My dad was a metal worker by trade. He was a welder at Jeep for over 40 years. He worked on various parts of the jeeps over the years. We are a huge jeep family, always have been. I always thought it was cool to see them on the road or even driving our own and I would think, Yea, my dad made that. He obviously only welded one part of the vehicle but I gave him all the credit.

He would also work on projects at home. He had his own welder so he did repairs for various things and every once and a while he would do fun projects like a coat rack made from horseshoes and stuff like that. He would show me what he had done once he was finished. He told me about the different types of welds you can do. He was very talented and his work always came out clean and perfect. At least it looked perfect to me.

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The number one rule when my dad was welding was to not look at the light. He always made me turn my back or go somewhere else for the moment. I was always tempted to look but it was so incredibly bright I never actually did. Okay, maybe from a distance I glimpsed for a split second one time but I immediately looked away and never did it again. My dad always wore the welding helmet and the gloves for protection. Although, he usually had a t-shirt on with little holes all over from the burn marks. I always wondered how it didn’t hurt when the sparks would hit his arms and shirt but it didn’t seem to bother him.

My dad was a jack of all trades and a master of a few. I think metal working was definitely on the mastered list. I’ve always wanted to get into it artistically and make sculptures or something but I have yet to do so. One day.

Thanks for reading! I’ll be posting #28 later today so check back soon!

Master your craft, free spirits!