His Natural Abilities

When I think of the word "nature" in relationship to family history and my ancestors, it calls to mind phrases such as "he's a natural at..." and "she has a natural inclination toward...."  We all have individual abilities and natural tendencies that make us who we are and which are integral to our very beings.  Without even one of them, we would be different people (which may be why a person who has had a traumatic brain injury can seem like a different person).

It's hard to know the natural abilities of ancestors I've never met, so for this post I thought about relatives and ancestors I've known in person.  The best example of someone with strong natural abilities I can think of is my father.

Dad grew up on a farm, ended his public education at the 8th grade, and worked at a steel mill most of his adult life.  He had natural abilities in several areas, in ways that amazed me when I was a child and amaze me even more as I think about them now. 

He was a natural at math.  In the days before calculators, adding a column of 10 triple digit figures or a list of money sent most people for pencil and paper.  Not my father.  Within a brief moment he'd mentally added the numbers and told us the answer.  Likewise, with multiplication.  He could multiply four digits by three digits faster than I can put the numbers into a calculator.  I wish I could do the same. 

Dad's fine motor skills were phenomenal and, from what I can tell, innate.  He learned the watch repair trade by mail and opened a repair shop in our home.  At that time wristwatches had tiny gears and springs and minuscule hands, all so small one needed tweezers to pick them up.  Taking apart a watch that didn't work, determining the problem, and putting all the tiny parts back together to restore a working timepiece seemed an easy task for him.  

His abilities to determine why a piece of equipment didn't work -- a car, an electric motor, a water pump, an engine -- and repair it were a part of who he was.  I don't know that he loved to fix broken things but doing it seemed second nature to him.  He grew up at a time when it was more common to repair than to replace.  He was handy with all kinds of tools.  Plumbing?  No problem.  Car engine?  Solved.  Home repairs?  Done.  I never remember him calling someone to come to our home to make a repair or him taking our car in for repairs.  He just seemed to know how things worked and, when broken, he fixed them.

Dad had other natural abilities but those are the ones that still create awe for me.

This post was written for Amy Johnson Crow's 2019 version of 52 Ancestors.  The post topic for the week was "Nature."

--Nancy.

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