Good afternoon or evening, depending on when and where you're tuning in. This is episode 44
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Of the blue collar executive podcast. And I am your host Louis <inaudible>. Well, it's almost a father's day, a day dedicated to recognized dads, being a dad. I'm a big fan of this day. My kids always give me a nice gifts and hang with me all day. I'll never tell them because I love getting gifts, but the biggest gifts they give me a, just hanging with the old dad all day. Well, I don't know where this is going to go, but its one of my favorite subject. So let's just see where it takes us.
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Let's go <inaudible>.
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So I popped went to high heaven in 2006, but I still think about my dad every day, every single day and many times a day. In fact, I still talked to them a lot, especially when I'm trying to fix one of his old tractors or get something right in my garden. I still asked for his advice and in some weird way, I always feel like I get my answer. I'll tell you a funny story that my brother, Jay and I still laugh about. We were trying to get her gardens in one year, shortly after dad passed and we were using his big Ford 3000 tractor, which he called big D dad named it that in fact that named all of his tractors, dad had a, a a hundred acres and he loved nothing more than working on it. He bought it shortly after mom had passed. And that's where he spent almost all of his time.
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If he wasn't working at the factory, he was somewhere in that a hundred acres on the tractor or polling a fence or doing something. I asked him one time, why did you buy a place to do nothing but work? He said to me, there's nothing in this world. I would rather do. I guess, with him being raised on a farm, it was his place of solitude anyway, back to the tractors. So one thing dad didn't like to do was change equipment on tractors. You know, most people will have one tractor and they use it with all the attachments like plows Bush, Hawks, tillers or whatever. I really didn't realize this until after dad passed. And we had to transfer all of his tractors from the farm to my place, but dad had a tractor for each attachment. So in my bar and I now have old Sam, which is a 1957 Ford and old Sam's job was to pull a Bush hog old George that's a smaller tractor with the belly mower.
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And his job was just to keep the grass cut down around the house. I got old Mader. He was named that after tow Mader from the movie car's because dad had a lift BARR on the back. I think my younger son named them that then there was a big D a, a big D is a big boy. And I believe the D stands for diesel. I guess that helped to keep anyone from getting confused when they're putting fuel and all of his tractor's. But anyway, back to my story. So shortly after dad passed me and J hooked up the tiller, the big D and started to put our gardens in around here. We have a very short window to get the men. It goes from cold and rainy to just dry enough for a minute. And then back to the rein. So we usually have about two days to get that garden in.
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If we're going to have sweet corn popping up in July. Well, as soon as we started, the gears, went out on big D J and I knew we were going to have to tear that gearbox down and find the problem, which meant we were not going to beat and sweetcorn until August. We both said, dad, we could use some help here and laughed about it. Got me and Jay, I have been around the tractors, all of our lives and we know our stuff. We knew that we had a clutch or a gear problem and both tried many different things. So yeah. So at least get it to move a little so we could get our gardens in before. Yeah. Or turn it down, but old D wasn't gonna budge. So the next morning I went out there with my toolbox, ready to tear into it. But right before I put a wrench on it, I felt an urge to try it one more time.
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So I laid my wrench down, hopped up on the seat and said, come on big D a fired it up or pulled it down and in gear and a bit about threw me off of it. I put it in reverse. And then forward, I called Jay oh, and said, watch this. As I pulled the front wheels off the ground, we both put our gardens in that year and have every year since with big D and have never felt as much have a S S slip in those gears. We still laugh and talk about that. Or you can say something must have just been jammed up in it, or is it a coincidence? And you may be right. But Jason and I like to believe that data is still helping us out. I sure do miss my dad. He was a great man. Yeah. He had his flaws, but that was just because he was human.
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I try to be like him. And I hope in my kids' eyes that I'm half the hero that he is to me. I still play his old guitars and the memory's just flood back. I laugh at all the time. She, he would yell at me when I would get out of time while he was trying to learn something new on his banjo and I can close my eyes and visualize it. I'm sitting right there behind them while he's up there on stage doing his best Johnny Cash impersonation. I have a funny story about that. To that. I've told him many times it's a true story. So that always sing the Johnny Cash song called Folsom prison blues. He would step up to the mic and in his best Johnny voice, he would say, hello. I wish I had Johnny Cassius money. That was his impersonation. Have Johnny's opening line.
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Hello? I'm Johnny Cash. Dad had a deep voice and he could imitate Johnny pretty good. So as soon as he would finish saying that I would do the lead guitar intro and we would start playing the song and I could play it in my sleep. I mean, we'd played at a million times, but about halfway through the song, there's a lead break, which Johnny would always yell Sui when it was time to do it. Well, as I said, I had played behind dad since I was four years old. So I could really just do that subconsciously because my main focus was smiling at the girl's on the dance floor. In every single time it came to that part. My dad would yell Sui. I would jump out of my skin thinking he was saying, Louie, I always thought I messed up.
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'cause in my head. I was on that dance floor or showing them girls in my moves, but I never missed a beat. And we always laughed about it. After the song, I could sit here and tell stories about dad all day long. Heck I wrote a book about them. He was just something, you know, I've been fortunate in my career and travels to meet celebrities, major CEOs, and some of the wealthiest people on this planet, but it's not even a contest for me. My hero is, and always will be an old farm boy with an eighth grade education. Yeah, I know I'm biased because he's my dad. And I hope most of you feel the same way about your dad. One thing I learned when my first son was born is that kids don't come with instructions and there's no rule book for being a dad. You just do the best you can to raise them, right.
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Try to teach them right from wrong. Do a whole lot of praying. Then you give them a unconditional love, which they'll test from time to time, especially when they become teenagers. They'll test it. But if you're a dad, you know, there's nothing in this entire world that they could ever do to stop you from loving and caring for them. Just like our heavenly father does for us. I mean, we mess up a lot of humans, but he always forgives us and never stops. Loving us. Remember the song, Thai, a yellow ribbon around the old Oak tree. It's about a fella that gets on the wrong side of the tracks. And he won't listen to old dad like most teenage boys. He knows everything and dads a big dummy. So he says some hateful things and he leaves town. Well later he comes to the census and realizes that old dad wasn't as dumb after all, he feels horrible and wants nothing more than to tell his daddy, sorry.
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And to get that big old bear hug that only dads can give, but he's pretty sure he blue. Any chance of that, what the things you had said and done when he blew out of their, like a bad storm? Well, there was a train that ran right in front of his parents' house. So he mailed them a letter and said, I'm gonna be on the next passed and train. And if there is any chance in this world that you could ever forgive me, Thai, a yellow ribbon around that old Oak tree in the front yard, and I'll get off at the next stop and come on home. Well, it was the train passed by. He was too scared to even look out the window. So he asked the lady sitting next to him and she said, honey, you're going to need to look at this. Every branch have every tree had a yellow ribbon in it. And his old mom and dad were standing in the front yard, waving yellow sheets.
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You know, I heard that song played many times as a kid and it never really meant anything to me. But now that I'm a dad, I totally get it. It gets to me just telling it. Now there is no deeper love than the love we have for our, to you. No, I never knew how much I loved and needed a, my dad until he passed away. And I never knew how much he loved and needed me until I was a dad. If you're a dad is still here on earth, cherish every moment. And if he's moved on to heaven like mine cherish, every memory I have learned that being a dad is the easiest and the hardest thing I've ever done. It's me the greatest joy in the biggest heartbreak. So in my life being the data's calls me some of the greatest stresses and worries I've ever had in life, but I wouldn't trade it for anything in this world.
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My kids are my greatest achievement, my greatest love, and my reason for everything I do. They don't listen to this podcast and they've never read my book and I continue to do it because someday I hope they look back on or just a little bit proud of me for 20 years, I passed up many career opportunities that could have escalated me up that corporate ladder, but my priority was being a dad. They didn't choose to be my kids. I chose to be their dad. So I owe that to them. Oh, I screwed up a lot as a dad, but I just try my best to do exactly. As my dad taught me, my kids could care less. What I did for a job. They just wanted a needed to feel that they were loved and protected that I can do. And still do.
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I sure do love being a dad. And since they don't listen to this, I'll tell you a little secret. My kids are the heroes and the admire in a child is me. Well, that concludes another episode of the blue collar executive podcast. I hope you found some value in it or at least found it entertaining. I wish you all have a wonderful, blessed father's day. And thank you so much for listening.
