As true as the Bible and escalating taxes, I firmly believe that there is no other event in a person's life that will split a person's timeline with a deeper "before and after" effect than the passing away of one's father.  The event splits our personal timeline in the same way that the appearance of Jesus split history itself into B.C. and A.D.

My father passed away when I was 17.  In the wake of his demise, I was left with very large shoes to fill.  I was obviously too young to fully take on the reins of the advertising business but, was able enough to manage two trucks which hauled sugarcane from the clients' farms to their respective sugar mills of choice.  My "clients" then were an uncle and a cousin who lived next door.  One truck was assigned to each farm.  So many lessons were to be learned along the way as I had to immediately grasp the economics behind the sugar industry.

One thing I was sure of in the midst of this chapter, I no longer resented my dad for the days during summer vacation when I was in grade school that he did not allow me to play.  Instead, I was tasked to clean trucks which were parked in the driveway because the mills were closed at that time.  The training did me well for what was up ahead.

Thanks Dad.


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