Happy Dad’s Day

                                                   … to My Other Dad
                                                           By Jeff Salter

             Last year at this time, I wrote about my own (deceased) father, Simon A. Salter.  I hope you’ll click here
 https://fourfoxesonehound.wordpress.com/2011/06/16/happy-fathers-day/
 and have a look at that tribute, along with a poem I wrote for my father over 40 years ago.

Charles A. Williams (1925-2008)
            But this year I want to say a few words about my (also deceased) father-in-law, Charles A. Williams.  Or, as many people knew him, Charlie.  Since I joined his family by marrying his daughter, I called him Dad.
            Charlie was born and raised in Possum Trot, on the farm where we now live.  He served in WW2, mostly in the Pacific, mostly with the Americal Division (which was later named the 25^th Infantry Division).  Dad worked hard all his life, including over 30 years as a petroleum geologist with Placid Oil Co. (which was founded and operated for decades by H.L. Hunt) in New Orleans and Dallas.
            Well, Dad loved working on things.  If he was awake, he wanted to be fixing something:  especially clocks and phones … but also engines (large and small).  He also enjoyed assembling things and took special pleasure in building things from scratch.  If Dad needed a post, he much preferred to use cedar logs/trees he found on his farm than to buy treated 4×4 posts.  He was in hog heaven when recycling lumber / materials from other projects (or which had been abandoned) rather than purchasing new material from Lowes.  Dad would rather straighten an old nail than buy a new one.  When Dad wasn’t doing anything else outdoors, his activity of choice usually involved his well-used 1950s Farmall Tractor.  As long as I knew him, I don’t think he bought a new vehicle — I think he always bought a used one and “fixed it up”.
            Dad was a deacon for about 50 years … among many other functions, roles, and projects in whichever church he served.  And he taught Sunday School each week for most of those same years.  He was also a devoted Gideon.  Charlie was a proud member of the American Legion Post 38 Honor Guard.
            Charlie Williams was the inspiration for the supporting character, Chet Walter, who appears in three of my unpublished novel manuscripts.
            Here’s a poem I wrote for Charles A. Williams on his birthday in 1971.

      Over Worn-Out Engines
             By Jeffrey L. Salter

We’ve mostly met over worn-out engines
     or under the backyard lights
correcting frailties of man-made machines
     and dodging mosquito bites.

We’ve toiled all day beneath tattered tarps
     through the hours of rain and cold
to renew the life in a deadened device
     by replacing the worn and the old.

We’ve come together over worn-out engines
     and, renewing their lives, we’ve found
together we can solve the problems
     that lazier folks walk around.

 We disregard the adverse elements,
     ignore the scrapes and the grime;
for we learn we still can use our hands
     without circuits or computer time.

Second Place (Cash Award) in Northwest Louisiana Writers Conference (1987 contest)

Published:
Sunday at Four 6.4 (Winter) 1998: page 18.
Breeze 1:21 (Jun. 8) 2007: page 6.

 Flag Day
            Don’t forget that today is Flag Day.  Fly your American flag proudly.  Our country is not perfect – not by a long shot – but it’s the best country on this planet.

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