Did dad and I share anything?

My Dad and I didn't really share any special interests or activities that I recall. He was protective of me when I was dancing and saw that I got to my various programs, but outside of that I do not think of anything that we had in common. My Dad your Great Grand Father John Charles Smith was as Lehi put it in the Book of Mormon: "a visionary man". He had visions
and was quick to write such things down. He had an inventive mind and was quite interested in plants and their growth. He took up grafting his rose trees. He had every one that lined the walk way of the Belgrave Avenue house with Roses that were Bouquets as they bloomed. He grew beautiful Camilia Bushes. His Orange. Grapefruit and Lemons were outstanding. Sad those things were all destroyed when the city took all that property on Belgrave Avenue
next to the High School and made Condominiums. When I got my own room I remember he bought me twin beds and a "kidney shaped table" Mom made a skirt for it. He had a glass
top cut, and then he made me a tripot holder of aluminum pipe and red plastic knobs to hold a round mirror. He made lights for it also; made of aluminum pipes. He cut my name out so the
light would show through on the mirror. It was very classy. I don't remember what happened to that. When I married and moved to my own home, I guess it got lost along with a number of other things that were left behind. Dad was an avid reader. He would spend hours in used book stores looking for something more to expand his mind. I remember when his eyes were bothering him he found a book on eye exercise and made himself a board out of aluminum and cut small pieces of colored tape that he placed on the small board. They were blue, yellow and
red. I don't recall green, but there could have been green on it as well. It was a simple thing, but he would set holding it in his hand and look first from one color and then back to another color and go back and forth changing the color he looked at with each pass. I don't know if it made his eyesight any better, but he worked at it regularly. Dad didn't have a lot of schooling, but he was self taught in a variety of different fields. He could out figure most if not all the Engineers
that he worked with. In fact when they got stuck with a project, they usually came looking for "Capt. John" to help them solve their problem. It was he who worked out the problem that Howard Huges had with the prop he designed for the pursuit plane the Army Air Corp needed for WW II. Everytime they would put the model in the wind tunnel the prop would break. Some one suggested he talk to "Capt John". Dad took the project to work with it. He found the problem and corrected it. Howard Hughes told him he would see he was rewarded for the help. That was last anything was mentioned about it. When the plane was used, Hughes took credit for the entire design and success of the plane. So much for the character of Howard Hughes. Don't believe all the tales about how smart he was. He was great only in the way he found and used others to get his fame. Dad was one of those who worked out many of the problems on the Moon Rocket. He worked in the Model Shop that designed and built the trial rockets. He took the Model back to Ohio and the Wind Tunnel there for testing. He was working on the fuel theory when he was killed in an auto crash in 1955. He was a much loved and respected man among those with whom he worked. The book in which he wrote down his visions with a number of the inventions he was working on was never found after his death. I had seen it a number of times and knew where he kept it. I believe he must have had it with him when he was killed and it was either thrown away, or someone took it for the information in it. Sad we don't have it to share with his family members.
Written by Eileen Charmaine Smith Rosenberg January 1, 2009