I think back over the years when I was a kid that my Daddy whipped me for getting into trouble with his big strong arms . Working in the oilfield pipeline business you really really strong and my Daddy showed it . But as he got older I started noticing how his hands would shake and his fingers were curled up from years of hard work . He never complained , he just kept on going day in and day out , Winter and hot Oklahoma  sun . When I was about 14 years old we had gone fishing over the week end and I just loved going fishing . It was just my father ; my mother and me . I wanted to go fishing some more so my father promised me that when he got home from work on Wednesday that we would go for a few hours in the evening . . Wednesday came around and when he got to work they had a special job to do . They had to do what they called “walk line” what that was in the 1960’s they didn’t have modern technology to tell them if their was a leak in the oil pipeline so every once awhile they would walk the pipeline to check for oil leaks coming up to the top of the ground   . That meant walking cross country through the woods across the creeks where ever the pipeline went ,up hills and down  . When my Daddy got home from work on Wednesday I was ready to go fishing . I didn’t know that he had walked thirteen miles cross country through the woods up hill and down that day but you know he took me fishing any way .

I talked to my Daddy on the phone a few hours before he died in 1996 and do you know what he told me . “ I’m sorry that I wasn’t a better Daddy than I was “ How much better could get . He kept a roof over my head , food in my belly , clothes on my back . and beat my butt when I needed it . With all of the love in the world .