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Best or most memorable fatherly advice?

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Best or most memorable fatherly advice?

Old 06-10-18, 06:27 AM
  #26  
John E
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Originally Posted by Biker395
I grew up watching my Dad come home every night completely fearful he would be laid off from his engineering job (this was the late 60s and early 70s and engineers were being laid off in droves). I promised myself that whatever and engineer was, I would never have it for my profession.
Yup -- both my wife and I were aerospace brats. The U.S. put a man on the moon in 1969, and the bottom promtply fell out of the aerospace business. We graduated from UCLA in 1972, and I went directly into physics grad school (MS degree combined with a high school / community college teaching credential), since the STEM job market was so bleak. We paid for our own wedding in 1973 (reception was punch and carrot cake in the church basement social hall), since her dad, who had designed the pressure regulator for the Atlas booster, had been laid off from Convair-Ryan, and mine was very worried about his job in advanced systems and Manned Orbiting Laboratory at McDonnell-Douglas.

We lived the Bohemian starving grad student life for the next few years, while the employment situation gradually improved and my own career started to take shape.
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Old 06-10-18, 07:02 AM
  #27  
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Originally Posted by John E
True story -- my maternal grandparents were raised in the small mining town of New Castle, CO. Her father, John Ritter, co-owned the Ritter-MacRae General Store. newcastlecolorado.org/museum-on-the-street

Wanting to show his kids the evils of slot machines, he took them to a local casino and said, "This is a bad machine -- it takes your money. See? ..." Unfortunately, he hit a modest jackpot, which reduced the value of his sermon.
^Lol. It figures!

I explained that kind of gambling to my own son as a game of flipping a coin, with him giving me $1.05 if it came up heads and me giving him $0.95 if it came up tails.

"That's not fair!"

And who said gambling was fair? How do you think they pay for all the crap in this casino?
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Old 06-10-18, 05:54 PM
  #28  
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"When you leave a place, look back to check that you have not left anything behind." (Yeah)
"Try to avoid touching public toilet door knobs with your hands" (elbows are better)
"If something is unavoidable, then accept it, cheerfully." (I had occasion to remind him of the same advice.)
"Happiness is not stuffable-on-top-wise." (Ups and downs are essential)
"It is all a pile of matchsticks" (All achievements are pretty much as insignificant as each other, the important thing is that you enjoy piling them up)
"There is nothing in experience to say that when we walk, we aren't pulling the universe towards us. Indeed, cats may believe this to be the case." (I am not sure if this is true, but it got me thinking about sliding, at about age 10.)
"We'll be [feel like we are] the same age one day son" (he is now 76, and I am catching up. I hope he lasts long enough to make this true)

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Old 06-11-18, 09:52 AM
  #29  
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After you get married, don't have children for 2 years. Turned out to be incredibly sage advice.
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Old 06-11-18, 10:26 AM
  #30  
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Don't sweat the petty s**t and don't pet the sweaty s**t.
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Old 06-11-18, 12:37 PM
  #31  
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Regarding bikes, my dad said little, except for this. "If a punk chases you on a bike, throw a stick thru his spokes,"
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Old 06-11-18, 02:16 PM
  #32  
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My father told me not to marry my first wife. Perhaps I should have listened to him. It was a very difficult marriage, but I have two beautiful kids from it.
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Old 06-12-18, 09:14 AM
  #33  
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Son see that fish on the wall?Do you know how it got there?He opened his mouth! 2,Let the other guy go.
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Old 06-12-18, 09:49 AM
  #34  
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"Do as I say, not as I do". My wife has a problem with me telling the kids that. It makes perfect sense to me.
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Old 06-12-18, 12:54 PM
  #35  
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Best advice I ever got from my Dad, no question: "You should get involved in musical theater, it's a great way to meet girls."
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Old 06-12-18, 02:38 PM
  #36  
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Originally Posted by noglider
My father told me not to marry my first wife. Perhaps I should have listened to him. It was a very difficult marriage, but I have two beautiful kids from it.
Wow, that sounds familiar! (except that I only have one kid from my starter marriage)
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Old 06-12-18, 02:39 PM
  #37  
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You never have to look very far to find someone who would trade places with you.
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Old 06-12-18, 02:44 PM
  #38  
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Originally Posted by Oldguyonoldbike
Wow, that sounds familiar! (except that I only have one kid from my starter marriage)
"Starter marriage" sounds quaint. Mine lasted 13 years!
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Old 06-12-18, 03:24 PM
  #39  
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Originally Posted by TiHabanero
"The only mistake I made is when I thought I was wrong and I was mistaken."
That's the corollary to "I thought I was wrong, and I was right: I was wrong."
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Old 06-12-18, 03:44 PM
  #40  
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Fatherly advice from my Uncle Joe, "Proper tools give good results".
My martial arts instructor, "No pain last forever". "When life starts giving you s#*t, kick life's ass".
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Old 06-12-18, 05:09 PM
  #41  
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My father had a special disdain for plumbers, whom he considered grossly overpaid.

If I came home with poor grades on a report card, he would say:

"Don't worry, if you flunk out of school, you can always be a plumber."

I became a building contractor, including doing quite a bit of plumbing

so I guess I showed him.
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Old 06-13-18, 06:53 AM
  #42  
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"Get in this house now or I'll tan your hide."

I've been pretty much on time ever since.
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Old 06-13-18, 07:18 AM
  #43  
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Tough question, I can't recall any sage wisdom beyond "always take a shower, afterwards."
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Old 06-13-18, 07:50 AM
  #44  
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1. Don't make your living with your back.
2. There are great people and a-holes everywhere. Spend your time with the great people.
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Old 06-13-18, 10:10 AM
  #45  
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Originally Posted by noglider
"Starter marriage" sounds quaint. Mine lasted 13 years!
You're right. I shouldn't make light of what was actually very complicated for me, and probably for you too. Through lots of ups and downs my first marriage lasted 15 years, although we only managed to live under the same roof for nine of them. My family never warmed to her. I can't bring myself to consider it a mistake, though, since I really can't imagine life without my oldest daughter.
For what it's worth, the second marriage is going much better: sixteen years now.
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Old 06-13-18, 11:51 AM
  #46  
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Originally Posted by Oldguyonoldbike
You're right. I shouldn't make light of what was actually very complicated for me, and probably for you too. Through lots of ups and downs my first marriage lasted 15 years, although we only managed to live under the same roof for nine of them. My family never warmed to her. I can't bring myself to consider it a mistake, though, since I really can't imagine life without my oldest daughter.
For what it's worth, the second marriage is going much better: sixteen years now.
Our situations are similar. We just had our fifteenth anniversary, and we are doing very well. I got custody of the kids, and my wife helped me raise them. The kids have fledged now. You and I have the same attitude, so it's nice to meet you.
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Old 06-16-18, 09:06 AM
  #47  
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"Slow and steady is better than fast and furious in everything - including sex."
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Old 06-16-18, 10:43 AM
  #48  
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Originally Posted by sevenmag
After you get married, don't have children for 2 years. Turned out to be incredibly sage advice.
The late Rev. Jon Olsen, who officiated at our wedding, gave us similar advice, but he said to "wait until you're 30 to have kids." We heeded that, and then some (we both were 38 when our younger son came along), and it has all worked out extremely well for us. I need to figure out a grandfatherly caption for this "guilty look" picture my daughter-in-law recently took. She and my elder son were married in 2011, fortunately while my father was still alive, and Henry and Erik were born in 2015 and 2017.
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Capo: 1959 Modell Campagnolo, S/N 40324; 1960 Sieger (2), S/N 42624, 42597
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Old 06-16-18, 01:56 PM
  #49  
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"A pair of tight pants is like a country hotel - no ballroom." (obviously he never wore cycling kit in his life)

More apropos of cycling:

"You can't get strong without getting tired."
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Old 06-16-18, 08:29 PM
  #50  
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"I keep my money in my front pocket, loose, so if someone wants to pick my pocket, he has to tickle my balls first. That way, it won't be a total loss for me."
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