I learned my work ethics from my parents. My father worked until he was too sick to work. My mother just recently retired at 72, she couldn't stand to sit around the house. I go to work many times when I'm sick, not because I want to but because I don't want to let down my coworkers who depend on me to carry my load.
My father instilled a work ethic as well as an appreciation for America. He was born in Hungary, and while beginning med school in Budapest the Soviet army invaded to claim Hungary. The initial wave was drove back, but the Soviet war machine at that point was simply too much when it returned.
Even as a student, he took up arms and was able to get a few of those Soviets from a window at his school. :awe: Many others did as well. Soviets find out his identity, so he had to escape Hungary, and fast or he surely would have died a tortuous and long death. He had a relative on the Austrian border that back dated a letter saying he would be travelling, which was enough to get him across the border. The more I hear details of the story, the more I think it make for a decent historical film, since he was among many who had to flee.
Eventually he landed in NY, and would take any job he could to begin his life over. He wasn't too proud to think that work his beneath him since he was in med school. Moved on to several places in the south, and then Gary, IN for work and learning English. As a side not, imagine that! An immigrant who felt learning the "official" language was an obligation.
After the Iron Curtain fell, my Father and bro's took a trip back to Hungary. Emotional at time for my father, afterall seeing people ripped apart literally by an angry mob will stick with you. But it was something he had too do.
This is just about as abbreviated as I can make it, but there is tons more to this story.