It’s an understatement to say my dad taught me a lot while I was growing up.
He taught me right from wrong, self-discipline, the value of a dollar, how to maintain cleanliness and order, the importance of doing a job well and how to nurture a strong faith. Dad also taught me a number of practical skills such as hammering a nail, turning a screw, mowing the grass, handling a weed trimmer and shaving.
He taught me how to have fun, tell stories and jokes, play Monopoly and checkers and other essential board games, fish, throw and catch a baseball and how to do a pineapple
dive (aka banana dive) that splashes everyone standing on the side of a pool.
But what stands out in my mind for some reason is the day he taught me to change the oil and brake shoes in the car. Now I could very well have forgotten exactly how this occurred: he probably taught me to do these two things at different times, but in my memory, they occurred together.
I was about 13 or 14. The car was on the parking pad at our house on Holly Street in Lake
Wales, Fla. He showed me how to check the dip stick, jack the car, place the drip pan, remove the plug, remove the filter, replace the plug (very important), replace the filter and pour in the new oil with the assistance of a handy funnel. Brake shoes were a little more complicated and involved a clamp, I think.
I have changed my oil a number of times, although not recently. To do this day, I have never changed my own brake shoes. Sorry, Dad.
As Father’s Day approaches, all of this has me wondering what dads teach their sons in the New South?
I’m sure there are plenty of dads still teaching the finer points of team sports and the basics of throwing, catching, shooting a basketball and so on. I believe fathers are still teaching their boys to appreciate the outdoors and how to fish and hunt.
There are plenty of new skills to be handed down in this digital era. In the New South, dads must teach their sons how to program a universal TV remote, master the misdirection play on the Madden football video game, download songs from iTunes, use a GPS, shop on Amazon, read a Kindle, pick movies on Netflix and upload videos to YouTube.
No matter the era and the practical skills required, I hope to pass on to my three sons the timeless essentials every boy of character must know and practice. My dad taught me well.
New South Essays 
Funny, I changed the oil and power steering pump in the jeep last week and thought about Dad showing me how to change the oil in the cars. I even remember a conversation that revolved around me asking why I had to change the oil in the car when I could pay someone to do it….and now I’m happy to change the oil instead of paying someone to do it!