You know what, DU? I wanna hear about your Dads....

[HEyHEY]

When I was a lil' kid I remember going camping with my Dad, or on business trips. These were always big deals to me. My Dad ran his own business and was hardly home. So when I got to actually miss three days of school to go with him on a sales trip it was the greatest thing ever. Lots of it was me sitting in the lobby while he was upstairs in meetings, but then we'd get into the truck and head to the next town.

He had two tapes, Johnny Cash live at Folsom Prison and McKellar in Scotland. Later I think we got a John Denver compilation. We drove around in this huge box of a truck converted from a GMC sierra to make it usable for deliveries. Like and old Uhaul, I don't think I've seen anything like them for years. But, for some reason, my older sister and I loved this truck. We called it the cheese truck and I remember being jealous when Dad took her on a trip once and it broke down so they had to sleep in the back of the truck on re-arranged boxes that were to be delviered instead of a hotel! Only a kid would be jealous of that.

Funniest thins is that my Dad thinks he was a shitty Dad for having to take his kids on these kinds of trips to spend time with us. At 31, I think it was the greatest thing ever that he would take me at six-years-old with him just so he could spend time with me. I can't imagine what a hassle it was for him to stop the truck so I could pee or eat, or listening to the same song over and over cause I liked it... or buying me crappy gas station toys I liked to keep me distracted from hours and hours on the road.

If I am HALF the Dad he is I've done my job, I know that much.

Yeah, I've been drinking.

[femmocrat]

1. My dad worked all the time, so we didn't get to spend much time together.

Let that be a lesson to all of you young dads. Please.

[seabeyond]

2. be sure to tell you father. over the years, as an adult, i tell my father what i really appreciate

or what i really value that he gave me. they need to hear it. you think it, give it to them. men say no feelings, but they need it. especially as they age and look at where their kids are. moms get it automatically and we tend to forget dads need it too. i am so thankful that i have said something the handful of times i did.

my father worked lots of hours, but he was young, lots of energy, and responsible in duty of dad. he put his time in with us kids. did all the dad stuff. was the coach, would get up every morning at 5 to take me to swim practice. lots of connection and time for us.

my husbands dad worked all the time and didnt feel his job to do kids. different perspective of family. good man, good family life. but when married hubby, he had issue. over last 16 yrs of being married his father has certainly made up, and knows what he missed. but it taught hubby a certain way to be dad, so i have always helped out in sons/dad relationship per what my father did, because hubby tends to what his father did. he is really appreciative of that.

truly glad you appreciate dad. he is part of the whole.

[HEyHEY]

30. I have told him, thankfully

When I was 17 we went on a sailing trip, it was a disaster but I didn't care. I caught him crying (The first time I'd ever seen it) I asked him what was wrong and he basically just said that he felt bad cause he wasn't around much and this trip was a disaster (He didn't say it, cause Dads never do, but he wanted it to be perfect and it wasn't.)

I told him I didn't care and still loved him. It was probably the best thing I've ever said to my father, especially cause he needed to here it most at that moment.

[Maine-ah]

3. this is my Dad

He taught me how to sail. He was always there when I needed him. I miss him with all my heart.
He died 15 years ago, had an asthma attack while shoveling the snow. I had only been home for 2 weeks,
after living in Florida for a couple of years. I still regret all the time I missed with him,
and that my daughter will never know her Avo (Grandfather in Portuguese).
He was a high school teacher for years, retired and we came to Maine when I was 12 years old.

He brought home a pin for me, when he went to France.
I got it as a tattoo this year on the 15th anniversary of his death.

[tigereye]

40. aw, that is sweet- what a nice tribute to your father.

:hug:

[MorningGlow]

4. My dad was a mush--and I mean that in a good way

Quiet, mild-mannered, never a harsh word for anyone. Then again, he never stood up for himself, and his mellow nature allowed my mom to boss him around too much.

I got my love of music from him--and an appreciation for The Carpenters, for which I will never apologize. ;) He didn't have many other interests--bowling, watching football, and his kids. His greatest joy was sitting at the kitchen table drinking coffee, eating cookies, and reading the paper--or watching sports on TV with "my" (read: his) cocker spaniel at his side.

My parents divorced when I was 7, but I think I saw my dad more after the divorce than before. When I was 10, his factory (he was a foreman) moved to Missouri. He was asked to relocate, but he refused, because he didn't want to be that far from me. Sometimes I wonder how many parents would do that these days--divorced families rely so much on joint custody and lots of plane trips for visits.

The only trip I took with him and without my mom was when he and I, and my aunt (his sister), drove to their tiny hometown in Pennsylvania coal country. We took a tour of a disused coal mine and I learned a lot about the region's biggest business, but I learned the most from the stories that he and my aunt told me about their years growing up there. (My grandfather, their dad, died of black lung disease before I was born, and my grandmother moved the family away from the area so her boys wouldn't have to become miners too.)

My parents got back together when I was 15--more for financial reasons and for guaranteed care in their old age than out of love for one another. My brother and I thought they were insane to do that and, sure enough, they went back to fighting within the first year of being back under the same roof. My dad worked rotating shifts at his new job, and I think being out of the house when my mom was home two weeks out of three saved his sanity.

He died seven years ago of cancer after living for a year without a stomach--and he never complained once. Even though he couldn't eat anything, just before he died he asked for his favorite thing in the world--a cup of coffee and a cookie.

My dad wasn't larger than life, but he was great in his own way.

[seabeyond]

5. what a beautiful

beautiful tribute to your father. these threads, i really enjoy reading other peoples stories

[lovemydog]

6. My dad is always trying to live life to the fullest

He took us on trips to places like the Yucatan and Europe.
Perhaps some of the qualities that were good for his business success weren't so good for his family life. I clashed with him a lot when I was younger, especially over moves our family made in furtherance of his career.
He worked very hard throughout his working life. Now that he's retired, I enjoy talking with him just about more simple things like what books we're reading.
Sometimes his work ethic was resisted by me and my rebellious attitude. But I'm glad he helped instill honesty and hard work in me.
Something I admire about him greatly - he's become more liberal as he's gotten older. Now he's bordering on far left radical. So am I.
Another thing I admire about him and try to emulate. He's conservative toward himself and liberal with others.
Overall. He's a good person. I'm glad he's still around. I enjoy letting him know how much I love him.

[redwitch]

7. My dad was a great guy.

He wrote for a newspaper, loved going there. He also owned a used book store for many years. He was smart, funny, gentle and I loved him very much.

[PassingFair]

8. My mother is beautiful and crazy.

I was much closer to my even tempered, always SANE father.

My journal here is nothing but little snippets about him.

We ran the family business together for 10 years, until
he had a series of heart attacks and then was diagnosed
with ALS.

I miss him every day, and he's been dead for 13 years.

[HardWorkingDem]

9. Until he was gone, I did not realize....

That my father was not only my father, but also my best friend.

I have tried so hard to impress upon people that while their closest living relatives are still alive, to seize EVERY SINGLE opportunity to be with them that they can, because when they are gone, they are gone. And that every single thing those people are known for, even the things that drives us nuts the most, WILL be missed and the person left behind WILL even want them things back, too (now, I'm not talking about a bad person, but people we love).

Also, I've tried to tell people, sit down and think of all the questions you want answers to, because when these people are gone, the answers will not be readily available and there will be many, many questions you will have wanted to ask.

So I'd suggest to anyone reading this right now - get off your PC, pick up the phone and call your Dad or better yet, go see your Dad, because tomorrow may be too late.

[Roon]

10. My father was an atticus finch

That sums it up perfectly!

[tigereye]

41. that's pretty cool, Roon!

[elleng]

11. TODAY is my Dad's 97th birthday!

We went to the BALLET when growing up (lived in ny,) I took my daughters to the ballet when they were young, and last weekend had a 'reunion' with my 22 year old daughter at the ballet at Kennedy Center! Will continue this and other musical and traveling traditions! Glad you asked!

[proteus_lives]

27. Mazel Tov to him!

[Rochester]

12. Mine was evil, and I haven't spoken to him in 10 years...

...nor do I plan on ever doing so again.

[rbnyc]

14. That sucks.

Sorry. It's hard to have bad parents, or a bad parent.

[kimi]

21. I hear ya, absolutely. I'm there with ya, unfortunately.

I love reading these stories, cause I think it's heart-warming that good dads exist. Brings tears to my eyes.

Cherish your wonderful dads, people. You are blessed, really. :)

[rbnyc]

13. Wild Bill

My Dad, aka Wild Bill, has been through many transformations, but has always retained his basic weird essence.

His drug abuse and alcoholism had a pretty negative impact on my childhood. But seeing him change his life has been inspirational. But beyond all that, he is an amazing artist, musician and writer and that has been such a gift to me throughout my whole life.

And importantly, whenever something major happens in my life-good or bad-he is the first person I call.

Here's a little essay about my dad from my website:

My dad, among other things, is a wonderful illustrator. He signs his work Bouchard in block letters like a draftsman. I remember when I was a little girl, I used to do little illustrations, sketching them out with a number 3 pencil and inking them in with a pilot razor point, just like my dad. I remember signing my first drawing in block letters, just like my dad and thinking, I better sign R. Bouchard so that when the archaeologists dig up this apartment complex hundreds of years from now and make this important cultural discovery, they will be able to tell my work from my dad’s.

I never had the feeling that it was important to publish or show. I always thought that even the most brilliant piece was best locked up in a metal file box tucked into the back of the closet. I never doubted that if something were truly important, the archaeologists would find it and share it with the world. I knew that I had important secrets locked inside me and that it was my duty to express them creatively. I used to imagine the looks on the faces of the men and women at the dig, uncovering the file box, carefully opening the ancient artifact, and finding the beautiful spacescapes, rocket ships and creatures that had escaped our imaginations in dot build-up and cross-hatching. They would be awestruck and we would be famous, hundreds and hundreds of years after our deaths.

That was a very long time ago, from my perspective, a half second ago from a broader cultural perspective, and from the perspective of the universe, that didn’t even happen at all. None of this ever happened.

http://rbouchard.viviti.com/

[WCIL]

15. My dad got permission from his parents

to join the Marines when he was 17. He thought it was the only way to get out of his tiny, Northeast Missouri town. He was in boot camp at the same time as the Everly Brothers, and he could hear them singing their bunkmates to sleep every night (on orders from the D.I.). He smoked 2 packs of Camels a day, and then got "healthy" and switched to Salem Lights, but he had to smoke 3 packs a day to get the same effect. He quit smoking for good after his first heart attack.

He served in Vietnam in 1967-68. He was an ejection seat specialist, but somehow ended up at Marble Mountain. He was injured in the Tet offensive. After the war he served one year overseas in Japan, then took the civil service test and went to work at the Post Office. He retired at 55 and is loving it, but is beset with health problems most likely due to Agent Orange exposure - if only he could get diabetes it would be a slam dunk!

My dad was not home a lot in my early years, and worked nights at the post office, so I didn't really get to know him until after he retired. He calls me every few days to tell me about the deals he found at Sams or how much he lost at the Casino. He thinks the sun rises and sets on his 5 grandchildren, plays bad golf every Wednesday with his post office buddies when the weather is good (bowls if the weather is bad), and hates Fox news just like me. Talking politics with him is one of my favorite things because we agree on nearly everything.

[tonekat]

16. Dad was born in 1911

I was born in 1954. I always wondered why dad was often tired. He grew up in Manhattan, and saw Houdini perform on the streets of New York. Once he saw a horrific accident where an ice truck made a turn and ran over a motorcyclist, decapitating he cyclist. He was the working young man, supporting his Irish family during the Depression of the 30s.

He had a 1932 Ford, went into the Navy in WWII, and became an electronics specialist, worked on several projects including one plan to use "mini" subs to mine the Japanese harbors prior to the end of WW II. That was likely a one-way mission, and if The Bomb hadn't been dropped before that plan was put into action, I'd likely not be here either.

He was offered a job with Bell Labs, but unfortunately, circumstances being what they were, he ended up being a loyal employee of MetLife (Metropolitan at the time), and returned to the insurance world. I always felt he was frustrated in his lot in life, and I'm sorry he didn't get to pursue his true interests.

During the 60s, he bought an MG Midget, and it was fun to go for drives on the weekend with him. He was Northern Irish, and my mom was from a Catholic Irish family. A real Orange-Green marriage. As time went on, I became fairly sure that he had an affair with one of his secretaries. Considering how looney mom was, I am secretly proud of him for that! : )

He even took me to Manny's on 48th street in 1969 to buy my first decent electric guitar! He enjoyed when I played my ELP and Tangerine Dream records. He hated that band Haircut 100 (anyone remember that 80's band?) I can remember him seeing them on MTV and saying "What the heck is with those guys?" I'd replay "Well, you didn't like long hair, you can't complain now!" LOL! His own tastes ran to Bagpipe records, played at high volume.

I have a feeling he would have been OK with my decision several years after his death in 1999, to change from a son to a daughter. Thanks Dad! : )

[elleng]

29. Hi, 'neighbor!' My Dad was born in 1913, in NYC (97th birthday Nov. 13!)

Navy guy, too (legal officer), worked in his dad's deli on Amsterdam Avenue, told me about chasing ice trucks. (I was born in '45, so your dad waited longer than mine. I'm the younger of 2.)

[tonekat]

33. Oh, thanks for sharing that!

They lived in interesting times, that's for sure. I have an older sister, and my dad was coming to the hospital via train from the Navy Yard to visit her the day she was born. It was July 28, 1945, and he could look up from the train window and see the hole made by the B-25 bomber that struck the Empire State Building that morning.

Another story he had was taking a truck with another guy to Pennsylvania to get components from Westinghouse. They both had sidearms on for this job, and on the way home, the other guy just had to stop for a quickie with his girlfriend, leaving my dad to guard the shipment alone on the street in NYC.

[Nikia]

17. My father was a musician

Later, he finished his college degree and now is a quality manager. He does not perform for profit anymore. He still performs at church and community theater though. Sometimes I wish I was talented at something like that.

[Bucky]

18. What a great thread idea! (And what a great dad you had, too!)

My dad is the Rock of Gibralter. Nothing phases him. Everything I learned about unconditional love I learned from him. His whole career, his whole life, is built around helping others. When I grew up, I felt like that was the only kind of job that would ever make me feel professionally fulfilled myself.

I got lucky in the dad department.

[1gobluedem]

19. I have a great dad

And he's still with us; a young 73. He and my mother married in college and had two kids before he graduated. He worked the line at GM by night and went to the University of Michigan by day. Went on to teach high school history and government, coached football and tennis (and was coach of the year in the state in both). He coached two sports, ran the clock at basketball games, and after completing his Masters Degree in the summers, taught summer school and tennis all so we could go away to college. He's earned every penny of the retirement he now enjoys and every time I hear or read of someone saying how soft teachers have it I think of him getting up at 4:30 a.m. to correct papers after getting home from practice at 6:30 or a game at 9:30 the evening before.

He's always been a staunch Democrat, is a talented artist, and one of the funniest and best storytellers I've ever known. He made up silly songs about each of us when he would towel dry our hair. At any particularly bad piece of acting he'll begin applauding and will shout "Emmy! Emmy!" He's slow to anger but can get there (he's Irish after all) but he never laid a hand on us. He's a great man and I love him dearly.

[Skittles]

20. in 90% of the pics of him

he is holding a cigar

[FarLeftRage]

22. My Dad is still with me...

It's my turn to take care of him, especially when he still thinks he's 21 at the age of 87.
I always had a good relationship with and now with his wife gone, that relationship is even closer.
He's always been a hard worker and a good provider for her and their children.

[Chan790]

23. My dad's a monster.

There's no getting around that. He's a multiply-convicted felon, a recovering drunk and pillhead who actually became more violent as he got sober. A racist, antisemitic, anticatholic white-supremacist who won't even do me the privilege of letting me pretend he's dead; every month he creates a new Facebook profile so he can send me a friend request and every month I block him.

I walked out of his life when I was 14 and it was the best decision I ever made.

[Skittles]

35. so sorry, Chan

I think a lot of people would be better off if they realized, no, we cannot pick our relatives but no, we do not have to put up with their bullshit forever

[REP]

24. My father was not much of father but he did have a great sense of humor

He died when I was 29 - 16 years - and that's about how long he didn't speak to me, simply because my voice is similar to my mother's. Not the things I said - I just literally sound too much like her. I saw him before be died, mostly for my brother's sake, but his as well. He was dying an awful death.

He was very, very funny though. Told great jokes and stories up to the end.

If you ever want to hear about brothers, I can tell you about one of the best persons I know - my brother.

[proteus_lives]

25. My father taught me many lessons. Good and bad.

He taught me how to live my life by example.

He taught me by doing the right thing and by doing the wrong thing.

When I was a small child, I worshiped him. He was tall, commanding, when he spoke people listened, when he a mean look in his eye, people got the hell out of the way. Between the ages of birth and ten I thought he made the sun rise and set.

But then two things happened, I started growing up and the stars left my eyes. He was cruel, abusive (to himself and his loved ones)for every strength there was a weakness, for every noble trait there was a horrifying evil.

So as I entered my teenage years, I hated him and clashed him at every turn. He come in and out of my life and it was usually bad.

Then he fell apart. He retired and that brought him no happiness. Give my father a task and he'll accomplish it, he'll batter through every obstacle in the way until he reaches his goal (He proved this in war, business and his personal life). But with idle hands? He despairs and starts lashing out. He started boozing and doing drugs again. (Habits he left behind in the 70s.) The doctors told him in 1989 that he'd be dead by 1991. He lost it and my mom left him. (It's 2010 and he's still here. Doctors, pffh.)

My mom took my sisters with her. And for reasons I'm still not totally able to articulate, I stayed with my dad. Those two and half years it was just me and him were....a journey to say the least. I'll not speak of it here.

My relationship with him reached the low point when I started college and he hit bottom. That's when he surprised me again. He taught me another lesson. A person can change if they truly want to.

He stopped with the drugs, he stopped with the booze and he started confronting the issues that had haunted him his whole life. He stopped being off-on-again with my mom and told her he needed her back all the way. He proved this by doing something he had never done before. He made himself completely vulnerable to another human being. Body, soul, mind and wallet. His resolve worked and he and my mom begun their own hard road back. Eventually I would stand as his best man in their re-wedding.

And I learned of his own horrific childhood, the ordeal of Vietnam, the drugs, the booze and the things that were not excuses but reasons. When we laid it all out I learned one of the most important lessons. No matter how much pain you're in or how angry you are, it's not right to lay it on or take it out on another person. I vowed then and there not to repeat the mistakes of my father and grandfather.

Now, as a man I realized my father wasn't a angel, he wasn't a demon. He was a man who won many victories, did many good things and also made many mistakes and did his share of evil.

Several years ago I realized that I stand shoulder-to-shoulder with the man who I once thought was as tall as a mountain.

A few months ago when he helped me figure out a financial issue, I realized I still had a lot to learn from him.

When I helped him after his last trip to the hospital and he got out of the car and stumbled and I helped him to the house. As I put his arm over my shoulder and lifted, I thought "He needs me now."

We still have our flare-ups. We always will but now he's willing and able to stay things like "I was wrong" or "I'm sorry" Things that 20 years ago wouldn't passed his lips even if he was on fire.

He's my father. I see him every time I look in the mirror.

The most important things he taught me.

1. Everything a man does/says/thinks comes down to two things, love and fear.

2. Rage will make you powerful but it always consumes you in the end.

3. It's never wrong to ask for help or ask a question.

4. Trust but verify.

5. Never break your word.

6. If you can't laugh at yourself, you can't laugh at anyone.

7. Hard work pays off.

8. Never up give up your voice, your guns or someone you love.

9. Always keep a spare $20 in your boot.

10. A man should always carry a spare set of socks.

11. Always look a man in the eye.

I've left a lot out. There isn't enough time or space here to write it all down.

At the end of the day, I love my father. He's there for me and I'm there for him.

[Xipe Totec]

26. One of my favorite memories

I was about to spend the weekend with my father at the drilling site, somewhere in northern Mexico. Dusk was approaching as we traveled a lonely dirt road winding through the hill country. There was nothing but chaparral, cactus, and the occasional wild pepper plant. And there was also mile upon mile of barbed wire fence. Suddenly he stopped the truck. He got out and motioned for me to follow. He went to the fence and leaned his forearms on the barbed wire and looked out to the horizon. I followed his gaze and saw that he was watching the sunset. Gray clouds were dissipating in the west. The sun was starting to fall behind the clouds, heading toward the high hills in the far horizon. The colors started to change. The bright blues became darker, while the clouds that were gray caught fire. A deep orange blaze came from the center of the clouds, as if we were looking into the heart of an open furnace, or Thor’s own forge. We stood there for a very long time watching this majestic sunset. The colors slowly faded back to gray, while the stars began to twinkle in the heretofore-empty blue sky, now inky black. Without a word my father stepped back from the fence and climbed back into the truck, and I followed. We continued all the way to the drilling campsite without exchanging a word.

[madrchsod]

28. my dad was great

i learned a lot about life from my dad...espically politics-democrat and the great depression. history was his passion along with auto mobiles. but what i learned the most from him is how to live my life in peace and harmony with others around me .
i was lucky i had a great mom and dad plus my dad`s mom and dad lived right next to us and my other grandmother lived with us.

[Tikki]

31. My Dad was my Father-in-law...such a fine person...

I did not have any contact with my birth father after age 8...but he sent a support check every month until I was 18 years old. That was a good thing he did there.

Now, one week after my 15th Birthday I met my to be Father-in-law. This is what a Dad is all about. He was a kind and
fun and sharing person.
And the son he raised turned out to be as kind and amazing as his dad.


Tikki

[Bennyboy]

32. My dad was EVIL...

beat my mom the day she came home and said she was pregnant with me.

paid someone to have me fired while I was managing a competing firm to his. The same person he was getting blowjobs from. And she did. Then ten years later he got mad at her and ruined her life by saying she was insane. She lost her kids, her house, everything.

used my contractors license, faked documents, then did not pay taxes, or Workmans comp or payroll taxes for three years while I was strung out on dope due to his bullshit.. One day I had a knock at the door. IRS and you owe us 18K and we want it now. He paid it but still.

Got so involved in my marriage that he had a meeting with my (now ex) wife and told her a ton of crap about me that was bullshit. And she believed him.

Pulled a gun on me so many times that I don't remember one incident but a composite of them all.

ran over my foot and left me to hobble for 6 months while I could not walk.

I caught his friend and partner stealing money by the 100s of thousands, I got fired and the guy got to keep his jpb while he sold (gave) the business to the blow job girl above.

Went to my place of work, on numerous occasions throughout my life and got me fired or told my boss a bunch of lies.

Told me I had health insurance when I worked for him so I had a bunch of tests done only to find out he did not pay and I had a bill for 10K at 18 yrs old.

But worst of all, he deliberately screwed me and my brother by making deals that ran out, instead of in perpetuity (and he could have done that but wanted to teach us kids a lesson) that eventually ended up fucking over himself and my Mom cuz they outlived the agreements. Now my Mom is on the edge of homelessness and if it were not for me, she would be.

And this only some of the shit I Can come up with in five minutes.

[vixengrl]

34. My father, for good or bad is the role model for me--to his grief, sometimes.

My dad, to get an image of him, is 6'3" and handsome, but with thick glasses and a strong build. My father is a working man--a person who needs to do things: whether it was do serious overtime when he was working, or have a great lawn, or wash cars until they were immaculate. The man has a beautiful attention to detail. He carved magnificent jack-o'lanterns, and decorated our house with a train table around a themed-Christmas tree. His artistic and musical sense, his ability to tell stories, his ability to make the work of his hands into something meanigful, sticks with me.

I remember when I was young and he took me to the Art Museum--he got it, I mean he was as stoked by all the beautiful things we saw as I was. His enthusiasm was mine. His enthusiasm for music became mine, as I listened while he gifted me with Dylan and The Doors and Steppenwolf, and appreciated my voice and my love for music, too. When we tell stories together, we laugh with the same wry cynicism. I like to say--My mom tried to teach me all people are equally worthy, my father that all people are equally flawed. He can be a negative person at times, and cynical--but his responsibility towards other people runs deep. He may criticize someone deeply, run them through with insight about how they have gone wrong--but he'll also be among the first to sympathise with their plight.

His language is colored with slurs I would not use, but I think he isn't as bigoted as the language his time and place left him with--because I'm his kid, and I'm sort of a bi, atheist, ultraliberal--and he still loves me. I don't confront him on what he says--and he sort of doesn't mention that I'm not as attuned to details, my yard is shady, my house a mess--because I think he respects that the one thing he did right by me was help me be this outspoken person who puts out my point of view, who stands my ground, who isn't scared of things because he taught me and toughened me.

My Daddy has been my good friend, a drinking partner, and a solid rock who has seen me through the weirdness of being a kid, being bullied, being smart, being artistic, being married, being on the verge of divorce--being divorced and coming back to his house, being married again, and becoming a way more political person, and I think he isn't just accepting of how I've been through changes, but maybe even sometimes is proud of my changes. My father isn't perfect, but he has always been so supportive of me...I can't help but admire him. He made my big old self a fighter and a wanter. And I fight and I want---

[Flaxbee]

36. I think my father is dying.

He has three aneurysms and is in constant pain; he seems to be failing. I hope not; I just got back from seeing him for the first time in 3 years.

But I think we're losing him.

He did not treat my mother well, but if I needed help, he was there.

[cherokeeprogressive]

37. My Dad looked over our back fence one time...

We had just had a pool put in. Big in-ground pool. At that point, we had no pool deck or patio furniture to speak of. When he looked over the fence, he noticed the neighbor's wooden chaise lounges. By the end of the weekend, we had a whole set of patio/pool deck furniture, based on the design of those chaise lounges, and he built it all himself. It was the first time I had ever seen him work with wood, and the workmanship of it all was the best I've ever seen before or since.

Once while on a road-trip vacation, the Chevy Blazer we were all traveling in while pulling a 23 foot self-contained trailer blew a fuse, then burned the whole electrical system when he pulled on the light switch as the sun was going down. We had already traveled from L.A. and were between Las Vegas and Salt Lake City. He hitched a ride back to Las Vegas, bought tons of color coded wire, and rewired all the burnt wiring underneath the Blazer simply by tracing wires, and replacing them. It took him two days, and my Grandpa stood next to the truck the whole time and told him he was wasting his time. On the third day, he got in the driver's seat, started the truck, checked the lights, and they all worked. We then went on to finish a four week road trip vacation without another hitch.

In my teens, he wanted a Dune Buggy. He bought a sand rail frame and an old junker Volkswagen. In a matter of weeks, we had an AWESOME sand rail, and a picture of it even made it into the magazine "Hot VW's".

When I was 8, we were having breakfast one Saturday morning when the phone rang. My Dad switched phones, and after he hung up, I heard him sobbing on our front porch through the kitchen window. I found out YEARS later that HIS Dad had just died that morning. I'm his only son.

He's a Prick. He's a Man's Man. He's generous to a fault, and selfish. I've never met a man I admire more than Him (but for some reason, I can't tell him... He'll just reply with a harumph...}. I've never met a man who embarrassed me more than Him. He dropped out of school in the 8th grade, and later used a dead brother's birth certificate to join the Navy when he was 15. He got a GED the year he turned 40, AFTER he was promoted to Plant Manager at the industrial laundry company he worked for in Los Angeles. I remember how bright his smile was when he came home from night school...

He's 75. He smokes a pack and a half a day. He loves him some biscuits and gravy, big T-bone steaks, eggs over-easy, and Chivas Regal.

I don't call him often enough, we argue too much, and every time my land line rings, my heart skips a beat.

He's the Most Interesting Man in the World, and when he's gone, well... I don't want to think about it. I've often BEGGED him to write a story about himself, but he won't.

[tigereye]

42. nicely told! Sounds like a cool guy!

[denbot]

38. I spoke with my Popps earlier today.

My dad was a contradiction of being loving, and being strict. The only thing he really did that I fault him was leaving my mom, but at least he waited until my sisters and I were all in our twenties.

He used to take me with him to work summers after I turned 7 or so. He was working as a mason. I would help, carrying a single brick at a time, but I mostly played in the sand, or dropped ants in the molten lead the plumbers used to join pipes with.

In my teens he used rent motor homes and take our family on trips through Arizona up mountain roads that a motor home should never take. He would also take my buddy and me to the desert to ride motorcycles and I taught him to jump his little Kawasaki. He face planted on a fairly small jump and I thought I killed him, but the worst he got out of it was a scratch on the back of his hand, and he still has scar to prove it.

The one reason I regret that I never had kids of my own is because it is a disappointment to him. I could never be the dad he was.

[tigereye]

39. those good times are the ones you remember as a kid- I think the value of a

parent's time with their child(ren) (no matter where or when) is the best.

[tigereye]

43. my dad is a quiet guy with a sharp sense of humor- he will surprise you that

way. He's a chemist who raised 5 kids with my mom in a small town. He was pretty patient with we girls, but no so much with our brothers. He took me all kinds of places, to the airport (it was a big deal in the 60s to pick someone up from the airport), showed me a lot about cars (I would stand outside while he fixed em.) We had great conversations (still do) while he drove me back and forth from college. He understood certain things better since he had been to college and grad school and my mom had not - although she would have been great had she had the opportunity or desire to.


He's now 85 and can't windsurf anymore due to small strokes and that's probably the hardest - he would be the guy with long white hair windsurfing at a local lake for many years. He loves to be outdoors on the water. He's very tolerant and smart and those are very good qualities, which I think most of we kids were able to learn from.

[deutsey]

44. Never knew my real dad

Long story that I don't feel like going into.