Blog 3320 – 12.05.2024
Like Father Like Son
My dad loved to hunt and fish, mostly he just loved being out in the woods. It was not a love that my mother shared till much later. She was a city girl and preferred the comforts of home. Dad’s CCC Camp experiences as a young man during the Great Depression and his military experiences during WW2 were the highlights of his life and were detailed in his autobiographical sketches that I put together into a little book that I titled More Than My Share from his own words that he felt like he had gotten more that his share of good luck and happiness.
My dad taught me to love the outdoors and shared his dreams with me. Dad always wanted to own a Jeep and I have owned two Jeep Wranglers, one a 2005 six cylinder six speed and the other a 1960 Willys four cylinder three speed. I may yet own another before this adventure is over. Dad always wanted to own some property in the woods and finally realized that dream buying a few acres in Middle Tennessee near Smithfield. Mom even came around to this love of the wild country.
I am my father Jake’s son as my son Jay is mine. My dad fed me on his dreams and I have mine. Jay owns a sixty acre timber ranch near Bon Wier, Texas and wants to add to it and one day have a much larger spread. Thinking that it is most likely that I will survive my wife by more than a few years, I asked Jay when he first bought his first piece of land if he would let me live on it. He said, “Sure, thing, Dad.” And so we began to plan clearing a pad for a couple of RV hook-ups, electric, water, and septic tank system. I have already bought one of two RV Campers that hope to start out with on the property, one to live in and a smaller one to travel with.
On my first visit to his property Jay shared with me about an adjacent 15.55 acres next to his that he hoped to one day secure because it had more state road frontage, higher ground, a more mature growth of trees and a pond with a paddle boat in it. I asked him if I could help him realize his dreams and my own by buying that property and holding it for him. He said that he would like that and so we made it happen. Just a few days ago I received a digital copy of the land transfer. Granted a Farm Credit, due to required financing, holds a lean on the property, but I am starting out with some equity and plan to take my sweet time, hopefully living the thirty years to pay it off.
I was all set to live on my son’s property one day, but now will no small sense of pride I can now think of it as “our property.” Todays’s attached song says, “Teach your children well…feed them on your dreams…teach you parents well…feed them own your dreams.” I say, sweet dreams still come true.
Your friend and fellow traveler,
David White
Crosby, Stills, Nash & Young – Teach Your Children
theencouragingword 