Tuesday, April 11, 2006
Thanks to Those Who Taught and Those Who Tried
I had a button come off of a shirt. I was married at the time and asked my wife if she could sew it on for me. Sometimes when I remember this story, I imagine her being really snotty and her blurting out, "do it yourself." In truth, though, she simply told me that she wasn't going to do that for me, but she'd show me how so I could do it myself in the future. As near as I can recall, that's the way it happened and I sewed the button back on my shirt myself.
I had never grown up thinking that I was going to get married so that my wife would cook and clean for me, mend my clothing and basically take care of all domestic chores. The house I grew up in was like that, but I could see the world changing as I got older. I suppose attending college added to that attitude some as well. I met women who were in college simply "husband hunting," but most of the women I met were independent young ladies who were looking for a career. They wanted a husband but that's not why they were in college.
After moving out of the dorms, I had to cook for myself. I had picked up some cooking skills growing up, I didn't hang around the kitchen with mom all the time, but mom was a good teacher and was able to impart knowledge on me. So I could cook for myself pretty well by the time I lived on my own. I had a girlfriend who liked to cook and learned a lot from her as well. I actually put on quite a bit of weight in my early 20's as I was a pretty good cook.
In truth, I got into the TV business because I liked watching TV and wanted to learn everything about it. I got a job in TV out of college and advanced pretty far at a crappy little station in Sioux Falls before they got rid of my position and I had to find somethng else.
About that time I got divorced. The fews thing my wife did for me I found I could do pretty well myself (one in particular, but as good as I am at it, that's still something I like someone else to help me with....).
In recovering from that, I started writing songs. Pretty bad songs for the most part. I still do a couple of them, but for the most part I didn't really know what I was doing. I was listening to a lot of music at the time, I had just gotten into the music of blues legend Robert Johnson and was trying to sound like him. I never got there, but I do think I came up with a passable sound that doesn't put people off too much. Later I worked with honest-to-god musicians who taught me how to listen to what I was doing, to listen to what they were doing, to make it all sound good together.
Later I started making beer, because I really, really, really like beer. I wanted to know as much about beer as possible and figured the best way to learn about something was to do it yourself.
There's a lot of things I can't do well myself. I cannot fix a car that isn't running. I'm really not "handy" in any way, I don't fix stuff around the house. I pay people a lot of money to do stuff like that for me. I pay them gladly, they have knowledge and skills that I don't. My dad is handy, I picked up some knowldge from him, but the skills never came. And in truth I never enjoyed working on cars or fixing things around the house. He was patient with me, he really tried to teach me but I never really had an interest.
And that's the thing. People were patient with me. They showed me how to do things for myself if I showed an interest. To my credit, I really tried to learn, I picked things up pretty well. I generally only picked up things I was interested in, but I picked up a wide range of skills.
No matter how bitchy I sometimes remember her being when recalling sewing on my own button, I have to thank my ex-wife for teaching me a skill that I've used quite often in the past 15 years. And I have to thank all of the people who taught me anything in a formal or informal setting over the years. I want to really thank those who tried to teach me things that I could never really pick up. Their jobs were much harder than those teaching me things I already enjoyed doing.
BOJ
I had never grown up thinking that I was going to get married so that my wife would cook and clean for me, mend my clothing and basically take care of all domestic chores. The house I grew up in was like that, but I could see the world changing as I got older. I suppose attending college added to that attitude some as well. I met women who were in college simply "husband hunting," but most of the women I met were independent young ladies who were looking for a career. They wanted a husband but that's not why they were in college.
After moving out of the dorms, I had to cook for myself. I had picked up some cooking skills growing up, I didn't hang around the kitchen with mom all the time, but mom was a good teacher and was able to impart knowledge on me. So I could cook for myself pretty well by the time I lived on my own. I had a girlfriend who liked to cook and learned a lot from her as well. I actually put on quite a bit of weight in my early 20's as I was a pretty good cook.
In truth, I got into the TV business because I liked watching TV and wanted to learn everything about it. I got a job in TV out of college and advanced pretty far at a crappy little station in Sioux Falls before they got rid of my position and I had to find somethng else.
About that time I got divorced. The fews thing my wife did for me I found I could do pretty well myself (one in particular, but as good as I am at it, that's still something I like someone else to help me with....).
In recovering from that, I started writing songs. Pretty bad songs for the most part. I still do a couple of them, but for the most part I didn't really know what I was doing. I was listening to a lot of music at the time, I had just gotten into the music of blues legend Robert Johnson and was trying to sound like him. I never got there, but I do think I came up with a passable sound that doesn't put people off too much. Later I worked with honest-to-god musicians who taught me how to listen to what I was doing, to listen to what they were doing, to make it all sound good together.
Later I started making beer, because I really, really, really like beer. I wanted to know as much about beer as possible and figured the best way to learn about something was to do it yourself.
There's a lot of things I can't do well myself. I cannot fix a car that isn't running. I'm really not "handy" in any way, I don't fix stuff around the house. I pay people a lot of money to do stuff like that for me. I pay them gladly, they have knowledge and skills that I don't. My dad is handy, I picked up some knowldge from him, but the skills never came. And in truth I never enjoyed working on cars or fixing things around the house. He was patient with me, he really tried to teach me but I never really had an interest.
And that's the thing. People were patient with me. They showed me how to do things for myself if I showed an interest. To my credit, I really tried to learn, I picked things up pretty well. I generally only picked up things I was interested in, but I picked up a wide range of skills.
No matter how bitchy I sometimes remember her being when recalling sewing on my own button, I have to thank my ex-wife for teaching me a skill that I've used quite often in the past 15 years. And I have to thank all of the people who taught me anything in a formal or informal setting over the years. I want to really thank those who tried to teach me things that I could never really pick up. Their jobs were much harder than those teaching me things I already enjoyed doing.
BOJ
# posted by Blind Orange Julius @ 11:15 AM 
