Okay,
mixed in with all the stories about my Dad and his achievements that
ranged from remodeling every room in the house to getting his three
kids to church every Sunday, there is the tale of his most famous
foible that we include to keep him human.
In
the days when Dad was in the midst of his remodeling of the Zimmerman
house, company would come by from time to time, and we would walk
them through the house showing off all the things that Dad had done
so far and point out what the plans were for the next project. It was
with pride and excitement that we would share this with everyone.
One
day, during such a tour, Dad smiled and humbly told us something we
had never heard before – his very first project at the house! He
said when we first moved in, he wanted to get rid of the rock at the
end of the driveway. It was not quite what I would call a boulder,
but rather a big rock. And it was not in the driveway, but rather to
one side of the driveway and almost on the shoulder of the road. I
thought it made a nice marker for the driveway. And in the
years that we lived there, in winter, if we found the rock with the
snow shovel, then we knew where to shovel to clear the driveway. But
apparently Dad had not liked the looks of it and wanted the rock
gone.
So
for his very first project at the new house, Dad walked into our
barn, which was what we were using for a garage, and he grabbed the
sledgehammer. Then he walked to the end of the driveway and stood in
front of the rock.
Dad
slung the sledgehammer over his head. And he swung it down onto the
rock.
Then
the sledgehammer immediately bounced back (following the laws of
physics!) and smacked Dad squarely in the forehead!
Dad
looked around to see if anyone else had witnessed what had just
happened.
No
one had.
He
walked back to the barn and set the sledgehammer inside.
And
the rock remained at the end of the driveway for all the years that
we lived there, and it is probably there still.
173
20150622 The Rock and a Hard Place
No comments:
Post a Comment