It's not that dads today don't work hard and long hours, because they surely do. But 'back in the day' they just didn't have as many gadgets to make the job easier or safer.

Think of our dads the next time you get out your electric or gas edger, leaf blower, string trimmer & ride-on mower to do a large yard. My dad's edger was a wooden handled hand edger that he hand-sharpened and oiled. And twice a year he would edge to perfection about 2000 plus feet of flowerbeds. His mower was a walk behind that he meticulously maintained after each cutting. The leaf raking in the fall involved he, myself and my two brothers raking leaves into a huge canvas drop cloth then carrying and dumping it into a burn pile, and later (burn bans!) to the curb for city pick up. (My dad was the first on the block to buy a leaf blower & weed whacker when they first came out.)

As a little kid what I remember as the two scariest contraptions he had to deal with were the incinerators and the massive oil-burning furnace. Both involved fire. There were 6 incinerators. Each of the 36 units had a small door to drop trash down which all piled up into one large "fireplace" with a thick cast iron door in the basements. (No aerosol cans please!) He would light them, adjust the vents on the door, and let them burn awhile. Then flip the heavy iron grate and dump the ashes and debris into the bottom chamber and shovel it into metal trash cans to then haul outside. Often spray cans exploded. (one time with enough force to blow the cast iron door off its hinges!). Or a paper bag full of trash would get stuck in the chimney chute and catch fire. Thick smoke would pour out everywhere until he used a shovel handle to unclog the chute from below - or went up to the 3rd floor to drop a brick on a rope to push the burning clog down. Try this 4-5 times a week!