No apology needed SpeckWick. You had a "struck the cod" moment just like I did originally.

I don't know if the story is true or not but it was a good story and as things turned out it doesn't look like your fathers attitude hurt you. I didn't detect bitterness towards your father in your story just that this was the way it was.

Your fathers attitude allowed or forced you to rise to the challenge and it seemed to be a very good character building experience for you something the youngsters of today are missing out on as evidenced by the attitude of intitlement so prevelent today.

My dad wasn't a bad man. In fact he was quite the opposite. I wondered for years why or how he could do something like that. People of that generation (at least in my family) tended to stick their head in the sand rather than deal directly with a problem.
I learned more about my dad in the week after he died in 2004 than I knew about him while he was alive. I think I know what his thinking was at the time. Don't agree with it but I understand. I think the experience made me a better person. I have more sympathy for people than blame them for situations that I used to think was their own fault.
One thing for sure-most people don't realize how good they have it because they never experienced how bad it could be.