What did my Daddy do? OK....I will explain his work when I was young,.... maybe this could be a good game? My Daddy was Carl Baker, Jr. He & my Granddaddy had NO MIDDLE NAME, so Momma named me CARL DAVID BAKER, and I went by DAVID then later in my 40s - Dave. He was a genius type, especially with MACHINES, really big machines. My grandfather, his brother & in-laws had a car/truck/tractor shop/gas station in Bradley, Ark., just north of Bossier City. Bonnie & Clyde stole their wench truck once to pull off a safe heist. Daddy grew up a golden child, - pampered,..SPOILED. But, HE WAS EXTREMELY SMART. He came to Longview to work out at Eastman, for Brown & Root, or one of the contractors there. He worked there, installing the huge machinery, but met my Mom out in Cisco, Tx., where she was a waitress....living with her sister and already had 2 kids, Ann & Don. Dad & Mom stayed together thru all, and he added his 2 kids, Karen & me, to Moms crew. He traveled alot to the big jobs, and in 56-57, he left East Texas and took a job with STANROCK URANIUM MINE, just North of Elliot Lake, CANADA. (Turn left @ Sudbury, and go NW for a couple hunnert km.) Dad was the 1st in his family to go to college, and GRADUATED from The UNIV. OF ARKANSAS in 1949. He had been in the Army & Navy getting school, (learned to fly - but didnt get his license & a plane til he was 45-50ish.), and was at Pearl Harbor getting ready to go invade Japan when the war ended. He was a MILLWRIGHT. Due to his knowledge of machines, he often was the foreman with a crew that was much older, and often made up of many different nationalities - men who left Europe after the war. After I was born here in April 1955, we lived in Bossier City, next to JOHNNY HORTON, feeding my Mom & Big Sisters love of music,...seeing Elvis & all the stars at the LOUISIANA HAYRIDE. Dad left and went to Canada alone to work installing the big mine equipment at the Uranium mines, leaving Mom and us 4 kids to live in a trailer behind his folks house in Bradley, Ark.....My grandmother didnt like hardly ANYBODY, and she was not real happy to have this backwoods farm girl w/ 2 kids from other daddies landing her STAR child and having his 2 kids...18 months apart! He came back later and got the whole crew loaded up and towing the YELLOW 8x30? HOUSETRAILER, and we moved to CANADA. Through Sault (sue!) St. Marie & Mackinaw Island areas. He worked as the Foreman in the mines, I guess he was the youngest doing that. The camps Doctor lived next door, Dr. Frank? and Margo Johnson, and their 2 gerls, Leslie and Gussie...? dont know her name!! They worked all the time as days off costs the mines BIG money and the USA WANTED URANIUM!! He made some good money in those days,...he filmed us with his 8mm movie camera. Mom expanded her 8th grade education alot! The trailer camp was where we lived,...Dad had gotten used to camps by working sometime w/ his Dad in Alabama (his 8th grade? - high school) for the war production, 1940 - 44?, and traveling around the country doing the big installations of the industrial machinery. When the job ended, he moved us back here, and went back to the Eastman plant, 1959-63, until he started his own business in 1963. Dad & my Uncle Rogers (ROGERS POST BAKER, named after Will Rogers and Wiley Post...my grandfolks LOVED airplanes!!) had GAS ENGINE & COMPRESSOR SERVICE, CO. INC., and later, BAKER LEASING til they passed on. They worked on the BIG natural gas compressor units all over (mostly) East Texas from 63 on.... And we were POOR! So, during my 3rd grade - Junior High, we squeaked by. I worked for Dad when I could, then officially at 12 or so. Daddy was gone alot,..sometimes for weeks...and when he came home, it was almost like having a visitor, because he just loved to work. Work was Carl Baker, Jr. That was what he was best at, his family skills were not so good. He loved us, but was never a warm man, so luckily, my Mom was a super loving - warm person! She never met a stranger, and was the polar opposite of my Dad. Now he COULD be just the greatest, funniest, smartest guy to those outside family & crew,...so I learned alot about how NOT to be a Daddy from him. He was smart, so I do not let him slide off easily on that, because he KNEW he wasnt being nice to those who loved him. He finally hugged me & told me he loved me only in his late 70s. Dad was very ? ECCENTRIC, and I learned so much from him. He did things way off the charts sometimes. An INNOVATOR, INVENTOR, and would work on a problem forever, trying to find other ways to fix things, or get each problem solved. Many times I heard, I NEVER THOUGHT ABOUT DOING THAT! from astonished work crews or their bosses. He was well respected by the Company Men from Ingersoll-Rand, Sunoco, Hunt Oil, Fina, and Exxon. His work was always wayyy too much for wayyyy too much less than competitors, going those extra MILES & HOURS to do a better job than anybody else. He never cared if he got dirty, did NOT feel the heat or cold, or PAIN!...JUST AMAZED ALL OF US. He was never bothered of what anyone thought - he would do stuff ONLY if he wanted to, and many times I was so embarrassed becaused he would make us do some crazy things, at crazy times....BUT, He did teach me so many things that I use all the time now. He spent much of his life down in the dirt and grease of the engines, and he loved that. So many times we said, He will kill himself working on a job for PENNIES, when he could stand up and grab $100 bills flying past his head!! That, was just the way my Dad was. He thought highly of anyone who WORKED HARD, and kept their $$ in order. Once he said, I would rather my girls be WHORES and take care of their $$, than to be FRONT ROW CHURCH WOMEN who cant handle their $$!! So what a person did, working, and HOW THEY TOOK CARE OF THEIR BILLS and SAVINGS, was his main thing. Money was a tool to him, but also he was obsessed with what he did to save & invest it. I guess he WON in his mind, he outlived most of his friends and he had quite a stash,...I tried to get him to spend it on himself during his last years, but those habits he gained while growing up in the Depression and War years just were hard to set aside. Many ways my Dad was a hero to me...I am okay with the hard man he was, and would not change the things he taught me,...but he just would not let his walls down when it came to that intimacy his family yearned for. So while his example taught me how NOT to be a Dad, a DADDY, he also taught me how to work, and so many little things I use everyday. I am proud of him, proud to be CARL David BAKER because of him. Sure, things could have been better, but then that would be a different life. I am satisfied with my life with him, and we did have some great & fun times,....when he lightened up!! OH!,..and he was NOT MUSICAL! He hated music most of his life!,...so we definitely had nothing there to share. He did NOT like us musicians, but he was proud that I made good $$$ being a DeeJay, and Entertaining. Of course he didnt like me SPENDING any of it, he just liked how I WORKED! doing those shows and Baker Street! He was always more pleased to see someone WORKING HARD even more than working SMART. He gave me his CLUTTER genes, and I fight that forever. So, THAT is my Dads working life. And a BIG THANK YOU, DADDY!! FROM ME, TO HIM. His character traits are deeply embedded in me, and we have tons of DADDY CARL stories to tell. CARL BAKER, JR. - 12/1926 - 07/2009. (This became a rather long, long epistle here, and I do write wayyy too much, I KNOW, I KNOW!,..but these paragraphs will be saved for my family history, too. My apology is required here, but THIS is an example of Daddys influence!!??? Thanks for reading this!?)
Posted on: Sun, 01 Dec 2013 17:20:52 +0000
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