# What does your father do?



## CatherineM (Jan 9, 2013)

My dad is gone now but he was a printer. With big giant presses.

The smell!


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## CatherineM (Jan 9, 2013)

CatherineM said:


> My dad is gone now but he was a printer. With big giant presses.
> 
> The smell!


He printed Chilton Books way back when. And hockey stuff, as I recall. I guess that's not exactly our speed, so never mind.


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## Doglover (Sep 19, 2013)

My father was a lorry driver. He would leave the house at 2 am, drive to the Mac Fisheries yard and pick up his lorry, then he would go to Billingsgate fish market and load his lorry up with fish. Then he would deliver to all the Mac Fisheries shops in London before they opened.

The only thing got me out of the house in the morning was him coming home for his breakfast and trying to persuade him that no, I didn't want a lift in his stinky lorry!


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## LDB (Oct 28, 2008)

My dad was a doctor and practiced for 50 years, 49 of them in his own clinic on the same corner in The Heights.


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## CatherineM (Jan 9, 2013)

LDB said:


> My dad was a doctor and practiced for 50 years, 49 of them in his own clinic on the same corner in The Heights.


Cool. Back before the days of when _May I see your insurance card_? weren't the first words you heard when you walked into his clinic I'm assuming. Thanks for sharing


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## CatherineM (Jan 9, 2013)

Doglover said:


> My father was a lorry driver. He would leave the house at 2 am, drive to the Mac Fisheries yard and pick up his lorry, then he would go to Billingsgate fish market and load his lorry up with fish. Then he would deliver to all the Mac Fisheries shops in London before they opened.
> 
> The only thing got me out of the house in the morning was him coming home for his breakfast and trying to persuade him that no, I didn't want a lift in his stinky lorry!


Good grief. That's a tough schedule, especially during nasty weather. But people got fresh fish, right?


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## LiveWell-Amy (Jun 13, 2018)

My father died when I was a child and never saw him. But he was a rich landlord....


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## LDB (Oct 28, 2008)

CatherineM said:


> Cool. Back before the days of when _May I see your insurance card_? weren't the first words you heard when you walked into his clinic I'm assuming. Thanks for sharing


Long and boring alert. Proceed at your own risk. My father managed to practice for 50 years and not once did he keep a patient waiting past their appointment time. His hours when he first opened were 9-9 Monday through Saturday. As patients came in they signed their name on that day's log. As one patient was seen another was called back to be next. Appointments were when the list got down to your name so everyone was seen exactly at their appointment time. He had an emergency room and if someone came in the nurse deemed an emergency he would immediately take care of them. After about 8 years of that schedule he got another doctor to work with him and they worked 9-3 and 3-9, alternating every month. Closing wasn't at 9 though, it was when the last patient was seen and out the door with nobody else waiting. That often was after 11. He was a country doctor in the city. He just didn't get paid with chickens and eggs.


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## Louise Bates (Sep 24, 2020)

LDB said:


> Long and boring alert. Proceed at your own risk. My father managed to practice for 50 years and not once did he keep a patient waiting past their appointment time. His hours when he first opened were 9-9 Monday through Saturday. As patients came in they signed their name on that day's log. As one patient was seen another was called back to be next. Appointments were when the list got down to your name so everyone was seen exactly at their appointment time. He had an emergency room and if someone came in the nurse deemed an emergency he would immediately take care of them. After about 8 years of that schedule he got another doctor to work with him and they worked 9-3 and 3-9, alternating every month. Closing wasn't at 9 though, it was when the last patient was seen and out the door with nobody else waiting. That often was after 11. He was a country doctor in the city. He just didn't get paid with chickens and eggs.


That's a lovely story, not boring at all! I bet he had loads of anecdotes about all his patients over the years.

My dad was assistant manager of the local hardware store, still is pastor of a tiny rural church, and he and my mother have returned to their true love of farming in retirement age with chickens and extensive gardens.


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## Eric Timar (Jan 23, 2012)

Electrical technician; worked for AT&T. He went to a technical school, only -- did not have a four-year university degree -- but prided himself in reading very technical science; for example subscribed to, and read, Scientific American back in the '70s and '80s when it was much "denser" reading than it is now. I'm sure he could have obtained a higher degree or two, but he had a son (my older brother) while fairly young and thought he needed to stick to his job, which was a good one. 

You know, I've just now looked up an issue of Scientific American, in order to confirm my recollection of the type of articles it used to run; and in the Nov. 1980 issue its articles included:

The Rise and Fall of Ischemic Heart Disease

Gene Amplification and Drug Resistance

The Discovery of a Gravitational Lens

The Vestibular Apparatus

He would plow through it all . . .


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## Eric Timar (Jan 23, 2012)

Louise Bates said:


> My dad was assistant manager of the local hardware store, still is pastor of a tiny rural church, and he and my mother have returned to their true love of farming in retirement age with chickens and extensive gardens.


Sounds like a nice life.


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## LDB (Oct 28, 2008)

Eric Timar said:


> Electrical technician; worked for AT&T. He went to a technical school, only -- did not have a four-year university degree -- but prided himself in reading very technical science; for example subscribed to, and read, Scientific American back in the '70s and '80s when it was much "denser" reading than it is now. I'm sure he could have obtained a higher degree or two, but he had a son (my older brother) while fairly young and thought he needed to stick to his job, which was a good one.


Some of THE best and brightest did exactly that. It sounds like your dad was definitely one of them. People have a very wrong idea that getting a degree exhibits intelligence and working a trade like your dad doesn't. They couldn't be more wrong. Your dad and many good people just like him are some of the brightest and most intelligent people we have. We need to be teaching more of our youth to follow his example so we can take care of ourselves and our needs for generations to come.


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## Sandpiper (Oct 28, 2008)

My father was a _Mad Men_ man at a small advertising agency in Chicago from '44 - '72.


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## Atunah (Nov 20, 2008)

He's retired now. But for most of his working life he drove a forklift loading bricks and tiles from the factory onto the trucks. He started out in the carpentry trade in his earlier years. 
He would leave at like 5 am and come home at 9 pm many days. Had to stay until the last truck was loaded. 
It would be very cold often and it wasn't a heated forklift. This was in Bavaria Germany. So usually we ended up sitting in one room as family in evening with the tile stove going on full blast as he never could get warm enough. 

Then when I turned 16 I went into trade as a painter. Houses and restoration, having to hitch a ride with him at 5 am. I also worked outside most time so then both me and my father would sit in the super hot living not being able to get hot enough, while my mother would sweat  . 

My father was pretty handy at everything though and because he worked at the factory he had access to lots of cheap tiles and bricks so we ended up with many walls tiled for some reason. Floors too, but walls especially.


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## The Hooded Claw (Oct 12, 2009)

My father was a pharmacist and drugstore manager. For several years, his pharmacy was the busiest (in number of prescriptions filled) in our town. Alas, he has gone to that big apothecary in the sky...


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## mlewis78 (Apr 19, 2009)

My father was an architect with his own practice that he did evenings, weekends and days off. He worked full time M-F as a design engineer for the federal government at the Hexagon building at Ft. Monmouth, NJ (Eatontown). It was top secret so I never got to go in and see where he worked except from the outside.

During WWII he was a fighter pilot in the 8th AF, 359th fighter group, based in East Wretham.


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## loonlover (Jul 4, 2009)

My father was a minister with most of my childhood spent in several small towns in Kansas. But he also served a church in Reno, NV for three years and 2 years in Mississauga, Ontario. My last 2 years of high school were in Canada, an enriching educational and world broadening experience. Part of the education was the exposure to teachers from Australia, England, Jamaica, and India. It was also during the Viet Nam war, so was an interesting time to see and hear things from other viewpoints.


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## CatherineM (Jan 9, 2013)

loonlover said:


> My father was a minister with most of my childhood spent in several small towns in Kansas. But he also served a church in Reno, NV for three years and 2 years in Mississauga, Ontario. My last 2 years of high school were in Canada, an enriching educational and world broadening experience. Part of the education was the exposure to teachers from Australia, England, Jamaica, and India. It was also during the Viet Nam war, so was an interesting time to see and hear things from other viewpoints.


Wait. So you're like old?

That is so cool! You remember what life used to be like.

So so so much better than now.


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## TWErvin2 (Aug 7, 2010)

My father was a barber.


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## CatherineM (Jan 9, 2013)

Everybody needed a haircut back when the world was normal. My respects to your father.


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## CatherineM (Jan 9, 2013)

mlewis78 said:


> My father was an architect with his own practice that he did evenings, weekends and days off. He worked full time M-F as a design engineer for the federal government at the Hexagon building at Ft. Monmouth, NJ (Eatontown). It was top secret so I never got to go in and see where he worked except from the outside.
> 
> During WWII he was a fighter pilot in the 8th AF, 359th fighter group, based in East Wretham.


Thank you for your father's service. I truly wish we had men of that caliber today.

God Bless You


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## loonlover (Jul 4, 2009)

CatherineM said:


> Wait. So you're like old?
> 
> That is so cool! You remember what life used to be like.
> 
> So so so much better than now.


Well, kinda old. Not so sure I agree that everything was so much better than now. In some areas I think we take two steps forward, but then falter a step backward before regaining our footing.


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## mlewis78 (Apr 19, 2009)

I guess that would make me kind of old. I remember when there were no iphones.


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## Annalog (Dec 28, 2008)

loonlover said:


> Well, kinda old. Not so sure I agree that everything was so much better than now. In some areas I think we take two steps forward, but then falter a step backward before regaining our footing.


I agree, LL. It feels to me as if most of history is a process of taking two steps forward and then back a step or two. I remember DH and I talking about how some areas of society seemed to swing like a pendulum slowly moving forward.

I was also in high school during the Vietnam war. I might be kinda old but I don't think of myself as old. I remember both of my parents telling about life when they were younger. So many things were worse than today. Neither of then wanted to "go back to the 'Good Old Days'" because some of it wasn't good. I agree, much wasn't good at all.

Both of my parents are no longer living. I am going to answer the question for this thread for both of my parents as I consider each of them critical to who I am today.

My father worked in a foundry in Kentucky before he fought in the South Pacific in WW II. He came back home after the war and went to school on the GI Bill to become a mechanical engineer and then got a job with Hughes Aircraft Company in California where he married my mom. After a few years, he transferred to a Hughes site in Tucson so that he could study Aerospace engineering while continuing to work at Hughes. Mom raised five kids, 4 girls and 1 boy. Both my parents encouraged us to follow our dreams and that we could be whatever we worked for. Mom had wanted to go into medical research but that was not an option for a woman growing up on a farm in the 30s and 40s. She did work her way into becoming a technical secretary for an engineering firm. She ensured that her children were able to get the education that she was denied. Both of our parents encouraged us to learn and be curious. Both encouraged us to make things and experiment. Both encouraged us in the arts and music. We were each able to find several interests that we loved and that could lead to careers. However, even by the time I went to college in the mid 70s, there were very few women in my math, science, and engineering courses. I continued to become a software engineer and then the software designer for manufacturing, materials requirements planning, and capacity requirements planning components for the software company where I worked. Each of my siblings also went into careers they enjoyed and where they did excel. A couple changed careers and did well again.

My daughter, an only child, is doing well in her career and is an excellent mom to her two children, both strong young women attending college. Their dad decided to leave their family when they were young. So I know that while my granddaughters could answer the question "What does your father do?", they would rather answer the question "What does your mother do?" I am proud of all three of them as they are working to improve the lives of others.


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## mlewis78 (Apr 19, 2009)

Both of my parents are no longer living. My father died in 1990 and my mother in 2014. He was 72 and she was 92.


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## *DrDLN* (dr.s.dhillon) (Jan 19, 2011)

Both of my parents are gone and they never worked. Lived on inherited wealth.....


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