Copyright 2012 Leader Publications
By Cathy Murphy
For the Leader
My dad just turned 79. He has lived one of the healthiest lifestyles of anyone I know. He’s in much better shape than me.
Dad quit smoking in the early 1960’s, when it came out that cigarettes lead to cancer and other ill health effects.
He always exercised, every morning before work. As kids we used to watch the dining room chandelier shake as he did sit-ups in his bedroom above.
Dad also is one of the healthiest eaters I know. I remember watching him in amazement as he left the house with his lunch, consisting of maybe two apples, an orange and a banana.
I just never was such a fruit and vegetable eater. Wish I was.
Not so long ago, we lived in a third story apartment (no elevator).
The first time Dad came to visit, I asked if the stairs bothered him.
"The what?" my dad asked.
"The stairs."
"Oh, no. Stairs don't bother me," he replied, with no loss of breath discernible.
Even so, my Dad suffered a massive heart attack a few months ago. But you’d be hard pressed to tell. He’s back to riding his bike, though maybe not the four miles a day he used to do. And he and my step-mom have taken up swimming at a local pool.
Part of Dad’s bike riding has led to him becoming what we affectionately call his “dumpster diving.”
“He doesn’t really go in to dumpsters,” my step-mom makes sure to correct. “Well, maybe once he did, but that was all,” she'll add.
Dad rides his bike through the alleys of “the good neighborhoods” of South St. Louis . When he sees something he thinks someone in the family could use that had been placed by the dumpsters, he returns in his car to pick it up.
These aren’t always things in good shape. He picks up things he may be able to take parts from for other projects. Therefore, his basement is littered with several lawn mowers, bicycles, that kind of thing.
Dad has come up with terrific Christmas gifts for the grandkids with his dumpster diving. They’ve received a cool school desk, painted and decaled with pretty princesses, complete with a seat that lifts up for storage.
My youngest grandson got a cool rocking horse, all furry, one that made galloping noises when you pressed its ear. That was over a year ago, and he still rides his horse.
They’ve also received bicycles and chests of drawers, all cleaned up and repairs made where needed.
These projects keep dad busy.
I’ve been the recipient of two nice hoses for my front and back yard, a lawnmower, and probably most importantly, a toilet.
I’m not talking about just any toilet. This is a Kohler toilet. One of the best there is.
I happened to mention to my dad that our toilet had a crack somewhere so we had to shut off the water to it. We did have a second bathroom in the house, so it wasn’t quite the emergency.
My dad said, “Oh, I have a nice Kohler toilet in my basement you can have.”
He said he got it on one of his dumpster diving runs for his own upstairs bathroom, but my step-mom liked the one they had and didn’t want it.
“It’s all cleaned up, and I made sure it works fine,” Dad said.
So our little bathroom is now graced with one of the most expensive toilets on the market.
Recently I bought an umbrella for our deck. It’s kind of a strange umbrella; it opens 10 feet wide, and is moveable. It hangs kind of on an angle.
My daughter and I spent a couple of hours assembling the thing.
When my husband came home, he saw it and said, “That’s not an umbrella, that’s a sail!”
He was right. That umbrella has given me grief from the day we installed it.
When I was telling my step-mom about it, she said, “Oh, you should have asked your dad. He has several umbrellas in the basement!”
Now why didn’t I think of that!
Postscript: I returned the outdoor umbralla that wasn't working out and got one from my dad. I also just recently got a nice sectional sofa for my front room from his dumpster diving!
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