On the last day of Grade 8 for my Dad, Ron, his principal said, in front of the entire class, I would hate to have your future because you are going to end up dead or in jail. He carried those words for life as a burden and as a challenge to prove that principal wrong. To keep Ron out of trouble, Betty begged the manager of Wells hardware store to give him a job. He got the job and because he was making some money, he decided to quit school. After he quit and was walking out of the school, a young teacher, who was a friend of Betty's, Alice Widursky stopped Ron and said "it is okay to go to work and help your mom, but promise me you will read one hour a day for the rest of your life. Ron kept that promise. Over the years, I remember whenever I saw Alice Widursky talking to Dad, he was talking about the book that he was currently reading. Her typical question upon entering the store or on the street was, "what book are you reading now?" She was the ultimate educator role model for my Dad long after he quit school.
Ron's time at Wells hardware store was filled with happiness in just having a job and I remember the stories he told in the heart of the great depression. Grown men desperate for a job would beg the manager for work...but they were too big to do the things my dad did, like cleaning out the chimney or scaling shelves to get products on the top shelf. Luckily my dad was able to keep his job.
The stores were always open until midnight on Fridays back then because loggers, miners and farmers would come into town to get supplies at the Wells hardware around that time since they would work a full day then come in for supplies or they had closed down the local bars and needed supplies before heading home. Dad would talk of the interesting storytellers and characters that frequented the hardware store until the wee hours of the morning as he listened from his perch on the tallest shelf in the store.
My Dad was always interested in the area of the store that housed the blasting caps but was forbidden from going anywhere near that area of the store. One day a miner came in and asked for blasting caps and since my Dad was the gopher, he dashed the full length of the store, through the forbidden door and back out with the box of blasting caps at full speed. He stumbled! Everyone in the place backed up as far away from him as they could. He was always surprised that he didn't die or lose his job for that! He now felt his future was on the right track and that he was contributing to the family. So far, not in jail or dead!
