I am posting my Father’s Day tribute to my Dad one week early. I will be out of town next weekend and wanted to be sure I got this on paper (screen actually!) before the hustle and bustle of travel preparations overwhelmed me.
When anyone asked Dad where he went to school he would say “Marquette…City MarKET!” This learning on the “streets” education served him well. Dad couldn’t have been more proud of his three children, all college graduates. The eldest a business degree from the University of Notre Dame, the middle (me) a degree in accounting from Canisius College and the youngest a degree in graphic design from Rochester Institute of Technology.
Dad quit Niagara Falls High School back in the 40’s, three weeks before graduation, to join the U.S. Navy with his buddies. We were “between wars” at that time and Dad’s big job was in the canteen where he apparently figured how to make a profit selling supplies to hungry and nicotine deprived GI’s. He was honorably discharged only a few months later when they decided his flat feet should excuse him from continued service.
When he returned from the service he worked at a local car dealership a few blocks from home working his way up from washing and jockeying cars to managing the sales force. In 1958 (happy birthday me!) he and my uncle set up a used car lot on the future site of Russo Oldsmobile (1963). In 1976 he moved to Chevrolet and sold the business in 1988 when he was too ill to work. Dad died in 1993, just 65 years into an incredible life.
This life educated man knew an enormous amount about world and shared his tidbits with me and my two siblings.
On family: friends come and go but family is always there for you. He was an only child and married into my mother’s family where she is the eldest of seven children.
On card games: if you smile and joke all of the time, people don’t know when you are serious or when you really don’t have crap!
On time management: make lists – you can never remember all you have to do. Napkins, coasters and pink message sheets are particularly handy for this purpose.
On human resources: give anyone enough rope and they’ll eventually hand themselves. I have learned the similarity between a transient car sales force and college coaches.
On billiards: keep your left pinky on the slate for stability
On work/life balance: work hard, play hard. And, boy did he ever! He and my mother traveled around the world!
On love: don’t say it unless you mean it and when you mean it, say it with all your heart
On any type of negotiation: make your ask then SHUT UP
Here’s to you, Dad!
Until next time!
Jude Russo Caserta
AthleticBudgetCoach.com/blog
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E-mail: judi_caserta@athleticbudgetcoach.com
