June 10, 2002
DOWN HOME:
If it's summer, it's time to work
___Summer always reminds me of work.
___I know, it's supposed to be the time of "lazy, hazy days." But back in the "olden days," when I was a kid, summer was when I went out looking for a job to bankroll all the things I knew I'd want to do the next school year.
___I never already had a job when summer arrived, because that wasn't allowed. Daddy had to start work when he was just 11 years old and kept it up after school all the time he was growing up. He was bound and determined his kids wouldn't work away their teen years.
MARV KNOX
Editor
___When I turned 16 and started coveting cool cars, I chafed under the no-working rule a little bit. Twenty-nine years later, I realize Daddy was right. A guy's going to work and drive cars all his life, but he's only a teenager once. I treasure all the extra-curricular activities and evenings with family and friends I would've missed if I went to work as soon as the schoolbell rang every afternoon.
___Still, every teenage boy wants some cash, and summer was my time to earn it.
___My first job was great. My best friend Kenny's dad hired me to drive a tractor. Kenny's dad and uncle harvested the wheat. I came behind them and tilled the soil. Then Kenny came behind me and planted the next crop.
___I loved that job. The pay wasn't terrific, but Kenny's mom served a humonguous "dinner" (the farm name for lunch) each day of harvest, and I ate until I thought I would explode. Plus, I got to stay outdoors all day every day, smelling the earth and baking in the sun.
___For the next couple of summers, I worked for our friend Clarence, a carpenter. We didn't have a lot of opportunities to build new houses in a small farming community, but Clarence was a terrific remodeler and general fixer-upper, and he stayed in enough work to keep a boy busy at his side.
___One summer, we spent a bunch of time leveling houses. Most of the houses up in that part of the Panhandle were built on pier-and-beam foundations, which could sag over time. We'd crawl under the houses with a light, a hydraulic jack and wood shingles. Often, I'd crawl to the far reaches of the foundations, because I was still skinny and could get there easily. Clarence would eyeball the floor joists, and I'd jack them up until they were straight, and then he'd wedge the shingle "shims" between the concrete piers and the wooden joists.
___One afternoon, under the Pshigodas' farmhouse, I learned a great lesson from my summer job. Lying in the semi-dark, my head in cobwebs and surrounded by Lord-knows-how-many spiders, I felt the distinct call of God to continue my education.
___Some people say the Lord speaks in a still, small voice. I'd say spiders smacking their lips in anticipation of lunching on my limbs is a message that comes through loud and clear.
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