I really did win the jackpot with my hubby. Tad is the hardest worker I know of. Period. The end. His integrity also matches his work ethic, which makes him even more of a catch.
Let’s go back a few years…say 1994. Some of you know this story, but a lot of you don’t. The summer of 94′ I was working in my dad’s onion fields hoeing weeds out of 1/4 acre long rows. It was hot. It was stinky. It was dirty. There were no bathrooms except for 3 sided, old wood, outhouses that were about a half mile away if you were lucky and our day started about 7am. (I’m suddenly feeling old as I tell this story.) One evening Tad called me and I was lucky enough to have a phone in my room. I answered to him asking if I’d like to go to hiking with him at Saddle Mountain. We weren’t yet dating officially, but we were certainly skirting around the idea at this point. We were both 17.
I remember clear as day, running down the stairs and whisper-yelling to my dad, also known as my boss, and asked if I could skip work to go with him. He immediately said no and that I had to work. Dads. I pretty much knew he’d say no, but I still whisper-begged “please, dad” several times. I ran back up to the phone and gave Tad the bad news. “He said I have to work”.
Without skipping a beat he told me to ask my dad if he could work a day for free to make up for the day that I’d be gone hiking. My eyes widened. First in disbelief that he’d actually offer that, then immediately in embarassement that my dad might say yes. I told Tad I would go ask, but that I didn’t think it’d work.
I left the phone again and walked down the stairs a little slower this time. “Hey dad, he says if you let me go with him that he will work for free for a whole day on the farm with me”. A smirk took over my dad’s face and he said, “Oh yeah? for free?…deal”. Oh dear lord. Now I was half excited and half panicked wondering if Tad really knew what he was getting himself into with me.
He seemed sure. And sure enough I looked up from weeding to find his mom driving him down into the fields in her blue, Ford Tauras station wagon that next morning. I tried to keep it cool; to act like this was all perfectly normal when inside I was slowly dying of embarassment. I felt a mixture of, “I’m so sorry my dad made you do this”, and “I’m so flattered that you’d even think this up”.
Long story short, Tad was a champ. He weeded those onions like a boss, with my sister, my bestie and I all giving him pointers like the pros we were. We may have laughed at him when he held up his hands at lunch break, eyeing them, and wondered how he’d clean them before eating. Silly city boy. He also flung himself into the nasty, chemical filled, catfish infested dike to rescue my then 8 year old brother who got too close and fell in.
Boy, did he work for that date.
Anyhow. Nothing has changed. He told me last night that this staying at home ‘rona business is, “his actual dream vacation”, because he’s always wanted uninterrupted time to just work on the house and get all the projects done. That’s right. I’m not the slave driver here. He seriously loves to work and accomplish tasks like no one’s business and I get to benefit from it.
I just figured he needed a shoutout from his number one fan. And honestly, this blog is for our kids anyhow. I want them to have these stories and words to keep and pass on and to remember. He’s a catch and I’m thankful he’s mine; that once upon a time he got dropped off in a stinky, dirty onion field, all for me.
Real Life Raicharts 