this will be short(HA!) but there have been a lot of two's in my life, except Sharon(mom), my One and only. Growing up in the Allegheny Mountains-the outskirts. They get really Hilly as you drive down towards Maryland-and in the late fall, the colors of the trees is unlike anything you see in the Midwest, where they just turn brown and a good rain strips them from the tree's There are a lot of evergreen tree's dotted throughout the mountains, which only highlight the colors.
My folks seemed to have TWO sets of boys: Bill, I followed 17months later, but R.(ichard) Timothy did not pop out till eight years later and Jaime Mark-mom thought it was pronounced seeeen when Robert Sean entered the world and both were born in Grenville. , which is why she like it (Sean). She was a little disappointed it was pronounced, "Shawn," Dad once commented he felt guilty that he didn't take the fishing time and teach the carpenter skills with me and Bill. He was, after all, a Master carpenter, and did beautiful finishing work on houses and boats. His last house was so well built the general contractor said he should be able to heat it in the winter withe a toaster, Wrong.
Two's: Bill and I did one of two things: work for my dad for free from the time we were in second grade and, when able, play our dangerous activities and games, some of which I covered.
Work for free: the first thing was the boat shop and then hammering dry wall by hand on two spec houses that a friend of dad was building, cause dad needed the work and money. And by hand, I mean till our shoulder hurt from the hammer and the blister's on our hands burst open,. No automation here.
It seems we did two things in the boat shop: Dad would go along and drill holes-lets say he was putting the bottom on the boat; Bill and I would follow with a large box of brass screws and a bar of bee's wax. We would scrap the side of the screw with bee's wax( it would go in easier, the plywood would not split, and the wax helped seal the holes. We would then start the screw in with our thumb and index finger. Yes, they got pretty sore. Then dad would change from a drill bit to a Phillips head and screw down the wood Sometimes, before putting in the screws he would use a countersink bit so eventually, the screw would be flush with the wood. When the boat was done being built, we would paint the entire thing with a clear wood sealer so the final finish coats would not sink in to the wood thereby requiring more paint. The sealer stunk and the fumes made me nauseous. It wasn't till we were older, did he trust us to apply the finish boat paint(Petitt was the brand name).
The adjoining room was the "sales floor," where the fishing type boats were leaned up against the wall with a few on the floor. The "ritzy" boats with molded plywood and mahogany decks and chrome handles, were never stacked along the wall. The decks had grooves every 2" which dad filled in perfectly with a white wood filler prior to it's final finish. The sales floor also had paint and boating supplies like outboard motors, lights, and chrome hardware. We, "minded" shop when dad gt called into work at PPG, the glass factory. Seems he was laid off more than he worked there. Of course, this gave us some free time to play like normal kids! I also attended two different schools, but that is for another time. FYI: it was a good mile walk from our house on River Road to the Boat store on 4th St. in Tarentum. And we would walk alone with the store key in our pocket. Side Note: We had a paint called "Dead Grass." Dull and ugly, but really the best color for fishing and fowl hunting. But more people tended to buy the brighter colors, like white with bright red trim. I guess they thought it gave the game a sporting chance of seeing the fisherman or hunter instead of the camouflage color. Jerks! One day, a couple of guys just walked in and bought a boat. When dad came in from the factory he asked where the boat was: I told him I "sold" it. He was thrilled and gave me one dollar. Of all the years I worked in the boat store and later, the little drive in ice cream stand, that was the ONLY time I Ever got any compensation from my folks. And the ice cream stand @ Pymatuning was from morning till 1 or 2 AM, 7 days a week. Plus I did their "books" for them Free Even till my junior year in college when Tim would bring in a half dozen grocery bags of receipts and register tapes to our apartment, and I would enter them in a ledger-they never bothered to write any numbers down. No wonder we never made any money and Dad working at North American Rockwell, Astabula,OH.(35 miles away-his paycheck kept the place opened. Over 30 years ago an x-ray showed asbestos in his lung. On October 17, 2010 it went to his brain, formed three malignant tumors, and a week before Christmas, it killed him-after never getting out of a hospital bed from that day that he passed away. North American Rockwell made truck brake shoes and any "bad"shoe's and asbestos were found buried all over the company's grounds. Bastards! Thank you for killing our father and may you rot in hell for not placing employees and integrity above the bottom line You are lower than whale crap on the ocean floor.
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