I love this picture of my husband and my Dad. It captures his warm, fun-loving, goofy-joke telling side. Today's post is dedicated to honoring my carpentry mentor who happens to also be my father.
He's always been, as has my mom, a hero of mine. He chose a profession that pays very little and comes chock full of headaches -- he was a health/PE teacher and a football coach turned athletic director up until a few years ago. And he put everything he was into doing the best job he possibly could. There are many former students/athletes that still keep in contact with him because he made a positive impact on their lives.
When he wasn't teaching and coaching (and sometimes roofing in the summers to make extra money), he was building furniture for our house. I remember he took old bleacher boards made of oak that were tossed out and put them through planer and built a coffee table out of them. He even used gym floor varnish to coat it so that baby was solid and very well protected!! We could stand on it, it was so well made, and very scratch resistant. He built a beautiful bed and a writing desk for my mom's late-night paper grading sessions (she was a teacher too). Not only is he handy with wood, but he completely turned our upstairs attic into a master suite complete with bathroom and adjoining guest room.
I did a lot of tinkering in his garage workshop as a kid but never really fully appreciated his talent, creativity and attention to detail until I started building myself. He inspired me at a young age that I could do anything I wanted. He, along with my mom, also made it very clear to me that if I wanted to be an athelete or do something that is considered "a boy thing" I could do it, do it well, and still be feminine. I didn't have to give up my feminity just because I was using a table saw.
I am very honored and proud to be Barry Parsons' daughter and am extremely grateful for all his guidance both growing up and now. I turn to him quite a bit with woodworking and general life/business questions. I can say thank you a million times but it's not sufficient enough in my eyes. He is my mentor and best of all, my dad. So no matter how many times i tick him off, he's stuck with me. And I'm VERY GRATEFUL to be stuck with him.
