I am thankful for all of you out there who are a father and/or a mentor to some lucky person. The value of your work is immeasurable. I have been fortunate to be associated with several wonderful fathers including Ward, his father, and my very own father.
My father is no longer with me, but the memories of him still are. Below is one of the stories I remember about my father. I have it shared with you before, but I will tell it again because it is one I often think about on Father's Day.
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| Vanilla ice cream was the family favorite. |
When I was little, my father was larger than life. He did the obvious of working hard and providing for our needs, but it was the other things I noticed. Youth is like that. Nothing could equal the thrill I got from riding on his shoulders, or the feeling of flying when he pushed me in the tree swing. I loved carrying his lunch pail and was proud when I could stretch my legs to match his stride. When I got too big to ride on his shoulders, he made things fun in other ways. He fixed the lights at the local swimming pool so we could swim all summer for free. And he made sure we always had ice cream.
Then there was the summer I turned thirteen when I was at camp on a week long canoe trip. One night we ended up camping unscheduled in a farmer's field because of a sudden thunderstorm. We got permission from his sons to camp in their field, but not from their father because he wasn't home. As we were pitching our tents, the dad showed up and was quite upset about our trespassing. After a bit of explanation and negotiation, he said we could stay the night. However, it was obvious that he wasn't happy about it.
After things had calmed down a bit, I mentioned that my family used to live in the area. He asked a couple of questions and soon realized who my father was. His face lit up because my father used to be his fishing buddy. He said that Red (my father's nickname) was a fine man. The farmer said no more, but soon his sons showed up. They carried our water, gathered our firewood, and did anything else they could think of to help. So even though he wasn't there, my father was still making things right. He turned what could have been a tense, difficult night into a good one.
On this Father's Day, I want to thank my father for watching out for me in many different ways, and for making sure that we always had ice cream.
I haven't read this story before. It's amazing how a person's good character continues to shine on even when they aren't physically present.
ReplyDeleteMaybe ice cream is a "dad" thing. I grew up in the era of "taking a ride" for entertainment in the evenings (gas was cheap ...). I don't know that I was especially enthralled with the rides, but I sure liked the stop at the end for ice cream!
Being a farm boy, my father was about all things dairy including ice cream. That was the one sweet that my mother didn't try to limit us on, probably because my father had some every night.
DeleteI didn't like Sunday drives because I (and all of my sisters) got car sick. Therefore, we didn't do them very often. However when my aunt came to visit, that's what she always wanted to do. We had to be polite and go along. Some how, we all survived.
I'm sure you're thinking about your father today and hopefully you're having fond memories like the one you mentioned about drives and ice cream.
What a lovely story! My father died when I was 7 so I don't remember that much about him, but he always made sure I had chocolates! Almost every night, after dinner, he'd hand me a bar of chocolate! My mother made me share it with my half siblings, but they were polite and took just one piece each, all except the one brother who loved to tease and who'd pretend to take the whole bar from me! It was my stepfather who made sure we had ice cream. He'd buy them by the 5-gallon bucket from the big ice cream store and we had to keep them in sawdust because we didn't have a freezer big enough for them! The trick was to eat it all before it melted (and we are talking about a tropical country and no air conditioning!) LOL!
ReplyDeleteI guess dads are the ones who give the treats. It's pretty interesting that your dad gave you ice cream, too, even in a tropical country.
DeleteAwwww, what a sweet story. I have to admit to being a little bit jealous that you got to grow up with your dad being a part of your day to day life. I only saw my dad about once a month after my parents divorced when I was 4. I do count myself lucky though that he is a part of my life now.
ReplyDeleteI know that I was lucky to have both of my parents around and grow up in a stable environment. Things were far from perfect, but I think stability was the key to it all.
DeleteI'm glad that your dad is in your life now as well as your stepmom.
What a beautiful story.
ReplyDeleteThe interesting thing was that we hadn't lived in that town for about 15 years.
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