I was lucky. My dad was Coast Guard. He had an excuse for everything
he knew how to do, like learning to cook in the Boy Scouts, and sewing
because he had a sailboat.

I'm a lot more straightforward. I just say that the only thing a man
should ever be ashamed of is incompetence at some life skill. So: I
can uncork a bottle of champagne without it making a sound, rebuild a
2.0 L VW engine, sew, make furniture, use an alidade and a plane table
to make a map ...

Skills are what make us different from slugs, and the more the better.

Mark

> My dad was a Marine and fought in WW II, and was definitely old
> school when it came to things men and women do. When I got my left
> ear pierced in 1978 he blew a gasket-only women wear jewelry. I
> mentioned yesterday that using my wife's sewing machine I
> reupholstered my '85 Weekender, actually it was just the rear fold
> out bed and jump seat behind the driver. If my dad had seen me using
> a sewing machine, he would have said something like "why aren't you
> wearing a skirt?". It's things like this that, well, sadly, don't
> make me sorry he is gone. My wife and I have one child, a daughter,
> and if my dad had been alive when she was born he would have said
> "Better luck next time, maybe you'll have a boy" He could be at
> times (most of the time) the biggest jerk I ever met! Jeff
>