Thinking About My Dad Tonight: Every Girl Needs Her Own Set of Tools

It's past midnight and almost bedtime in the Roxiticus Valley, but I stayed up late writing an important post about our Mendham Township Elementary School for my Roxy's Best Of... Mendham, New Jersey local web site. Rex, London, and Maddie are all fast asleep, and in this quiet time before I fall asleep, I've been thinking about my dad. My dad was a serial restauranteur in New Jersey, and he raised me to be entrepreneurial, independent and self-reliant. He was right about a lot of things: "You're too strong-willed to work for someone else, Roxy" or "Why pay someone to do something for you when you can do it better yourself?" and "Every homeowner should have his or her own set of tools."

In the time before Rex, when I bought my first home -- a four bedroom colonial in Somerset, New Jersey -- my dad bought me a complete set of Craftsman tools from Sears....a toolbox full of screwdrivers and wrenches, a power drill and drill bit set, an electric sander... everything I needed to fix up my new home. While I've never been able to fill my dad's shoes as a handyman, I'm definitely the one my family turns to when we need a small fix around our home. I even used my Craftsman power drill over the summer to make tiny holes in London and Maddie's seashells at our beach house in Bay Head so the girls could run a wire through and turn them into Christmas ornaments. Speaking of little entrepreneurs, She Sells Sea Shells Down by the Seashore turned out to be a terrific first business venture for London and Maddie. Grandpa would be proud.

My dad passed away before Maddie was born, but I happened to see Craftsman C3 Tools on Sale at Sears and started a trip down Memory Lane. London and Maddie are still too young to be ready for their own sets of tools, but with the holiday season coming up, I'd like to pass the tradition on to Rex's son, PostBoy, and his fiancee, MathGirl. It won't be long before they'll have a home of their own, and "why pay someone to do something for you when you can do it better yourself?"