Monday, January 7, 2013
For those who do not know me I am Craig Daniel Colboth. As you can imagine, the Daniel in my name is that of my father. From what my mother Helen has told me, my dad did not want me named after him. No reason was given; just he did not want a Danny Jr. So she took her next choice and used Daniel for my middle name.
However the Lord bequeathed more upon me from my father than just his name. My frugalness, mechanical aptitude and love of history are all from him. He is the only man I know who eagerly read the price per ounce label you find on the shelves of grocery stores. He did not mind spending a few dollars more for a larger bottle of catsup as long as the price per ounce was lower.
When in my very early teens I found a great interest in electricity and electronics, but my dad really could not understand why. When he was that age his interest was automobiles. When I was older he confessed he did not like messing with electricity, it scared him a bit. This was about the same time I was replacing a circuit breaker for him and he came up behind me and made a large buzzing noise. I was not very happy but he thought it was funny. One day after I finished cutting my grandmothers lawn I was speaking with her neighbor Fred Witt who was also a friend of my father. He told me how my dad bragged about me saying how I could open up an electrical panel full of wires of every color and know exactly which one I needed to test to fix the problem and I was not scared one bit.
We spent many Sundays together. This usually began with breakfast at a local restaurant. There is a select group of waitresses at the TA in Russell who know us not just by name, but knew what we would order before we did. A little over a year ago when the effects of the chemo started to show on my father, he did not feel well enough to eat a majority of his breakfast. When he left the table to use the bathroom our waitress came up and asked if was not feeling well. I explained to her that he was going through chemotherapy. As like many people would say when hearing that word, she said she was sorry to hear it. When she went back to the kitchen I saw she was crying. I did not tell Dad about that, I was afraid it would embarrass him. However for a person going through chemotherapy, he kept his spirits high and for as long as he could did the physical aspects of life most of us never give a second though to.
After breakfast we would hit the hardware stores. Neither of us could be happy unless we had the newest tool or gadget. I guess when it came to tools, we both lost our frugalness. If it was not a hardware store we may have just went for a drive in the country. We would talk about politics, cars and women. He would tell me many joyous stories of growing up in Wadsworth and how much it has changed from when he was a boy. So many of the farms are now housing projects, so many of the gravel roads he and his friends would burn out on are now asphalt. Being like my father I too wish this area was like it was in the 50's and 60's. This summer I bought my first house and yes it is out in the country. Sadly dad was not well enough to take the hour or so drive to where my new house is so I did the next best thing, I made a video of the house and the area around it. As we watched the video I saw him smile like I have not really seen before. I think it reminded him of the Wadsworth from his childhood.
I will not get into the many stories of the trouble he and his friends got into when they were young. Some of the statute of limitations may not be up and I do not want anyone here to have to worry about the law coming for them. I also know right now he is with his mother and father and there were many, many. Many stories he told me she never knew about. However he did tell me one story about how Grandma was mad because he had an engine block sitting in his bedroom. It made me feel better when my mother Helen was not happy about finding a dirty transformer on the floor of mine. While I made this speech with many puns, it is because my sense of humor I got from him also. Many times it has gotten me in trouble just I am sure his got him into trouble also.
