Paula and her dad

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My dad was a disc jockey when I was young, and he was quite the Bay Area personality. At home, he had three kids (later four), and he expected us to behave, do well in school and treat people with respect. He had rules. We followed them. He was also Mr. Fix-It. He fixed everything. He built a patio cover over the backyard, did mysterious electrical projects, put shelving in the garage, planted trees, put in a lawn, built and upholstered furniture and assembled many toys, bikes and weather stations for us. There wasn't anything he couldn’t do. 

My dad loved model trains and built a whole town of buildings, trestles and tracks on a big sheet of plywood in the garage. My mother was not excited about him using the garage, which was for a car of course, so he attached the plywood town to a series of ropes and pulleys that lifted it miraculously to the ceiling. It seems like those trains didn't run very often, but when they did it was fabulous to watch. 

— Paula, San Rafael, California