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Words of Wisdom from My Father

At 18 I went to work in an auto factory, same place my father worked.  
 
We'd leave early every morning so he could play cards.  
 
I was sitting at the table watching them play tunk, a popular game at the plant, when a guy named Grover came in.  
 
He was bragging about his vocabulary. He was learning a new word everyday.  
 
Don't remember the word but he used it wrong and I told him  
 
He looked at me with disgust  
 
Dad said, "Grover, you're an aardvark."  
 
Grover got visibly upset and stormed off.  
 
I asked, "Why did you call him an aardvark?"  
 
"I knew it was a word he didn't know."  
 
I was still confused.  
 
"Just because someone uses big words doesn't mean they're educated."  
 
Dad's best friend Al told dad to tell me the rest of it.  
 
"And just because a man is educated doesn't make them smart."  
 
Being I had just graduated high school, I thought the last bit was a jab at me, but I let it go.  
 
A few years later, I was talking to an engineer and he told me to do something that I knew would tear up what we were working on, and I told him so.  
 
"Listen, I'm the one with an engineering degree, and I know what I'm doing."  
 
I argued for a bit, but finally I told him, "Okay, fine. I'll do exactly what you told me to do."  
 
Luckily the General Supervisor overheard and stopped me, and those words of Dad's came back to me.  
 
Just because a man uses big words doesn't mean he is educated, and just because a man is educated doesn't mean he's smart.
Written by TimWombles
Published | Edited 11th Oct 2021
Author's Note
Written for my family tree, entry for my father.
All writing remains the property of the author. Don't use it for any purpose without their permission.
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