“Like Father, Like Son”

When I was growing up, Dad would say that what belonged to him and Mom belonged to all of us... the whole family. However, I was somewhat different than Dad, as I felt like what was mine was mine and what belonged to the family was mine, too! As a kid I was basically selfish and ambitious (so, what's new, right?). I remember Dad and I walking through the woods behind our home in rural Warrick Co., IN. I was about 10 years old and full of questions. “Dad, is this YOUR woods?” He said that it was OUR woods. So, Wow! This was MY woods!!! Later that year, for Christmas, we went to Florida to visit Grandma Gilkey, who lived near Miami. It was a little too cool to swim – we went to an island to collect shells instead. From the island we had a great view of the Miami skyline with the beautiful tall buildings. Dad said, “Look kids, there is Miami.” It was really impressive. I asked Dad, “Is it MY Ami, too?”

I was not like my father, but my middle son was a lot like his father... selfish and ambitious. If you asked him what he wanted to be when he grew up, the answer was “Rich!” When the 3 boys were young, my wife stayed home to raise them. So, money was, generally, kind of tight. Sometimes when one needed something, we had to wait, at least until payday. This middle son (age 5 to 7) would ask for things he needed, as well as, things we really did not want him to have. When we could afford to get him what he asked for, we just got it for him. When I didn't have the money right then or I did not want him to have something, I would simply say, “When I get rich, I will get it for you.” He was happy & content with that and went along to play. It was amazing how well this worked! This went along fine for about 2 years and solved a lot of problems. One day when he was about 7 years old, he came up to me while I was going over some genealogy notes, “Dad... Dad... DAD!” I said, “WHAT?” He asked me, “you are never going to get rich, are you?” - by John G. West