My Dad, Bob Maley, was born in Lamoni, Iowa, one hundred years ago today, on March 27, 1925.

Only in my later years have I come to appreciate his sacrifices, his life lessons, and his example of how to be a man and a father.

Three anecdotes will give a little insight into what kind of man he was.

We often said that Dad anticipated many popular trends, one of them being organic gardening. He subscribed to Organic Farming and Gardening, The Mother Earth News, and The Whole Earth Catalog before anyone ever heard of granola or huaraches. He wore overalls and flip-flops.

Dad worked the soil on his 1/3 acre town lot in Tulsa. He’d have seasonal truck loads of organic matter dumped in his driveway, despite Mom’s protests. One such load was delivered the weekend I brought my then-girlfriend Paula to meet my folks for the first time. Mom was horrified, but Paula was intrigued. (That’s a story for another time. …)

The point of this story is that Dad would enlist my help to move the pile of … whatever it was … from the driveway to his backyard garden/compost pile. He had the happiest earthworms in Oklahoma, I’m convinced.

Of course, I was not happy to be dragged away from Three Stooges reruns on TV to help move the pile. I’d complain to no avail. “Let’s get started,” Dad would say. “These leaves aren’t going to move themselves.” The pile always seemed insurmountable.

Dad was right. One shovelful of sand at a time, one pitchfork full of poop, one wheelbarrow load of leaves at a time, the pile did eventually disappear. Get in the zone. It’s a lesson that stuck with me throughout my life.

Anecdote #2: “Der Hidensplitten Gebottomwhammer.”

Dad begrudgingly accepted his role as a disciplinarian. Squabbling kids drove him crazy, and he could put on a gruff face.

After one kerfuffle among the siblings (probably over TV), Dad made a big production of letting us know he’d had enough. Over several nights at his workbench, he crafted a warning from an old belt: he dubbed it “Der Bottom Whammer” for short.

The belt highlights Dad’s calligraphy skills. Inscribed on the obverse is Proverbs 22:6 “Train up a child in the way he should go, and when he is old he will not depart from it.”

He made a big show of hanging up Der Bottom Whammer in a prominent spot. I guess it worked. Spoiler alert: He never used it.