for him, he said I would always have the very part he needed in my outstretched hand. He said he could be doing anything and I always seemed to know what he needed, even before he asked me.

But there was another time, so

I once coined a phrase or saying that goes something like this: Every engineer should get his or her start in Arkansas as I did, cutting chicken necks. In that manner your peers will always marvel at how far you've come - or understand why you achieved so little. Dad once told me he was working on one of his old cars and had the car jacked up on blocks in the backyard. I suppose the car was there so it would be in the shade late in the day after Dad came home from work. But the times I remember, it was dark and Dad had an extension cord with a trouble light to light the area where he was working. But, in either case, he said I was there with him, watching him work.

I don't remember the particular incident and for that reason I may have been younger than the five or six years Dad mentioned. But he went on to say, when he needed a tool or a part and turned around to ask me to get it for him, he said I would always have the very part he needed in my outstretched hand. He said he could be doing anything and I always seemed to know what he needed, even before he asked me.

But there was another time, som

r understand why you achieved so little. Dad once told me he was working on one of his old cars and had the car jacked up on blocks in the backyard. I suppose the car was there so it would be in the shade late in the day after Dad came home from work. But the times I remember, it was dark and Dad had an extension cord with a trouble light to light the area where he was working. But, in either case, he said I was there with him, watching him work.

I don't remember the particular incident and for that reason I may have been younger than the five or six years Dad mentioned. But he went on to say, when he needed a tool or a part and turned around to ask me to get it for him, he said I would always have the very part he needed in my outstretched hand. He said he could be doing anything and I always seemed to know what he needed, even before he asked me.

But there was another time, so

fter Dad came home from work. But the times I remember, it was dark and Dad had an extension cord with a trouble light to light the area where he was working. But, in either case, he said I was there with him, watching him work.

I don't remember the particular incident and for that reason I may have been younger than the five or six years Dad mentioned. But he went on to say, when he needed a tool or a part and turned around to ask me to get it for him, he said I would always have the very part he needed in my outstretched hand. He said he could be doing anything and I always seemed to know what he needed, even before he asked me.

But there was another time, so

.

I don't remember the particular incident and for that reason I may have been younger than the five or six years Dad mentioned. But he went on to say, when he needed a tool or a part and turned around to ask me to get it for him, he said I would always have the very part he needed in my outstretched hand. He said he could be doing anything and I always seemed to know what he needed, even before he asked me.

But there was another time, so

for him, he said I would always have the very part he needed in my outstretched hand. He said he could be doing anything and I always seemed to know what he needed, even before he asked me.

But there was another time, some years later, when Dad said he was trying to show me something and I wasn't so attentive. When I didn't appear interested, Dad said, "Ben, how are you ever going to get a job and make a living, if you don't pay attention to what I am trying to show you?"

I remember that day. I was on vacation from the Baptist Home, visiting with Dad for the summer and would have been about fifteen years old at the time.

He said I just stared at him and said, "Dad, I am not going to be working, I am going to be sitting behind a desk and have others doing the work for me!"

I don't remember Dad's response, other than seeing a disappointed puzzled look on his face. But I soon leaned that supervising people was not that easy.

My first experience came a few years later while waiting my turn for a navy school in San Francisco. I was just out of boot camp, stationed at my second duty station in