The Old Man

11:20AM

Final football officials meeting last night, had a get together at the Van Wert Pizza Hut after the meeting....the season is moving along fast, I'm at Elida(west Lima) tonight for an 8th grade game with the local Celina team. After that bout a month to go....then it's back to some RV driving until baseball season in March.

Still not feeling up to par....not bad, but not up to full steam....Record setting temps for today and tomorrow, near 90 in west Ohio....must be Global Warming...lol! {if it is, bring it on, I'm not looking forward to January, unless the temps might be in the 60s, that I can deal with}

Stan Houseworth(1917-1972)

The old man was larger than life, or so it seemed to me and others...a gentle giant of a man, whom you would want as a friend rather than being on his bad side...I seldom saw his temper...he left mom to do the dirty work of discipline on us kids...Mom says his excuse was he was afraid he would hurt us if he dished out the discipline....good excuse old man, and lucky for Mike and I, he never did the corporal punishment thing....sometimes I think, maybe he should have.

Stanley Wayne Houseworth was born on December 10, 1917 in Scott, Ohio, he passed away on Christmas Eve of 1972, suffering a massive heart attack, and dying on the way to the hospital. I was in New York state at the time, really never got to say good-bye.

Not only did mom pass out the discipline, she actually had to keep the family finances in order, dad was never out of work, but he worked the jobs he wanted, and was not real good at taking orders{no doubt who I got that from}...so he wore many hats during his 55 years.....from his Army Air Force days in WWII until his final job with the City of Celina at the power plant, dad had many a job...mainly he was a mechanic, owned gas stations in both Florida and Ohio, he also drove cement trucks, worked construction and others, but his favorite non paying occupation was fishing, and in his early days hunting....as he grew older he took up antique collecting, and collect he did.....in his last 10 years that was his claim to fame, the man knew antiques, and mom still has the collections these days.

After dad died, mom never remarried, she had opportunities, but saying after 27 years, being only 48 years old..."One marriage was enough for a life time".

I was 23 when dad died, so I got to know him well, Mike was 26, Marty 20, so we all got to know him pretty well...the youngest sister Kelly was only 10, so she was raised basically by mom...the rest of us were off on our own by that time.

Stan was a good man, could he have worked harder? Hell yes, but he lived his life his way....whether it was in Ohio or in Florida....dad was not a drinker{Mike and me must have that off the Irish side of the family?}...but he did smoke those damn cigs until his first heart attack at the age of 49....the damage had probably been done, but he never touched one after that.......hard to believe he has been gone 35 years this Christmas.

prh

{photos various photos...Dad with his 95 lb Jew fish in 1956, Venice Jetties, Florida...dressed up in his sailor suit in 1920....with Grandma and his brothers in 1928 after his dad's(Sam Houseworth) funeral...with his dog Blue, sometime in the 1920s...and as a Sargent(on the right) with a couple friends from Scott in 1943}.