Making Signs

This is one of the signs I made. Well I painted the lettering
black and I didn't like it so I repainted it this morning and brought it
in the house. I don't know if it is because it says, " Groceries,"
but it made me start thinking about my Dad. It also might
be that Father's Day is coming too. I have been thinking
about him.
I never know what to say about him. He was a study in contrasts,
in my mind, I thought he was bigger than God. I even thought God
might be afraid of him.
My Dad was a people person. He loved people. He told me once about
wanting to grow up to be a preacher. When I was in high school he gave
me a small leather book filled with his sermons. Then something
happened in his life and he walked away. From God and from the church.

He raised us without God. I was in fifth grade before I heard the Christmas
story. My Mom accepted the Lord in 1967 and our home became a war zone.
He was one of the hardest working men I have ever seen. He always had two or
three jobs.
When he bought his first grocery store, he would work until his body would make him
stop and then he would sleep and you couldn't wake him up.
He was the kind of man who always brought people home who didn't have a place to go.
We always had people living with us. Sometimes for years. He loved children and young
adults.
I have his first grocery add that was in our newspaper. I had to do it in two pictures
because it is long and skinny the prices are so cheap.


He had six grocery stores at one time and he owned a feed store
too. The feed store was called The Grainery and then his restaurant
was called The Grainery Inn. We also raised show cattle and his
ranch was called the JBJ Cattle ranch. We also raised sheep and
hogs.
Then when he sold it all and moved to Oklahoma, he raised cattle back there.
He was our 4H leader and was on all kinds of board of directors.
He was as I said, a study in contrasts. We were expected to work and
we were to work hard. I showed horses too. Though it got to be that
I liked showing cattle the best.

I was his oldest daughter and I loved him and I looked up to him. But
I was also afraid of him and even writing this post I am afraid. He was very
strong. We had a cow that every time you walked
behind her she would kick. My grandparents knew this as I did so we always
walked very carefully. One morning my Dad was helping us when that cow kicked
and nailed my Dad. The next thing I knew that cow was upside down and my Dad
was sitting on her belly between her front and back legs. He was yelling at the
cow and she was bawling but not moving much.
Very quietly my Grandpa said, " Dontcha think you should let her up now?" My
Dad came too is the only was I can describe it and got off of her and she got up
and she never kicked again.
He was like that. I of course, was the one who knew his buttons and as I got older
I knew how to press them. I will leave it at that.

I am so thankful that my kids have had the kind of Dad they have had and I am
so glad to have had the kind of husband I have had too.

I hope you have a wonderful Thursday, because you know for what ever I had,
I had a good life and God hand picked my parents just for me and without them
I wouldn't be me.

~Kim~