Why do we always make the simplest things complicated?  I know “things are never as simple as they seem” but really?

My Dad was such a great example of this saying. Maybe its because he has passed, or maybe its because I was much younger but I remember that  he really was a hard worker. I remember that he always drove a bus; first a school bus then a state one (similar to a Shortline one) but he was always working. I really don’t remember him having vacations but he must have at some point. If he was not at work then he was working at home; gardening, lawn, building stuff, painting, cutting/stacking wood. He just worked…and I really think he enjoyed it because he was always laughing and joking around with the people on his bus (I got to tag along a couple of times) and I think the working at home was something he just relaxed doing.

Once my Mom and I were talking about jobs and she commented that my if my Dad lost a job he didn’t stop looking until he had another…and nothing was ‘out of bounds’–he even worked in a funeral home to help make ends meet.

And as for being nice to people–my Dad would talk to anyone–and I do mean anyone! People at the grocery store, people at the doctors, on his bus–if there was a story to tell or learn he was always willing to hear it. A bartender without the bar, so to speak. My Dad was always a joker so you knew you were bound to have a good time around him.

No, he was not perfect but he was a good role model in most respects.  I’ve learned more about who he was in the last two years  since he passed (he passed 11/10/10) than he shared with me growing up.  He really was a private guy but you knew what mattered to him. Family. Working hard. Being nice to people.

I hope I’ve presented the same ideas to my children:

*Always work hard, whether it is at school, at a job or at home–do the best you are capable of.

* Be nice to people-even if they are not nice in return…because you are!

Gee, maybe it really is as simple as that.