 Home | Recent News | Arkansas City | Seniors Recall Fathers Lessons 17 Jun 2007 With Dad’s Day Around the Corner Seniors recall lessons their fathers taught them Parents who think their children aren’t listening, or paying attention to them when they’re trying to impart their wisdom, should relax. There are signs that the lessons do take and are appreciated long after they’re gone.
With Father’s Day on the horizon June 17, several seniors at Presbyterian Manor of Arkansas City took a look back at the lessons their fathers taught them—lessons that have served them well over the years.
Looking back on his childhood, Bob McClure, 81, says the thing that stuck with him was his father’s “devotion to family.” The retired history teacher says during the Depression his father, like many others, was hard pressed to get work. Jobs were scarce, he explains, and his father worked for the railroad in Wellington. He managed to hang on, says McClure, as the company made it possible for all of its employees to work part-time so that no one would be completely out of work.
“He never gave up,” says McClure, “and that always stuck with me.”
McClure’s wife, Mickey, 80, a former school librarian, says her father, who worked in the oilfields, was an outgoing individual who was a people person. “I remember him saying that he never wanted to hear of me not speaking to anyone.”
She adds, “There are times when I’ve been a little angry with someone,” but she managed to speak to them. “I guess that’s kind of helped me throughout the years,” she says of following his advice and example.
Gladys Shockley, 88, remembers the kindness of her stepfather. “From the age of four when he became my stepfather, I will always remember his thoughtfulness and kindness to me and how hard he worked for me to take two music lessons a week.”
There were six children in her blended family and “we never owned a car, because we lived on a streetcar line in Springfield, Mo.,” she says. But every year, “We’d catch a ride with someone who owned a car and go on a fishing trip.” She remembers that her stepfather would always fix fried potatoes and onions on these outings and any fish that were caught were taken home to feed the family.
On Saturday nights, he played “penny ante until 10 p.m.” and on the way home, she recalls, he always picked up hamburgers for us kids. I remember many a Sunday morning eating a cold hamburger.” Shockley, who lived in Wichita for 35 years moved to Arkansas City when she lost her husband of 50 years. She moved to Presbyterian Manor two and a half years ago.
Edith Marlow, 83, recalls that her “parents were people of very few words. They were farmers in Pawnee County, Okla.” What they did, says Marlow, was teach by example. They were frugal managers, but with nine children that was likely a necessity. She explains that they always paid “cash for everything.” Though she says you need a credit card in this day and age, she, too, tries to pay as she goes.
Today’s youth would probably go into shock when she explains that there was a saying in her home that was pretty much adhered to.—“Whatever you have, you make do with, or do without.”
Her father, she continues, was “a very solid man and he was a solid citizen. He was a member of the school board where we all went to country school and graduated from high school. He also served on the election board. All lessons underscoring the importance of giving back to one’s community.
Marlow, a recent comer to the Manor, may have been more influenced by her father than she realizes. After all, she married a farmer and continued to run that Oklahoma farm even after her husband’s death not all that long ago.
Iyla Mason, 92, who moved into the Manor a year ago, had a quick response to the lessons from her father. “If you want anything done right, do it yourself” was an adage he believed in and passed on.
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