”

“Yes, sir,” he said stoically.  He wasn’t budging. “I can meet you back at the entrance to security and give you the bag there.”

So I’ve checked a bag.  I’ve lost the battle.  I’ve been trounced by security at the most rinky dink airport in the United States. And, yes, I’m pissed.

I may just ship everything back home by UPS before I face security on the return flight from Denver.

Our local school board has scheduled a meeting with our system’s attorney to discuss questions pertaining to our new code of ethics policy passed back in February.  You will recall from previous posts on this blog that all team members (teachers, administrators, and other personnel) were asked to sign a form in May so that our district office would have a signature on file as prescribed in the code of ethics policy itself.  That request for  a signature sparked a lot of debate and questions.

As a result of a certain amount of uneasiness pertaining to the policy and the request for a signature, we were asked to submit questions to the secretary for the Director of Schools.  The meeting is open to the public, but it is not a public forum.  In other words, those of us who have questions will not be allowed to ask them personally.  I don’t have a problem with that plan.  It is probably the only way to keep order and to be finished with the meeting sometime on the same day it starts (which is Tuesday, July 6).

I sent my questions in early on.  My email is copied below:

Let me say up front that I support the ethics policy and have already signed my paperwork to be added to my personnel file.  However, I do have some questions for clarification related to the new ethics policy.

Question #1: Section B. General Subpoint 1 states, “In fulfillment of these guiding principles, it is imperative and should be remembered that All teachers, staff members, volunteers and those associated with Bradley County Schools, are part of our Educational Team; and as such, team members are bound by these Ethical statements and considerations.”  The policy states that ALL team members will submit a signed and dated copy of the ethics policy.  Since “volunteers” are part of the Educational Team, does this mean that all parents that volunteer in the classroom, on field trips, at fund raisers, and more will also be required to submit a signed copy?

Question #2: Section B. General Subpoints 5, 6, and 7 relate specifically to board members.  Would these be better placed in a separate section labeled for board members rather than a general section for all Team Members?

Question #3: Section C. Principle 1 (lines 43,44) states, “The Team member deals considerately and justly with each student, and seeks to resolve problems, including discipline, according to law and school policy.”  The Policy 6.314 states, “Any principal, assistant principal or full-time teacher may use corporal punishment in a reasonable manner against any student for good cause in order to maintain discipline and order within the public schools.”  Mr. McDaniel has requested that no teacher administer corporal punishment.  With the ethics policy in place, does the school board plan to amend policy 6.314?

Question #4: Section D. Principle II (line 21) uses the term “social prudence.”  How does the board define this term?

Question #5: Section D. Principle II (lines 26, 27) states, “The Team member complies with written local school policies, applicable laws and regulations that are not in conflict with this code of ethics.”  This appears to state that if there is a conflict between an “applicable law” and the code of ethics that the ethics policy must be followed.  Is this what is meant, or is this a misprint?

If you choose to use any of these questions, I ask that they be used in their entirety and not be edited.

Thank you.  I look forward to the meeting on Tuesday, and to supporting the board in their decision to create this document.

After some consideration, there is another question I would like answered, but I haven’t sent it in yet.  That question is this:

Since the TN legislature codified a code of ethics for teachers, why didn’t the board use that code of ethics as the main body for the section pertaining to all team members?

I plan to be at the meeting on July 6 to listen to the debate and lend my support to the board for passing this policy.  Will I see you there?

This morning I wandered over to the TED site to see what new talks might interest me, and I was pleasantly surprised to see a talk by David Byrne of Talk Heads fame doing a talk on how architecture has impacted the evolution of music.  I have always been drawn to “off the wall” music types that can demonstrate a truly educated mind.  Personally, I think David Byrne may be a genius on many levels.  But  I digress.

Byrne talked about how music changed through the centuries as the architecture used to house listeners also changed.  He covered the gambit from small store-front bars like those on Music Row in Nashville or Beale Street in Memphis to grand opera houses, concert halls, and stadiums.  In each of those settings, the creation of music changed to fit the audience, acoustics, technology, and more.  Store-front bars have little reverberation, so the music has to be played loud to get over the drinking crowd.  Stadiums have lots of echo, so rock bands started slowing things down and writing rock ballads in order for the music to come through more clearly.

Although he didn’t mention them, my mind thought back to the Beatles in the early 60′s and the frustration they had trying to play their music in places like Shea Stadium.  The technology of the time was simply not enough to boost their sound over the screams of ecstatic fans.  As a result, the Beatles stopped touring and moved all their music to the studio.  They had originally created music that would sound good on the radio and plastic albums.  It couldn’t be recreated in a stadium.  In the mid to late 60s they no longer cared about the radio as much.  Stadiums were out of the picture.  Their music took several new twists and turns and demonstrated their true music genius over and over.  You can hear this most eloquently in a YouTube video shared by a friend of mine on Facebook.

Near the end of his talk, Byrne moved his argument to nature.  Birds that sing in the canopies of forests have a much different, higher pitched call than those that sing on the floor of a forest, or even those that sing in the open fields.  Each has a call acoustically adapted to its environment.

This naturally gave me the leap to the classroom.  How does the architecture and technology of our classrooms change the way we teach?  I think we are all familiar with the industrial model of the classroom with a black or white board in front of nice straight rows of desks.  The teacher stands at the front of the class and writes notes that children copy into their notebooks.  All is quiet and orderly.  This model is the perfect description of the classes I attended from 1st grade through most of my college education.  Teacher control worked.

Today, our students have been brought up in a different environment.  Our classrooms no longer look like their world.  They are wired to cell phones, iPods, PCs, TVs, and more.  They listen to one thing while they read something else.  All the while images are on the TV with the sound muted.  In fact, this is quickly becoming my life at home.  NCIS is playing on the TV with no sound.  I don’t need it because it is the 4th time I’ve seen this episode.  Music is playing over iTunes, Slacker, or YouTube while I read the latest news online.

These kids won’t….maybe can’t….sit in straight rows and listen to our engaging lectures one more day.  They check out.  They are bored.  They act up.  And they constantly reach for the technology we deprive them of in our classrooms.

Interactive White Boards will only make a difference if lessons are designed for kids to come and work at the board.  PCs in the back of the room will only matter if kids are able to use them to find things that interest them.  The technology of our world has re-wired the brains of our students.

How is that evolving your instruction?  Your classroom layout?  Your management techniques?  Your assessment strategies?

I have written already about a tempest in a teapot in our school district regarding a newly written Code of Ethics and its announcement from the Director of Schools.  I have done quite a bit of research on this matter over the course of the last few weeks.  Here are some things I’ve found:

The State of TN Law Changed – This year, the legislature passed HB 3130 (SB 2416) changing the code of ethics policy for the state.  Prior to this bill, all teachers in TN were required to abide by the Code of Ethics policy as provided by TEA (TN Education Association).  Under the old law, all teachers were subject to the voting whims of the state union whether they were members of the organization or not.  Fortunately, our state legislature saw the folly in such a law and came to their senses to write their own.  The Code of Ethics passed by the state is taken directly from TEA.  However, the change in the law takes ownership of the code away from the union and puts it back into the hands of our employer.  You can find a summary of the new law here. (Our new policy does not follow TEA’s wording.  Instead, it follows the wording of PET – Professional Educator’s Association – among others).

The County Ethics Policy Passed 6 to 1 - When voted on by the Board of Education, the new Code of Ethics policy for Bradley County teachers was passed by a vote of 6 to 1.  The one board member voting against and the local affiliate of the TEA (BCEA) have raised questions about the policy.  The board has scheduled a work session on July 6 to look at questions from teachers in the system.  The county attorney will be answering those questions from a legal perspective.

The New Local Policy Calls for a Signature – This seems to be a real problem for some.  The new policy states

“Upon initial employment, election, or appointment each shall sign and date a copy of this Code of Ethics, which shall form a part of their personnel record. Upon enactment by the Board, all those covered by this Code shall deliver a signed dated copy to the Director of Schools.”

Unfortunately, “all those covered” were not asked to sign a dated copy “upon enactment.”  Instead, we were notified to offer a signature two months later.  The question was raised, “What happens if I don’t sign the form?”  The simple answer is nothing.  Nobody is being fired or targeted.  However, the policy is still in effect and all employees and volunteers of the Bradley County Schools system are required to abide by it.

The Local Policy is More Detailed Than The State Policy - The local policy goes into more detail about specifics than does the state law.  It covers board members specifically, all others generally, and includes a method for filing grievances. However, the state law does have requirements in it that are not in the local ethics policy.  It is important for all teachers to know what is in both policies.  While the local policy is applied to board members, principals, teachers, secretaries, volunteers, coaches, and more, the state law applies only to those holding a teaching license.  The specifics covered in the state law, but not in the local policy are these:

A teacher must not 0n the basis of race, color, creed, sex, national origin, marital status, political or religious beliefs, family, social or cultural background or sexual orientation:

Exclude any student from participation in any program

Deny benefits to any student

Grant any advantage to any student

A teacher must not use professional relationships with students for private advantage

A teacher must not misrepresent the educator’s professional qualifications

A teacher must no assist entry into the profession of a person known to be unqualified in respect to character, education, or other relevant attribute

A teacher must not assist a non-educator in the unauthorized practice of teaching

A teacher must not accept any gratuity, gift, or favor that might impair or appear to influence professional decisions or actions (the local policy addresses this statement to board members only)

I encourage all teachers in the Bradley County School system to become familiar with the changes in both the board policy and the state law.  If you have questions about the new local Code of Ethics policy, you can address those by email to the Director of Schools for Bradley County.

Today is Father’s Day.  I spent part of last night with family and will spend part of today with more.  They are coming to celebrate (or commiserate) the fact that I am their father.  I simply cannot take all the credit for being the man I am.  Oh yeah, I’ve made my own road in the world, and I’ve been the decider of my own fate on many occasions, but a large part of what guides me was instilled in me by my dad, James Dewey Childers.

He was born in 1933 to Robert and Pauline Childers.  He was not their first child, as I recall, but he was the first to survive.  I’ve heard stories that he was born premature and weighed only about 4 or 5 pounds.  Some have said he could have slept in a shoe box.  He was a miracle of his time to survive.  He did not disappoint.

I don’t know that much about my dad’s childhood.  Maybe some of my other family members who chance upon this blog can add some insight in the comments section.  He used to tell me how far he had to walk to catch the bus to go to school, and I would always accuse him of lying because I knew they didn’t have buses back then.

My dad taught me two important things in my childhood: how to shoot pool and play ping pong.  (My mom taught me how to sew).  In those games he taught me good sportsmanship and gracious ways to lose because I lost nearly every game I ever played with him.  I don’t think my dad ever encountered anything he couldn’t figure out how to do or make or fix.  He was, without a doubt, the smartest man I’ve ever met.

I didn’t even know what my dad did for a living until about the 7th grade.  For a year or so he worked in Bremen, IN.  I went to visit and got to see how some of the machines worked, but it wasn’t until the 8th grade that I really understood what was going on. We had moved to Marion, IN, and dad had been asked to speak at some local meeting like the Rotary Club or something.  He practiced his speech on me (and probably even more on my mom).  I learned that he was a chemist for Essex Wire, a company that made the car harness wiring for automobiles.  He used the analogy of baking a cake to that of producing the wire rubber or plastic insulation that covers wires.  Certain ingredients are there to do certain things like make it rise or make it hold together.  He talked about working with large batches of rubber and the machines that are used for this work and used the analogy of chewing gum, and the more you chew the softer and more pliable the rubber gets.  I was mesmerized.  He was able to talk about all this chemistry stuff in such a way that an 8th grader could understand.

That was when I discovered he was the chief chemist with only a GED for his education credit.

Dad was incredible strong as well.  My brother, Steve, and I talk about the fact that he had “Popeye” arms.  His forearms were huge.  If he decided to grab something, it knew it was being grabbed.  If he wanted it moved, it moved.  When I was 17 I joked about being big enough to finally take him down in a wrestling match.  He said he would make it more fair by wrestling with both hands clasped behind his back.  It didn’t take him long to have me on the ground.  The man was a bear.  But a big, cuddly teddy bear too.

Some say I look like my dad, and I suppose I do.  I often find myself standing like him, moving my mouth like him, making hand motions like him.  I am my own constant reminder of this man I was fortunate to call dad.  I wish I had the time and space to tell you more, but I know you are busy and I don’t want to intrude on your busy schedule.

Dad passed away one month before my middle daughter, Alycce, was born.  He was so totally smitten with Brittany.  I know he would have loved Alycce and Sarah in exactly the same way.  I was blessed to be the last person to whom he was able to speak.  As we rested on a step while I tried to get him into my pickup truck and to the hospital, his last words to me were, “I love you, Tim.  Tell your mom and Steve I love them, too.”  He lost consciousness before we could get to the hospital.

Happy Father’s Day, Dewey.  I love you, too.