Wisdom from my parents -- or not

My grandfather about a gun nut relative: "He'd shoot a tree just because it's alive."

 

My wisdom is from my daughter "Dad, you are always an example to me, sometimes you are a good example."

My father often said "I only know two songs, one song is Yankee Doodle, and the other one isn't."

 

LOL! Reminds me of what my mom used to say. "You're supposed to set an example, not be one."

I still use that as well as one from my carpenter dad, who had a touch of sarcasm in his blood. "Never force anything. Use a bigger hammer."

 

my dad had so much advice, i tuned him out at puberty. but we both made out okay, so something must have rubbed off

 

My dad, from a stint unloading boxcars: Never get between something that moves and something that doesn't.

Luke Short: You don't have to be a smart person. Just do what a smart person would do.

Our race-mechanic neighbor, the day I broke my first bolt on a car I was working on: Show no mercy when you buy, show no mercy when you sell. Show mercy when tightening bolts.

My grandma's peach-orchard-owning neighbor: People are funny. (Explaining to me why customers would complain about a quart basket properly packed, but love a pint basket if the peaches came above the top.)

Prof. Thomas, when in one of my electronics lab reports I mentioned something I had noticed that I couldn't explain: Are you taking Waves? If not, maybe you'll never know!

 

"In this world, Elwood, you must be oh so smart or oh so pleasant." Well, for years I was smart. I recommend pleasant.
― Harvey

 

Dad ... just wrote about him in bwilson4web threads about "the bomb" during wwII.
Yep, he pretty much wasted the 1st 2/3 of his life, but that symbiotic relationship between him & mom (overbearing vs mom's passive tolerance) kept them together. THANK GOD for high school friends w/ normal parents, where after many years, it dawned on me ... "man, my parents are really a mess!!"

Forward a decade. 10 meter FM amateur radio - i managed to befriend a carpet cleaner by trade. One day, on the radio he starts going ON & ON about his wonderful dad ... how much he loves him ... made him all that he is .... how much he means to him. First, came shock. Then a sense of sorrow & envy. Wish i'd had that relationship ... the stuff kids never knew what they missed from parents that never developed the capacity to invest enough of their self into that next generation. That may be the beginning of the end for our culture.

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Making sure that there was always food and a roof over our heads, my parents provided the basics. They punished me when I was bad, but I don't recall much encouragement. My takeaway became the need to rely on myself for figuring everything out, which made me very independent and instilled an internal drive to survive in the world. I wish there had been more words of wisdom and emotional guidance during my childhood, which I had to learn from my older friends in life along the way.

One of my favorite older friends used to always say, "timing is everything," which I've verified many times since then. For a final exam in a public speaking course, we had to draw one card each from two piles, then choose one with something written on it to prepare a three minute presentation to the class. I chose a card with the famous saying, "It's not what you know, but who you know." I ended up acing my final exam and the course.

 

One of my all-time favorite movie quotes!! (And, imho, Jimmy Stewart's best movie.)

 

One of MY favorites...and he made some pretty darned GOOD ones!