Channeling my Father

I'm channeling my father's energy, I think. We've scheduled a kiln opening on Oct. 3, and I wanted to create an annual commemoration of my father, so we're calling the kiln opening the R.D. Mahan Kiln Opening and Turkey Roast. My brother, Randy, has agreed to deep fry a couple of turkeys for the event. I should be making pots, but I'm making a kiln instead, and working to get it finished and fired for the kiln opening - Oct. 3.

When my father had a dream, he made it a reality. No stopping him. When I was a kid, he opened up a boys camp in the Florida Keys and taught hundreds of young kids how to fish, dive, ski and sail among other things. He leased an island off the coast and built a camp there. He kept the camp operating for 12 years. You can read about Fish Camp (and see a better picture of my father) on my other blog, one I share with others who attended the camp.

When he decided to open up the camp, he applied to the Miami Boat Show to set up a booth advertising the camp. He missed the deadline. He didn't let that stop him. He rented two rooms at a hotel across the street from the boat show, one for him to sleep in and one to serve drinks and hors d' oeurves. Then he talked the owner of the hotel into letting him launch a boat, rigged with outriggers and fishing poles, in the pool.

The day after the first day of the boat show, The Miami Herald featured a story on the boat show - underneath a story on Fish Camp. Parents signed their kids up that weekend, and my father used the money to buy equipment for the first year of Fish Camp.

So, don't tell me I can't do it. By the way, he's cleaning out the bait freezer in the picture above.

Eyeballing a course of hard brick on the arch of the kiln