By Steve Van Nattan

 

This item was going to be all about pythons, but ended up being about my Dad, Wes Van Nattan-- I will try to get the python story up later though. ________________________ MY DAD, THE IMPROVISER My Dad was the ultimate improviser. He seemed to be able to make anything in a pinch. He had a junk pile concealed behind his work shop in Tanzania, where my parents were missionaries, and when they had to move to Kenya he nearly cried about having to leave the junk pile. It seemed like nothing was ever fully worthless-- always a chance it would be used to make something to keep things working. Dad was building an open air workshop with a roof about 15 feet off the ground to work on mission vehicles. He wanted weight bearing trusses, and he found rails in a gold mine run by the German Nazis before the war and got permission from the British officials to appropriate them. The trick was to get the rails, which were about 15 feet long, from the mine to our home. He had to build two jigs, one in a trailer and one in the pick up bed, and carry the rails home, cradled on the two swaying jigs, in the worst of the rainy season through mud. I was along and kept praying we would not bog down suddenly and have the rails in the backs of our heads. He welded them top to top and made "I" beams that were amazingly strong. An engineer who saw the work shop later said it was the most over built thing he had ever seen. My Dad was never sure anything he built was strong enough, and the result was massive almost eternal wonders. The other missionaries were delighted if he was in on a project (except for some who were a bit lazy about life). Dad could also move things from one place to another with rollers and a pinch bar in a way that would make your jaw hang down. I don't know how many times I told him something could not be done, only to have Dad show how it COULD be done. This life experience with Dad the improviser has made me a bit weird I think. I don't know how many times I have gone into ACE Hardware to find something with which to improvise. The helpful old guy comes up and asks what I need, and when I tell him, he usually just shakes his head. I never seem to use what I buy for what it was made for. :-)

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