The Best Carpenter I Ever Knew
My dad could build anything. I watched him build a room
addition on our house when I was a child, build furniture in the garage
and even built his own campers for his truck. My dad is truly the best
carpenter that I ever knew and remains so to this day.
I first started working for my dad when I was 16 years old and on summer
vacation from high school. He told me that he would give me five dollars
an hour and I got to work with my dad; I couldn't pass that up for
anything.
My dad might not have been the best electrician or plumber, but he could
do almost anything else with ease and efficiency. My father's main job
was to build all of the stairs for the four different construction
companies that he worked for.
We would precut all of the stair components and then assemble them
separately at each home, condominium or apartment. At first I was easily
impressed, but soon this got to be standard practice as I watched my dad
construct and build things that other carpenters seem to have problems
building.
Every once in a while, an architect or engineer would come up with a set
of stairs that seemed impossible to build, but my dad built it and he
built other things that I honestly thought couldn't be built.
I will never forget the lessons that my father taught me, as a carpenter
and as a person, but I truly believe that the greatest lesson that my
father ever taught me, was that anything could be done, with enough
persistence and patience.