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re: What’s the most “dad” thing that your dad did?
Posted on 7/17/22 at 9:58 pm to Big L
Posted on 7/17/22 at 9:58 pm to Big L
I’ve posted this before, but it’s emblematic of his approach to Dad things. WWII infantry company commander in ETO. A great man and forever my hero.
quote:
Third grade. Late May. We’d just moved back from to Metairie from Charlotte, NC where I’d spent Second grade.
Dad decided-and told me he had decided-to pass lawn mowing duty to me. He would pre-edge, trim…”do the fine tuning, so to speak” as he put it.
So he turned me loose with an ancient, heavy, unwieldy iron reel push mower whose handle was too high for me to leverage to push and keep blades on the grass simultaneously.
[For all I know, this might be the actual beast.]
I tried everything, even tying a short rope to it and pulling it like a plow horse.
After two hours or so and nothing to show but a varied patchwork of cuts, gouges, and mostly unmowed lawn-I summoned the courage to admit I was having troubles.
“Troubles?”
“What kind of troubles?”
“Have you broken my lawnmower?” “Be clear, what is the exact problem?”
I showed him. I wasn’t tall or strong enough.
“Well, I see your problem.”
“We can fix that!”
So he cut the heavy wooden riser and remounted the handle so that, with Herculean effort, I could manage a nearly straight path and put enough pressure to cut swath with marginally less noticeable gapping and gouging.
“I’m sorry you didn’t tell me sooner. If you had, you wouldn’t have had to cut so much over again.”
“Carry on Trooper.” A favorite nom de guerre given me when he’d finished issuing instructions and orders.
I struggled throughout the Summer and early Fall into October and I know now during that Summer and that Fall-he sacrificed pride in being able to show off a more neatly cut lawn in order to mold his son into a champion lawn man.
Not surprisingly, Santa that Christmas mysteriously put a Western Auto power mower with Dad’s name on it under the tree. A mower he never used except to instruct me the following Spring in its proper use and maintenance.
Dad was true to his word. He never mowed his lawn after passing the duty to me that Summer.
As I’ve grown older, oddly, mowing my lawn has turned out to be the most difficult task I’ve been asked by my sons to relinquish to their capable hands.
Posted on 7/18/22 at 6:12 am to Mr. Misanthrope
I have one of those reel lawn mowers. A little newer version but, I was renting a while back and just had a small area of grass. They work well if the ground is flat.
Posted on 7/18/22 at 6:25 am to Big L
Throw the football with me after he got off of work.
Posted on 7/18/22 at 6:44 am to Big L
My entire life he would call certain places we went frequently (stores, local restaurants) by the wrong name, and always the same wrong name. Like Longbranch became Buckboard's or Ace Hardware became Al's or something like that. Did it all the time. We always told him he was losing his mind and he was happy to play the dumb sitcom dad. I didn't figure it out - that he was doing it on purpose all along - until I was 30 or so. Can't believe he let us go decades calling him senile without once breaking character.
That and realizing Skip Carey was just making up the hometowns of people who caught foul balls were two of the most shocking revelations of adulthood.
That and realizing Skip Carey was just making up the hometowns of people who caught foul balls were two of the most shocking revelations of adulthood.
Posted on 7/18/22 at 7:06 am to Big L
Never really knew him, and wasn’t impressed after a one-hour discussion with him when I was in my thirties. Never saw him again, and he never met my kids.
No one gets to pick their parents, but everyone gets to control what kind of parent they will be if they’re lucky enough to have kids.
No one gets to pick their parents, but everyone gets to control what kind of parent they will be if they’re lucky enough to have kids.
Posted on 7/18/22 at 7:08 am to Big L
Turn off the AC if people were going in and out of the house a lot.
Posted on 7/18/22 at 7:12 am to Pettifogger
Reading this brings back so many childhood memories. Good Memories. We have a 5 YO that we adopted(Late in life. I'm now 60) that always wants to play when I get home. I always grumble about how tired I am, etc. Remembering now how my dad was probably feeling the same way, but always obliged. I think I'll be a bit more receptive to those moments now when little junior wants to play. Thanks to the OT for this wake up call!
Posted on 7/18/22 at 7:40 am to Big L
Radio off when driving in traffic in a big city.
Posted on 7/18/22 at 7:42 am to Big L
When I was real young, dad would cut the grass in tennis shorts and his black socks and dress shoes with straight bill snap back trucker style cap that barely sat on top of his head. He quite seriously could not have cared any less.
Would walk through the hall in tighty whities and wait until he encountered one of us in the hall to let one rip and crop dust us.
Would give long dissertations on why eating anything other than bacon, eggs, and grits in the morning was for pansies.
Would tell you “SHHH” when walking in the room and he was watching sports, just in case you even thought of saying something.
Used us as remote controls for the TV long before remote controls were a thing.
The more I think of it… This was my dad growing up, albeit perhaps a little less made for TV kind of dad.
Would walk through the hall in tighty whities and wait until he encountered one of us in the hall to let one rip and crop dust us.
Would give long dissertations on why eating anything other than bacon, eggs, and grits in the morning was for pansies.
Would tell you “SHHH” when walking in the room and he was watching sports, just in case you even thought of saying something.
Used us as remote controls for the TV long before remote controls were a thing.
The more I think of it… This was my dad growing up, albeit perhaps a little less made for TV kind of dad.
Posted on 7/18/22 at 9:39 am to Big L
The first day of school, my freshman year of high school, my older sister and I were waiting for the bus. I was nervous as hell just waiting on the bus. A few minutes pass and I hear two gun shots from the side of the house (He has an acre of property on the side of the house) I turn around and my dad is full sprinting with nothing but a pair of white new balance shoes and white briefs with a .22 revolver chasing an armadillo. Of course, the school bus rolls up around the same time.
I grew up with three other siblings and he always had a thing with the thermostat. One day he had enough of us messing with it so he installed a lock box. One day I get home from school and my brother is in the hall way with the blow dryer heating up the box so it would stay running. Smart kid.
I grew up with three other siblings and he always had a thing with the thermostat. One day he had enough of us messing with it so he installed a lock box. One day I get home from school and my brother is in the hall way with the blow dryer heating up the box so it would stay running. Smart kid.
This post was edited on 7/18/22 at 9:42 am
Posted on 7/18/22 at 12:13 pm to HerkFlyer
We were so poor growing up that when our washing machine broke, my dad realized the circumference of the drum was the same size as his broken Webber grill and so he rigged the 2 together and created the first ever Washing Machine Barbecue Pit.
Posted on 7/18/22 at 12:24 pm to Big L
My father was an attorney and died of cancer when he was just 49. He suffered for almost a year with pain killers as his only relief. He died on his birthday so our family could benefit from his retirement. It was awful seeing a robust man shrivel to a weak, fragile man.
Posted on 7/18/22 at 12:26 pm to Big L
Mine always watered the yard with the hose in one hand and his dong in the other.
He'd be watering and pissing right in the middle of the yard without a care in the world
I'm sure his beer wasn't far off
He'd be watering and pissing right in the middle of the yard without a care in the world
I'm sure his beer wasn't far off
Posted on 7/18/22 at 1:09 pm to The Torch
He let me sit between the 2 front seats, on the uncomfortable emergency brake in a 1987 Cherokee, so I could practice steering. While towing the boat down LA1. I guess it helped, because that was really hard to do and when I finally sat in the driver's seat for real it was easy.
Vacations in the Astro van with the middle seat taken out, playing games and cards on the floor, and we only had to wear seat belts when we got to a town.
Vacations in the Astro van with the middle seat taken out, playing games and cards on the floor, and we only had to wear seat belts when we got to a town.
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