The first day

“You know son, you learn a lot by going to work.” My dad was going to give me one of his spiels about his work again. He couldn’t help himself, he loved his work and now that I’m old enough to work then it gave him a perfect opportunity to tell me about his work. My dad was an aircraft engineer. He knew everything there was to know about fixing aircraft.

“You know, I was nervous too son when I walked through that hanger door for the first time.” Dad explained “in no time at all though they had me working on the big boys. They first started me off partnered up with a guy named Ollie Young-bear. Now Ollie wasn’t a dumb bloke you see, he showed me everything I needed to know from redoing the screws in the engines to fitting new rudders on the tailplanes.” My father rambled on. I remember as a young kid when Ollie had come round a couple of times and dad, he and I went bowling. Make sure you bring the ball straight back, he would say. Follow through. Use a five step approach, keep your eye on the spot not the pins. At this time I’d look back at my father sitting down on the seats and he’d tell me “now listen to what Ollie is telling you. Do you know what kind of average he’s carrying in lead play? Two ten.

Dad started to smile, not just any smile but one of those cheeky smiles, “Without work, I wouldn’t be the great man I am today.” He exclaimed. I turned my head and gave dad a non believing smile. “But Dad” I exclaimed, “how did all this make you feel?” I interrupted.

“Well son, I was nervous as first, a bit like you are now.” He started once more. “But by the time my apprenticeship was over I was as confident as ever. You know the very last time I saw Ollie all he said to me was “with these skills you now may know, you can fix anything.” So that’s just what I did, I was the best damn fixer in the state. Anything that the others couldn’t fix it would get handed to me.” There was a pause of silence for a few minutes then dad started up again. “I even started fixing things around the house.” Once again I looked at dad in disbelief

“But what did you fix around the house?” I asked inquisitively.

 “Well firstly I turbo charged the washing machine like on that TV ad son, that’s why it washes and dries in ten minutes.” Dad explained once again. I looked outside the window to see that we were nearly there. “And what about that beast of a food processer your mother, Gale uses? I made that out of an old lawnmower” I looked weirdly at my father as we pulled up at the security gates of the airstrip. As I got out of the car and grabbed my bag, dad leant over and grabbed my arm. “Have a good time son and don’t get up to much mischief will you?” dad said winking at me.

“Thanks dad” I replied as I shut the door. As I watched the car drive off, someone spoke behind me.

“You must be David, I’m Len” the man said. “Come on in.”