The Building of America: Lifework of Tommy Waites Dragline Operator

By Peggy Waites Todd "Daddy's Girl"

As you start reading this book, you will see very quickly that the sun rose and sat in my daddy’s love for me and why he always referred to me as “Daddy’s Girl.” I was one of five children—four girls and one boy. Daddy and I always had a special connection and unconditional love for each other. He was the one I ran to when something was wrong, or I had a problem.

I can honestly say that I never brought any pain or embarassment to either my daddy or mother. When they needed me, I was there without complaint. I am immensely proud of the woman I became because of the way they raised me. Being a strong and determined person, I accomplished anything that I set out to do. My daddy trusted me with everything he had in the world. From the time I graduated business college at the age of eighteen, he always wanted me to take care of his books. I did this until the day he passed from this world.

Daddy trusted me to drive our car when we were traveling from California to Grandma’s house in Louisana every Christmas. Daddy could go to sleep while I was driving and not worry that I would run the car off in the ditch or have a wreck. I guess that’s what led me to become a cross-country truck driver for thirteen years.

I have always been a dependable person—my word is my bond, and I always put God first in my life and never met a stranger. Our home is a no-need-to-call-prior-to-coming to visit us. It has an open door to anyone, as was my parents home.

I believe that even though they are both gone now, they are still looking down on me with pride.

• Language: English
• Publisher: Covenant Books, Inc.
• Release date: Feb 23, 2022
• ISBN: 9781638148272

Book preview

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The Building of America

Lifework of Tommy Waites Dragline Operator

Peggy Waites Todd Daddy's Girl

ISBN 978-1-63814-826-5 (Paperback)

ISBN 978-1-63814-828-9 (Hardcover)

ISBN 978-1-63814-827-2 (Digital)

Copyright © 2021 Peggy Waites Todd Daddy’s Girl

All rights reserved

First Edition

All rights reserved. No part of this publication may be reproduced, distributed, or transmitted in any form or by any means, including photocopying, recording, or other electronic or mechanical methods without the prior written permission of the publisher. For permission requests, solicit the publisher via the address below.

Covenant Books, Inc.

11661 Hwy 707

Murrells Inlet, SC 29576

www.covenantbooks.com

Table of Contents

Daddy Meets Mother

Daddy Gets Drafted into the Army

Lewisville, Arkansas

Bossier City, Louisiana

Dewitt, Arkansas

West Monroe, Louisiana

Little Rock, Arkansas

Hope, Arkansas

Des Arc, Arkansas

Bearden, Arkansas

Paris, Arkansas

Chicago, Illinois

Atkins, Arkansas

Jena, Louisiana

Mobridge, South Dakota

San Diego, California

Daddy Retires from Running the Dragline

New Life in Poway, California

Daddy and Mother Move to Louisiana

Spring of 1984 in Ringgold, Louisiana

To my daddy.

Acknowledgments

I want to dedicate this book to my daddy, who had devoted love for his wife, Dorothy—the mother of his children. To Mother, who went with him every time he moved us to a new job location. They raised me to do unto others as you would have them do unto you. Through their love and example, I grew up to become the strong-and-dedicated woman I am. They taught me that when you make a promise to anyone in word or deed, you do not break it unless the Lord had called me home.

My parents raised me to be a faithful servant of God and do His will. Daddy was what I consider a great example of the Lord’s love, and he lived it daily for his children, grandchildren, and all he came in contact to see.

For all the years he worked out in the freezing cold and blistering heat doing the difficult jobs he did with the dragline. With each job Daddy finished, it changed America for the better. He called me Daddy’s girl; I was second of five children born to a pair of sweet Southerners.

Daddy never went beyond seventh grade, but he understood things about loyalty, fun, and faith that no university can teach. He was a common man with an uncommon heart, an uncommon work ethic, and an uncommon skill. The demand for his unique skills as a dragline operator had him dragging his family from town-to-town and state-to-state, wherever his skills were needed. This is the story of that wonderful man—Leslie Vern Waites Sr., but known to everyone as Tommy Waites, the one I was privileged to call Daddy.

I bought my daddy a New Testament Bible for Father’s Day, 1976, and wrote something to him every year on Father’s Day since then. About a week before Father’s Day, he would tell me, You have something to do, and hand me that special New Testament. I brought it back to him on Father’s Day with a card and a gift. I had bought three other New Testaments for him since 1976 because he would literally wear them out from use. I only wrote in the first one that he wore out but kept awfully close to him. This is what I put in it on Father’s Day June 21, 2016:

To Daddy on Father’s Day

When I was small and not so strong,

You held me up and walked along.

As I got bigger, I stepped in your steps,

I couldn’t keep up, but I did my best.

When I grew up, we walked together,

I learned a lot from you’re endeavor.

Such pride I hold within my heart,

Because of your love right from the start.

The roles have changed, just a little bit,

Because now I’m helping you take your steps.

I’m who I am, because of you,

Your character shines in all that I do.

I’ve learned from the best, my whole life through,

Daddy, always remember how much I love you.

Happy Father’s Day

—Daddy’s girl

This was the last entry I made into Daddy’s New Testament. He went home to be with the Lord and Mother on September 25, 2016.

Introduction

This idea began back in 2004 while sitting on the porch with my daddy and mother, Tommy and Dorothy Waites. I was fifty-six years old, and Mother was in the early stages of Alzheimer’s. As we were sitting there in the cool breeze, I began asking Daddy why we had to move so often while we were growing up.

I knew that Daddy operated a dragline, but I never really knew what he accomplished running this huge machine. The only place we lived that I was old enough to know the expertise that Daddy had running a dragline was when we moved to San Diego, California, in 1958. I did not realize that my daddy was the most sought-after dragline operator in the United States. Daddy did not tell me much that afternoon, but he did say that he and I would take a trip someday soon and he would show me all the jobs he did.

Almost two years went by, and mother got progressively worse; so we could not take our trip. On December 6, 2005, my older sister, Judy, died in her sleep. Mom, at this point, did not know anyone except Daddy and was unable to go the funeral. On January 19, 2006, Mom died, with all four children, Daddy, and lots of grandkids by her side. Mom went home to be with God and Judy.

The loss of my older sister and my mother in such a short period of time began to weigh heavy on my mind. I, again, began to think about the trip that Daddy said we would take. It became important to me to preserve the things I did not know about my daddy’s work during my younger life. I wanted to preserve these stories and memories for my whole family to enjoy. It was important for me to tell the history of the jobs Daddy did that changed America one job at a time.

It was early April 2010. I went to Daddy’s and said we were going to take the trip he had promised me four years earlier. I told Daddy we would leave on the following Monday at 7:00 a.m. and to have his clothes ready and I would pick him up. Since so much time had passed after the promise, getting him to go with me was not an easy task. I told him that I had never broken a promise I made to him, and he had to keep his promise to me.

Daddy finally agreed, and we set out on Monday morning to revisit the jobs my daddy did during my childhood that changed America’s flow of rivers, dams, levees, canals, pipelines, roadbeds, and shorelines. This journey was not done in the order of towns we moved to because I knew I could arrange them in the correct order once the recording and pictures were taken.

Daddy had already told me every town we lived in. I mapped out the closest route to the eight towns we lived in Louisiana and then the twelve towns we lived in Arkansas. Some of the towns in Arkansas we lived in more than once because of it being a different job each time. All the stories that Daddy told me over the next four days and nights are true, and changed the towns or cities where he worked. My younger siblings were too young or were not even born yet to remember anything that happened.

Remember, I was not born until early 1948, and I cannot shed any information about the jobs in those towns. Daddy will tell you about all those in his own words that I recorded on our trip. I do remember things in vivid detail in all the towns we lived in except the first two jobs Daddy did. The one thing I am sure of is from the day I was born, I was Daddy’s girl!

So let’s get started with the never-told work history of Tommy Waites and how he made a difference across America. While on our trip, Daddy told me the story of how he and Mother met, about when he was drafted into the army and what happened while he was in the army, and about the first few jobs he had after being discharged from the army when World War II ended. He told me how he became a dragline operator and how he taught himself to run the dragline by watching the operator, every night, run this huge machine.

I hope you enjoy reading the recorded stories and my memories of my family history in this tribute to Daddy as I did when Daddy was telling me each one. I have collected pictures of every job between 1946 and 1962. I also have included pictures of where I grew up in Poway, California, after Daddy retired working for Western Contracting Company running the Dragline.

Daddy and Peggy (Daddy’s girl)

Chapter 1

Daddy Meets Mother

1944

The story begins when Tommy and Dorothy meet at a church picnic in May of 1944. Daddy told me the first time he saw Mother that he thought she had the prettiest legs he ever saw. At seventeen years old, he probably had not seen very many.

At that time, Mother was engaged to marry another man. Mother told me the first time she saw Daddy he was so handsome she just slipped that ring off and put it in her pocket. Mother never told Daddy she had promised her heart to someone else.

Daddy had quit school in the seventh grade and was working at Lake Bistineau, which is west of Ringgold, Louisiana. He usually caught and sold fish and sometimes was a tour guide for fellows that wanted to catch fish. Mother’s parents, Jasper and Rosie Culver, lived way back in the woods south of Simsboro, Louisiana, which was fifty-three miles from Lake Bistineau.

Mother’s uncle Ciceal and aunt Rether lived close to Bistineau Lake. She decided to come and stay a week at a time with them so she could see Daddy. Mother and her sister, Lucille, got a job working the evening shift at Louisiana Army Ammunition plant in Doyline, Louisiana. One night after getting off work, their ride had left