My Superman Dad

and no, NOT my photograph…

Daddies are the heroes here, translated…

My Dad with a Severed Palm Print is Multitalented

My dad has a severed palm print on his hand, heard mom told me, that guys with that pattern of palm prints are especially good at catching fishes, but, of all the jobs he’d taken up during his life, he’d never worked on a fishing boat, seems, that he’d, chosen the wrong career paths.

My father’s first job was an apprentice at a steel mill, after he’d dropped out of middle school, ran from Daxi to Sinchuang.  Whenever he’d talked about that experience, he’d always bragged about how able-bodied he was, that on the weekends, he could ride his bicycle, all the way from Sinchuang up to Yangming Mountain, and mom would listen to him reminisce and brag about it, with grin and not a single word.  I guess, she must’ve guessed how he’d not had a girl back then, that, was why he was able to ride so freely.  Recalling how I’d seen my dad do a ton of handiwork, welding………he knew everything, must’ve picked up the skills in this period in his life I suppose.

My dad’s second job was a meat vendor—this, was hard, for me, to imagine, after all, my mom’s side of the family WAS of high ranking in their local regions, and, she’d allowed her daughter, to marry a butcher!  But, this can also show, how forward in thought my grandmother was, at the front of the world, she was.  Heard dad tell us, back then, the butchering of meat were done by the separate owners of the stands, and he’d had to start slaughtering the pigs in the middle of the nights, he’d made more than enough, but, the whole of the money he’d made went into my formula fund, he’d worked until I was three, as a butcher, then, switched jobs.

From before the national identification card has an “Occupation” column, I recalled that my dad’s was a farmer, but, as far as I can recall, he’d never, farmed, a day in his life.  In my memories, he’d been working as a tent connector at the weddings and the funerals.  I couldn’t understand from when I was younger, always envied other people’s dad who are teachers, businessmen, lawyers, and how come, dad was only tent connection?  Recalling now, if it wasn’t so, then, how could I have possibly gotten to savor, all the dishes of the assortment of master chefs’?  This, is probably an unique experience that none of my other classmates had.

His Multitalentedness is Similar to that of MacGyver

The jobs my dad did on the side were even more multivariate.  If our neighbor’s watermelon farm had a harvest, then, he’d become a deliveryman, used the large pickup truck we had, and took the fruits to the markets in Wanhua; as the cement started falling off the walls, he’d become a construction worker, fixed up the parts where the bricks are starting to show; when there’s NO more space in the house, he’d become a steel mill worker, set up the shacks all by himself; in order to become a volunteer firefighter, he’d not taken up the techniques needed to put out the fires, become certified in CPR, he’d also gone, all the way to the harbor of Keelung, to learn to operate a ship, to train as a lifeguard.

As my dad learned to operate a boat, he’d finally gotten close to become a fisherman.  After my grandfather’s land stopped producing, he and his brothers had dig the field into a huge pond, and bred an assortment of fish that they can sell for money, wanted to make extra cash.  Other than that, he’d also placed a few satchels of clams in the ponds, wanted to get more from the ponds, other than catching the fish.  And still, without the knowledge in that realm, they’d not expected, that one of the fish they raised loved eating clams, and, the hundred kilograms worth of clams they’d bought, became nothing but shells in the end.

What’s more outrageous came later, my pops bought a small fisher boat in Yong-An Harbor, and used the weekends, headed out with my uncles to the seas.  But unfortunately, back then, the environment had changed drastically, the industrial wastes had polluted the oceans, causing the supplies of fishes to drop sharply.  And, they’d tried for a lesser popular kind of fish, but instead, they’d caught only stingrays, and the rays were so hard, to get out of the nets, and they’d must be careful, of the stings on the tails too.  My fourth uncle’s index finger had been stung once, and, it’d swelled up, to bigger than his big toes.

After the experiences of all of his vocations, pops now had every single ability, riding a motorcycle, driving a car, operating a boat, those, are the basic; he’d not have difficulties in operating bulldozers, tractors, or tow trucks either; planting trees, raising fishes, he’d known the ways to do, catching the tortoises, capturing snakes, taking the beehives, no problems at all.  He’d handled EVERYTHING by himself, and, other than the face, he is, MacGyver in real life.

On the weekends, when I’d taken my kids home, they’d loved, circling around grandpa.  After all, out there, they can only get on, and ride on the electric toys, and here, they get to operate a bulldozer with grandpa; there is barely ANY breezes in the cities, and here, they’d gotten a chance, to ride along by grandpa, as he drove that golf cart around town.

My multi-talented pops got upgraded to superman grandpa, whatever you wanted to experience, go find grandpa, and, he’ll totally entertain ya!

So, this, is how a man grows up, the father had his share of hardships in life, he’d had tried on multiple identities, and, because he was able to have the multiple and different experiences in his former jobs, that, is what made him into multitalented now.

and no, still NOT my caricature…