Memory Monday

My Dad was amazingly smart.  There have been a lot of times that I wish I was more like him in regards to his love for knowledge.  He liked to read and study, and he was so full of information and always had the answers on how to do everything.  Some of my favorite times were when he was helping me with school projects.  Sadly, even at a young age I was known to procrastinate any major assignments I had, but Dad was always there to step in and save the day.  I think I had the COOLEST science project (I remember I won a blue ribbon) in 4th grade when a few days before WE (mostly he because I didn't have any better ideas) decided to experiment and test the PH levels on common household products to see if they were an acid base or neutral.  HONEST CONFESSION: before that I had absolutely no clue what those even meant before that project.  He brought home some PH  testing strips from the Paper Mill and away we went testing chemicals.  I remember him helping me write everything up and Mom and Shell helping me put the poster together.  When everyone else was hauling in their Volcano's that everyone else had been making for years I was the COOLEST thing ever because I had a project that no one else had ever seen before, and I learned something while I was doing it.

In 5th Grade when we were studying the development of America I had an assignment to create an Indian dwelling.  This time I decided to make it interesting (Okay I procrastinated really bad) and started that project the night before.  Well of course I decided to do a tee-pee, I started hot gluing my skewers in a circle, really creating a mess is what I was doing.  I couldn't get it to stand up and it was covered in gobs of glue.  Very patiently my Dad decided to set down and help me.  We had a great time, cutting and lacing the small sticks together and then he helped me cover it with some brown material. Of course he had the eye for presentation so he helped me put it on a board and create a river to help it look better.   I got an A on that project too.

In 8th grade science he helped me create a pop can smasher.  Of course I was thinking of doing something small and simple...but nope Dad got involved and I had the best pop can smasher ever, complete with a whole just the perfect size to smash the cans to the smallest possible shape.  He was just amazing like that and had such an eye for the details.

Another school project that he helped me create was in 2nd grade when he built a leprechaun trap.  He did such a good job building it that it actually worked!  We caught the leprechaun but he had his girlfriend with him and she was able to get them out and he got away.  I know this because the leprechaun left me a note. This project got my picture in the local newspaper which I thought was pretty stinkin cool.  My little sisters used the trap after me.

There is a popular country song out right now by Trace Adkins..."Just Fishin" that reminds me of this.   While my Dad never took me fishing, I will always treasure the moments that he took with me to help me out with my school projects.