Happy Father’s Day!!!!!

It’s that time of the year where we all stop rolling our eyes at our dad and celebrate everything he’s done for us, to us, around us, and with us. We post pictures of our dad’s through the years, usually a picture of us with our dad, and talk about what a wonderful human being/teacher/protector he’s been. Unless of course your dad was a deadbeat who left your mom in a cloud of dust one fall day and never came back, those guys they are bitter and want no part of this day, at least until they become a father then they celebrate it with gusto! So in an effort to breathe life back into this blog I’m participating in the obligatory Father’s Day post, join me by sharing some observations of your own father!

It’s ironic to me that I have two parents who are totally involved, totally present, and yet hate the idea of either Father’s Day or Mother’s Day. Both think it’s an absurd holiday not worth putting on a calendar much less the time and effort spent to celebrate it. See my mom’s dad was MIA most of her life. He was that dad that left when she was younger and never really looked back. She’s not sad about it … it was just her reality. I never met him and she doesn’t talk about him. My dad’s dad died when he was a pre-teen (or a tween as some call it now a days, not me mind you, but others who should be punished for doing so). So neither of them really celebrated Father’s Day growing up, it was just another day on the calendar and when my brother and I were born it was a foreign day to them. They aren’t stupid they knew the concept they understood the purpose it just wasn’t for them. Or so I thought.

Several years ago we were cleaning out the attic and I pulled down a box marked “KIDS” which I assumed were me and my brother not a box containing information about my dad’s other family. Full disclosure my dad has no other family but sometimes my over active imagination got the better of me when he was on business trips. I always assumed he left that family and came back to us cause we were cooler tho it wasn’t really discussed.  Anyway I opened the box and found years of handmade and bought Father’s Day cards with my name or my brother’s writing on the back of the card with the year. It was then that I realized that no matter what he said the day did mean something to him and thus the effort we put into it did too.

My dad didn’t miss much, yes he worked hard, often staying at work until well past nightfall and would have to go out of town sometimes but he made more baseball/softball/basketball/volleyball/tennis and even soccer games than most dads did, and I have the video tapes to prove it. He made both my brother and I “videos” of our greatest sports moments using “put me in coach” and synced it with the song. To this date it’s the greatest piece of ciema I’ve ever seen. :D

Dad also spent his vacations working around the house, which meant we worked around the house. I thought my dad was brilliant, he could do anything with his hands, from building furniture to doing electrical work. He often had us follow him around as he did these things I guess hoping that we’d learn how to do those things too via osmosis. He was not entirely wrong but the truth is we were more in the way than we were helping. He’d send us for this tool or another and sometimes we’d bring it back, but he always accomplished whatever with whatever we brought him. He is real resourceful that way.

My dad is also crazy smart about technology; he is the one who brought e-mail to his company. His boss told him at the time that “email was a fad” but dad insisted it was the way people would be doing business years from now. Now every employee in the company has e-mail even the summer interns, often before they are even assigned a computer. He can do anything to a computer, and always has the best technology available. Heck every computer within a 2 mile radius of him is eagerly waiting and is 100% compatible with Windows 10 all because of him.

The point is that like a lot of you I’d not be here without my dad and I’m glad I have the dad that I do, even in those instances where he is driving me insane with his views of politics or his ideas on “life.”

A Father’s Day post can’t be completed without Golden saying something about her awesome dad. Her dad is a lot like my dad he’s hardworking at work and at home, he’s knowledgeable about many things and is constantly doing things to make their family’s lives better.  I’m proud he’s a father figure in my life and I’m happy when I get to sit next to him at the table and talk to him, a rare feat actually cause he talks very little.

 

So Golden wanted to add this …

Thanks for always being my lawn care professional, my maintenance man, my squancher of bugs, my griller of meat, my fixer of cars, my weather man, cheerleader, my constant protector, my dad.

So to all the dad’s out there … HAPPY FATHER’S DAY!!! I hope you were celebrated in some way, shape, or form, and that someone else manned the grill for you today!

 



Marcy's Dad filming a softball game many years ago



 

Golden's Dad introducing her to her brother many years ago

 

-Marcy & Golden

@beaslma & @theonlygolden