I must be wierd. I NEVER thought my parents were dumb. Ditto about my older brother.
To this day, I am very close - in spirit if not geography - with all of them.
If someone EVER called any of my family “dumb,” they will have a VERY serious problem on their hands: ME!
Probably, because I know I am and I always thought Dad was one of the sharpest men I've ever known, even if he was just (as he put it) an "ole, dumb tarheel logger with a 3rd grade education."
He could cut through all the nonsense and find the meat faster than anyone, and never try to pull anything over on him.
The one boy who showed my dad a massive amount of respect was the boy I married three months later.