There's Still Daylight

There’s still daylight

April 24-26, 2014
I had the privilege of taking my Dad to a 10^th Armored Division reunion in Phoenix, Arizona.  There are not that many WW2 veterans left.  I was planning on dividing the driving day into two equal days, meaning a stop in Henderson just outside of Las Vegas.  My dad traveled well.  We had to make more stops for me than for him.  I had gotten off one hour later than I anticipated.  When we got to Henderson we were looking for a motel.  I remember Dad looking back at the sunset and saying those memorable words:  “There’s still daylight”, let’s keep going.  I was tired, but he is my dad.  We made it to Kingman, Arizona and even though it was one of their busiest weekends of the year, we found a motel with a handicapped room with a room next to it.  We ate dinner and got to bed around 10:00 that night.  He said I will see you in the morning.  He’s 94 so he sleeps in – he was up and ready to go around 7:00.  You see there is daylight.  And it doesn’t matter which end of the day.  If there is daylight – you get going and you keep going.   I told my brother about this and we laughed.  It was our childhood mantra – if there was daylight – you should be working.  Not just working, but working hard.  I remember the summer that Josh went to work on the farm.  I went out to the field he was in and I saw him “resting” on his shovel and I was frantic.  I remember so vividly thinking that he had to get shoveling quickly or else he would be in trouble for “leaning” on his shovel.   I believe my brothers and I had worked out a warning system and would let each other know when Dad was coming so we could get back to work if we were “loafing”.   We were not overworked, but we learned to work and work hard.  We learned that if there was daylight – there was work to be done.  My dad at 94 still has more energy than I do.  We were at the meetings of which they said – he can take a break and come back if he needs to rest.  Rich and I kept saying – do you want to rest?  Nope he kept going and never took a break.  I wanted to go back to the room and rest – but he is like the energizer bunny.  As long as there is daylight………………