Dad Works For An Obsession

Dad decided to have children because he needed a work force to expand the farm he planned to buy. He was ecstatic when one boy after another was born. By the time he had acquired four healthy boys he knew his dreams of a great dynasty were well on the way. His efforts to persuade mother to produce more workers only provoked a shut-down of the baby factory and a deepening of her times of depression. It was a while before dad’s disappointments no longer affected mother’s moods.

Then one day, dad decided to be content with what God had blessed him with. He mapped out a complex strategy. His work force wasn’t long out of diapers when his plan to develop their nature into dynamic producers of farm products was put into action. Carpentry was first. Barns are built with hammer, nails, boards and muscle. To mom’s despair the boys practiced hammering on everything. Ability to build was many summers away, but hammering as a way of life was deeply embedded in the boy’s growing work ethic.

Next, the boys needed to know about animal husbandry. Since his plot in the city wouldn’t allow for actual farm animals, Dad bought the family a dog. To be specific it was a sixty pound Boxer by the name of Shamus. Mother, nearly on the verge of recovering from depression suddenly relapsed. There were days the boys didn’t see her at all. Despite mother’s relapse, and despair over being a dog owner, Shamus taught the boys more than they would ever need to know about animal husbandry. Besides a love for eating, Shamus loved to prowl the neighborhood seducing every female dog he could lay his paws on. He fathered an array of odd looking puppies and when Dad refused to take responsibility for Shamus’ husbandry tendencies, the boys were summarily introduced to the American judicial system.

While not quite a criminal action, the civil courts did intervene in a most expensive way that cost Shamus his happy home and set back Dad’s plan to purchase a farm by two years. While it was not the lesson Dad had hoped to give his newly developing work force, it was one they would never forget.

Delay of the farm purchase was a blow to Dad’s plans for self-sufficiency. But it was actually the state mandated compulsory school attendance that became the unforeseen plot of the Devil that would destroy Dad’s God given plan to develop a free farm labor force. He knew the value of reading and math. Biblical teaching was imperative and Sunday school was a mandatory family activity. But teaching young souls whose minds were not yet able to fathom complex ideas that they had freedom and liberty to be anything they wanted to be was total government over reach! His labor force was irreparably corrupted by the state’s meddling.

But rather than crush Dad’s dream of a farm, it made him all the more determined to find a place where he could live a life in a self sufficient way far away from the interference of snoopy government types. In fact the next truth he imparted to his impressionable and temporarily defunct labor force was the meaning of the word "obsession."

While the boys wasted their time learning about their various freedoms through teachers and peers, Dad became a pipe fitter for a major producer of wall board. Dad advanced from board handler to pipe fitter at Masonite corporation for one reason. When the plant was shut down every three months he could clock eighty to a hundred over time hours. This often amounted to triple his usual pay. He traded his home improvement skills to the landlord for free rent. He traded his skills as a carpenter to farmers for eggs, milk and produce. As family expenses went down, the “farm purchase reserve” went up.

When the whole family finally rolled onto their red dirt homestead in 1957, not one eye in the Cameron clan was dry. Dad was overwhelmed with joy. Mother and sons were petrified with sorrow and grief. Thanks to Dad, his work force learned to pray.