Happy Retirement, Dad

For 50 years or so, my dad has worked bloody hard.

He grew up a young man working on his Mum and Dad's farm. He worked for his Uncle Brian on his withey farm, growing and harvesting willow for the wicker industry in all seasons and weathers. It was very hard, manual and dirty work.

He worked in the building trade for a while, and then for Harry Hebditch, a local manufacturer of cedar wood buildings. Eventually the company went under, at which point Dad found a job in another Martock company, Jani-Jacks. He worked in different departments of the light engineering company for many years.
He would complain about that job every single night. But, every morning, he would get up and go back to work.

He left Jani-Jacks and went to work for a former manager at a start-up company in the same industry, janitorial cleaning equipment. It’s from Crisp-Clean he retired this past week.

My Dad was never out of work. By example, he taught my brother and me that we should work hard every day, and that we should always do our best, even if we have to do something we don’t enjoy.

He worked hard so his wife could stay at home and look after his two sons. To bring in more income, after work on summer evenings, he'd help local farmers during the hay-making season. (This, he did enjoy.)

He was, and still is, always working on something. On weekends he would work on the house, doing repairs, DIY projects, cars repairs… you name it, he did it - and he still does.

So, now that he’s retired, he can work full-time on just the things he wants to, working for himself at long last.

Thanks, Dad, for all you did and still do for us all.

Cheers!