Thanks for sharing Tom it has been almost 7 years since I lost my Dad and this brought it right back to the forefront. We are of an age and you can imagine the names I got called in primary school having revealed my father was a ladies shoe designer. He did a talk at the youth club when I was about twelve and I saw the effect he had on young women/teenagers but being a teenager myself was programmed to rebel. I went my own way and it was only years later when we worked together in the family fashion shoe business that I fully appreciated his true genius. Sadly the company folded as a direct result of the miners strike and we went back to a less amiable relationship where we met and talked less often. To this day I still have a guilt trip about not being able to buy a house to replace the one my parents lost as a result of the business collapse (I know as a parent you never want your children to feel the need to look after you but I can't shake that particular demon). I have his kilts which I will never be able to wear but can't bear to part with the last vestiges of his life after the shoe trade. Going back a further generation I have in my shed a pair of wooden step ladders made by my father's dad (made out of fish boxes of all things) Too fragile to think about using too precious to destroy. Keep well friend and take care of you and yours
Father's were different people in our young day, I'm 71 Tom, they were allowed to give the weans a skelp without being arrested. When my brother and I cleared our Faither's hoose I kept all his old tools, I could never have kept any clothes, he was a smoker. So out in my shed when I sharpen the old knife he gave me on a broken piece of grinding wheel, I think about him.
This is both heart warming and breaking. Powerful, honest words and memories that has my mind now flooded with a myriad of memories as I too am an orphan. Thank you for sharing.
Thanks for sharing, that is quite a read.
Thanks for sharing Tom it has been almost 7 years since I lost my Dad and this brought it right back to the forefront. We are of an age and you can imagine the names I got called in primary school having revealed my father was a ladies shoe designer. He did a talk at the youth club when I was about twelve and I saw the effect he had on young women/teenagers but being a teenager myself was programmed to rebel. I went my own way and it was only years later when we worked together in the family fashion shoe business that I fully appreciated his true genius. Sadly the company folded as a direct result of the miners strike and we went back to a less amiable relationship where we met and talked less often. To this day I still have a guilt trip about not being able to buy a house to replace the one my parents lost as a result of the business collapse (I know as a parent you never want your children to feel the need to look after you but I can't shake that particular demon). I have his kilts which I will never be able to wear but can't bear to part with the last vestiges of his life after the shoe trade. Going back a further generation I have in my shed a pair of wooden step ladders made by my father's dad (made out of fish boxes of all things) Too fragile to think about using too precious to destroy. Keep well friend and take care of you and yours
Father's were different people in our young day, I'm 71 Tom, they were allowed to give the weans a skelp without being arrested. When my brother and I cleared our Faither's hoose I kept all his old tools, I could never have kept any clothes, he was a smoker. So out in my shed when I sharpen the old knife he gave me on a broken piece of grinding wheel, I think about him.
This is both heart warming and breaking. Powerful, honest words and memories that has my mind now flooded with a myriad of memories as I too am an orphan. Thank you for sharing.
Says it all.
A lovely, poignant piece, Tom. I wonder what he would have made of it?