Saturday, June 16, 2012

Things My Dad Taught Me

  • Dad
    Patience: Pull the two ends of the shoe-lace so they are even lengths. Make a loop with one and wrap the other around the loop. Now pull the second loop through, and pull tight. Not an easy task when one set of fingers is very large and one set is very small and the shoe in question is a size 5 child's.  Do this approximately 300 times over the course of 1 month until said child learns to tie her shoes. Now do this 5 times for 5 daughters.
  • Tolerance: Spend several months, every weekend, hanging beautiful wallpaper and painting walls. In the middle of dinner, with 5 excited daughters and one wife talking all at once, you suddenly pay attention to the littlest one. She is saying something very important. 'Daddy, Daddy, I drew pictures!' To which Daddy answers, 'Where are they, show Daddy.' At which point tiny daughter jumps down from her high chair and runs upstairs to show Daddy the beautiful drawings all over the new wallpaper and paint. Daddy carries baby daughter downstairs, laughing.
  • Heroism: It is the middle of a cold and icy winter. Everything is frozen, including the pond behind the house. Suddenly, two children start pounding on the door. 'Robby fell in the lake, Robby fell in the lake!' Dad bounds forward, runs to the boat landing, slides it onto the lake towards the open, gaping hole and furiously pushes with the paddle, shoving the heavy boat forward with his own strength on the ice, reaches into the cold, icy water, and rescues Robby. Who turned out to be a Collie! It wasn't until afterwards that Dad realized he had run out of the house without a coat and shoes.
  • Integrity: Join the armed forces. Become a Sargent and Tank Commander. Join town politics. Become head of the Finance Committee. Work hard all of your life. Become President of your local Steelworker's Union. Twice.
  • Kindness: Be willing to help anyone, the elderly woman down the road, the family broke down on the highway, the lost cat that needs a home. Treat everyone equally and with respect. Go out of your way to be there for others.
  • Devotion: Stay married to the same woman for 58 years. Build her two houses. Lovingly care for her in sickness and in health, through two bouts with cancer. Devote your life to making her happy.
  • Humor: Look on the funny side of life, always. Even when things couldn't be worse. There is always humor to fall back on. Tell corny jokes. These will be tenderly remembered.
  • Resilience: Lose your job of 20 years when business closes. Move your family cross country. Work at terrible jobs to make ends meet. Finally find a good one, and build a home with your own two hands from the ground up. Lose that job due to lay-off, leave the house before you get to live in it. Move again, and build another home, become Union President at a job you love, and tell funny stories about all you went through to get there.
  • Life Skills: Teach all of your daughters how to fish, how to build a shelter in the woods, how to make a campfire. Teach them how to hold a hammer, how to measure, how to wire a lamp. Teach your daughters how to be kind, courageous, honest, patient, devoted, resilient, and have a sense of humor. Teach your daughters by example, how to be role models for the next generation.

Here's to all the unsung Heroes that we call Dad.

Happy Father's Day! 


7 comments:

  1. What a beautiful tribute to your father. I think you look a lot like him, and are like him in many other ways as well! Bless him, and you both.

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  2. What a lucky girl you are to have such a wonderful dad! <3

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  3. Thank you for your sweet comments. I appreciate that you have taken the time to visit. xx

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  4. Mom, if I just modified some of the words to say 2 sons and 2 daughters or from Dad to Mom then this would be a tribute to you! Pappa was all of that and so are you! I have so many memories like this of Dad. Maybe some day I'll write them down to share with my children. XXOO

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  5. Thank you, Honey. Family is everything. xo

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  6. A beautiful tribute, Karen! Memories are a precious thing...

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Thank you for stopping by! Your comments are important to me and are very much appreciated. xx Karen

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