Kipling's daughters

Regular readers will know Kipling is the ageing pot-head that the pot-addled hillbilly has been consorting with since time immemorial.

Me and Kipling were both high school drop-outs from the medieval education system that failed us back in the late sixties - early seventies.

For my part, I eventually recognized that a little more education might be a good idea.

Kipling wasn't gonna have none of that. He recognized that if you worked your bag off you'd get to the prize long before those egg-heads who went to college.

The "prize" was well-defined. When we were high school drop-outs still in our teens, we knew the prize was a house in the country, a nice home shop, and a stable of cool cars. Me and Kipling agreed that by the time we were thirty there'd be at least a Corvette and a Cadillac parked in the home shops of our country estates.

Not to mention a decent 4x4 truck.

Well, life's got a way of tripping you up.

All of that and so much more was running through my head when I had the privilege and the pleasure of attending the wedding of Kipling's eldest daughter today.

What a wedding!

And what a slap in the face, what an eye-opener, to realize that our kids are getting married when we haven't yet achieved the dreams we had when we were younger than they are now!

Kipling's plan for reaching riches involved getting big in the trucking business. He jumped full bore into brick-hauling. Had a gold-plated contract with Canada Brick. That required taking on about a quarter million dollars worth of debt for the brick rig.

Things worked out super-hunky-dory for about six months. Kipling was delivering bricks all over Ontario and Michigan.

Then the bottom fell out of the house-building racket.

For my part, even after my fancy-pants education, I realized I could make way better money jumping into the housing boom.

I got incorporated.

I got registered with the Ontario Homebuilders Association.

I borrowed hundreds of thousands of dollars to buy building lots.

Then the bottom fell out of the house-building racket.

So me and Kipling, instead of enjoying our Cadillacs and Corvettes and our country estates before we're thirty, found ourselves, well into middle age, waking up in the same ditch.

But I digress.

This is about Kipling's daughters.

Kipling may have shunned higher education himself, but by the time he'd had life experience kick the shit out of him a few times, he knew enough to push it on his children.

And he did. That pot-addled hillbilly with a grade ten education never failed to impress upon his two daughters the value of more education.

It worked! 

Both of them are university graduates!

The one who got married today is an engineer. She hooked up with a farm lad who isn't intimidated by a smart woman with an education. That in itself is a blessing, because so many guys are.

He comes from a family of Austrian immigrants who settled here in the 70's, because at that time Canada still welcomed immigrants. They're a close-knit hard-working bunch of folks who, like most immigrants, have added immeasurably to the fabric of this country.

Me and the Farm Manager had to cut out before the serious partying got under way, but we agree that this was one of the best weddings we've ever been to.

It was held in a barn! How cool is that?

And the reception was in a museum!

Get outta here!

These kids twisted the nuts off the coolness factor!

We regret not being able to take full advantage of the open bar. We're getting on in years, and we had a long drive home ahead of us...

But what a joy it was to share this day with Amanda and Phil!