I haven't posted anything at all on my blog since Dad died. Grief can be overwhelming. It's been nearly two months (1-17-2013) and I'm not as tough as I thought. I still start crying when someone asks how he's doing, because they don't even know he's gone.
When I was young, I know that I was a pretty sorry excuse for a human being. I was a liar and a thief, I was on a fast track to incarceration. My Dad changed that in me. He taught me to pay my bills first, work hard, be reliable, and do as you say you will. As it turns out, he molded me into a decent guy. I'm thankful for his guidance and patience with me...because I was a handful. I can't even describe how much influence he had on me but this isn't about me.
Thomas Jenkins Tinner, Tom Tinner, Dad, Pops, One arm bandit, Tomjtexas were just some of the names he was known by...but they all mean the same thing to me, my father.
He worked his ass off his entire life to make things better for our family. When he was 8 years old, he built a cart to haul groceries for ladies from the grocery store in San Francisco so they wouldn't need to carry groceries home. He made more money doing that than his stepfather made in his job. Granny, (Dad's mother) told me that was a fact...he was the primary wage earner when he was 8, working for tips. That's the kind of work ethic he had.
He picked cotton and advanced to running machinery in a cotton gin as a child. When he was 15 he ran a huge loom, making fabric. They're family traveled around making money where they could. He ended up working in a DDT factory loading train cars with poison. That was the most influential job he ever had...he developed a lifelong cough while working there.
He joined the Navy in 1951, during the Korean conflict, stationed in Atsugi Japan riding the USS Essex (CV-9) where he re-enlisted in 1955. He wanted to make a career in the Navy but he had a car accident in 1958, while on leave, where he lost his left arm. He came very close to dying at that time. He nearly bled to death while in the hospital waiting to be transferred to a military hospital.
During his recovery from losing his arm, he got into a fight with a guy...and Dad hurt the other guy pretty bad. It got him into a lot of trouble because they nearly kicked him out of the Navy with a dishonorable discharge. He ended up getting a "General" discharge because of that incident. That incident may cause my mother to not be able to collect any of the benefits my father earned while being in the Navy. She's 73 with two knee replacements and really isn't qualified to work anymore either. Pretty stupid over an argument!
I'm not sure how it happened but the Navy doesn't recognize his years of serving from '51-55. I have his immunization records from 1952 so I can prove that he served during the Korean conflict but she's denied any benefits because they say he didn't serve during wartime.
I'll have to post what he did after he lost his arm because that's just another amazing chapter in his life...
