Topic: Ode to my father

[piersdad]

 
      Well some people are lucky and get really good dads and well, some  don’t..
My father started off as an apprentice surveyor and he learned the hard way how to survive in the deep bush surveying in the most difficult  circumstances in early 1920’s
One tale he told of was when the boss asked him to make camp (that’s the apprentices job) he dutifully made a nice soft bed underlay of  tree leaves and these leaves are soft and make an ideal bed. Then pitched the tent over the leaves and put the bosses canvas roll in it.
      Very proud of his first efforts till the boss retired to his bed and let out a yell   “where did you  crap you little   ##$”
     It turned out of all the trees in New Zealand  and of all the different varieties of   tree he could chose from  the only one that was nicknamed the stink wood tree.

       Well he became an expert surveyor and at 26 met my mother then went on to become an engineer in charge of a huge power pylon project in India.
One of his jobs was to liaise with princes and maharajas and other esteemed people.
   Uncorruptable yet  he would have them agreeing to power pylons on their land as well as providing him with luxury accommodation, my sisters were born there.
    Returning to New Zealand in 1937 he found depression here and went gold mining in the west coast of the south island.
     It was a drastic change from absolute luxury and 7 servants to a small bush timber hut in the bush 2 miles from a road and many miles from a town.
    He was not afraid of hard work and soon set up a successful sluice gold mine
    That’s where I came along  (but that’s another tale) and after 2 years there he finally got a job on a power pylon construction project. (from power pylon engineer and over seer to laborer)  during the project he noticed that 10 of the power pylons in a mountain pass were the wrong sort and would collapse under the weight of the first fall of snow so he mentioned the serious flaw to his boss.
His bosses reply was "what do you know about power pylons they are the right sort of pylon."
     OK dad had only 3 years ago supervised the construction of the wiring up of the punjab in india and called one ogf the worlds bigest projects at the time including some  20 pylons  in the Himalayas but he needed his job and kept quiet.
     The first fall of snow and all 10 pylons collapsed under the weight of the ice on the wires.
       I was only about 10 years old when he had accidental  carbon monoxide poisoning for a faulty car exhaust
       Over the next 7 years as I grew up to a teenager, he rose to a senior engineer for transmission lines in |New Zealand. Despite severe disablement from the poisoning.
     And his only official qualifications were school leaving certificate, then called matriculation.
    As a family man he was just the best, he would take all 4 of his sons to his surveying camp on the school holidays, and these were the most exciting and enjoyable days of my life with all his annual holidays   spent with his boys.
     I never ever heard him raise his voice to mum and always under the most extreme pressure from finances or job he would sit down and talk about how ‘the family’ could cope.
      Always the gentleman and although he was an alcoholic he never spent more than his small share of the family wages.
      Always kindly even when he could hardly stand up from drinking with over enthusiastic friends.

     One of his favorite sayings was
‘God helps those who help themselves.
And god-help those that help themselves’

How true  he always said it is me  that has to learn and discover and overcome all obstacles  not the guy in the town hall or the labor department.
I would come to him with some primitive hand craft and he would say “Gosh I am proud of you son”
So now even though he died 50 years ago I still hear his voice when I have completed some thing I am proud of.

“Gosh son I am proud of you”

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[Kerri Byrd]

Absolutely touching!