Oct 23, 2013 4 min read

I should have paid closer attention.

My late father knew how to do a lot of things. He ran heavy equipment excavating trenches, foundations and other holes in the earth for a Pittsburgh area home builder. When he learned the contractor was getting ready to go out of business, he tagged along with one of his plumbers and learned that trade.

He was also a fairly good carpenter, able to build his own home from the ground up. Dad didn’t care much for electrical work, avoiding it as much as possible. He felt there was too much chance of getting severely shocked so he’d let that activity to the professionals. So do I, which means I have limited my electrical work to things that are so simple a monkey could do it.

In addition, when cars and trucks were much simpler than today he was a great mechanic, keeping all of our vehicles repaired and safely on the road.

He taught me a few things. I could change my own oil and replace simple things like thermostats to keep the engine running at the correct temperature. Usually, he taught me such things when something went wrong with my vehicle. For example, I missed a girlfriend’s high school graduation program because I couldn’t get my car started. Dad figured out it was a bad connection on the battery and, after removing the cables and cleaning the terminals, got me moving again.

That knowledge helped me years later when I was a reporter covering a night meeting. When I went to the parking lot to go back to the office and file my story, once more my car wouldn’t start. Prepared with knowledge and the correct tools, I quickly figured out what was wrong. I had a special battery terminal brush that I used to scrub off the corrosion. It worked and I silently thanked Dad for showing me what to do. It may have been a very simple thing but it was important and I wasn’t left stranded high and dry miles away from town.

I don’t work on our cars today because they are just too complicated. I can still recognize a problem with the battery but the last one I bought was installed by a technician at the store.

There other things Dad showed me that have come in very useful over the years. I have done a little plumbing around our home, easy stuff that didn’t require use of a torch or solder. Most of it was successful. Dad also taught me an important lesson in carpentry, too: measure twice and cut once. The bits and pieces of that craft I have done normally went well and I made few serious blunders because I did what Dad said to do.

Growing up, Dad’s most valuable lesson was “experience is the best teacher.” For instance, while learning how to drive, I stuck his 1960 International pickup truck in the middle of a boggy field, axle deep in mud. The more I tried to rock the vehicle back and forth to free it, the deeper the crevasse in the ooze became.

Once more, Dad came to the rescue. It took both of us and some wooden planks about an hour to get the truck out. And, instead of getting angry or berating me for stupidity, Dad simply said to me, “I bet you won’t do that again.”

There were many other things Dad did, techniques and skills to which I should have paid closer attention. Now, Dad is gone and I don’t have him to call when I need help or have a question how to do something. Instead, I call a professional or try to find the solution in a book. Or, I think, “Now, what would Dad do.”

And, you know what? I must have been paying closer attention than I thought because usually I come up with a solution.

I guess Dad taught me more than I thought.

Have a good day.

James Pletcher Jr. is retired Herald-Standard business editor. He can be reached via email at J.Pletcherjr@att.net or jpletcher@heraldstandard.com.