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Father's Day
Jun. 18th, 2006 11:39 amI just spoke to my Daddy. Yeah, I'm nearly 45 and when I talk to my father he's still "Daddy." And, if I need anything from him or I need to deflect an argument, all I have to do is say "Daddy" and he's toast :). I'm his first born and his 'only son'. I'm the tomboy who crawled on, in, and under houses with him during projects. I hung out on the fender of the car and pestered him endlessly while he did maintenance. I am the one who went camping, hiking, and fishing with him. I climbed trees, beat up boys, loved on animals and rarely behaved myself.
Things I learned from my Daddy:
1. My love for reading. I'd taught myself how to read by about age 4 but it was my father's constant reading that taught me to love it. In 1969 he was home recovering from back surgery. I was pestering him so much that he handed me Jules Verne's "20,000 Leagues Under the Sea" and Heinlein's "Have Spacesuit, Will Travel." I disappeared for a day and then came back and asked for more. Both of us spend more than our weight each year in books.
2. The outdoors. My father is a Texas boy who loves being outside in any weather. A gentleman farmer, he taught me a love of plants wild and domestic. He taught me the names of birds, the animals of the forest, and the fish in the streams and lakes around us. He taught me how to fish. While he won medals as a sharpshooter in the Navy he couldn't stand hunting so I learned that elsewhere.
3. DIY. I'm handy and creative with projects around the house because of my dad; which is a bit of a giggle since my dad really WANTS to be handy but isn't. He's an effin rocket scientist when it comes to nuclear engineering but it once took him five HOURS to hang a simple ceiling fan!
4. When I was eight and helping him build a pantry for our house in Virginia, I hit my thumb with the hammer and swore a blue streak. My dad just watched me do it, checked to make sure I hadn't broken my thumb, and then said "yeah, I know kiddo--just don't let your mother hear you say that."
5. Breakfast. Breakfast is a meal for any time of day. On the rare occasions dad was home alone with us at night dinner was french toast or waffles--home made too! I also learned that powdered donuts and Miller Lite was the best breakfast to be had at 4:30am on a bass boat in some lake in Texas. Me, Dad and my Uncle Bill would go fishing. I'd watch these two old navy mates grumble over their tangled lines and argue over whose lure was best and never bat an eye as I helped myself to yet another beer--at age 14.
6. Travel. Join the Navy, See the World. Yup...we did. That and more. Every time we transferred if we could drive to it we did. That way we could visit places en-route that we wouldn't see otherwise. My father never drove past a historical marker (we call them hysterical markers). He taught me that the Journey is the joy and that detours and getting lost were simply opportunities to discover new things. To this day I have an excellent sense of direction, a sense of where I am, a fearless joy for traveling to new places I've never seen and where I know no one. I'm still traveling.
7. History. My father is a history nut. I've seen every civil war battlefield in the US--some of them more than a few times. Revolutionary war sites as well, as far north as Upstate New York. While my father celebrates military history, I celebrate world history and archeology much more. Still, along with my love of books and learning, my absorption of history and my passion to know MORE comes from Dad.
8. Intelligence. My dad blew the bell curve on his Navy entrance exam in 1954. He was in boot camp before he could even blink--that farm boy trying to escape little ol' Commerce, Texas. Ten years later he was rubbing shoulders with Fulbrights, Kennedys and more while working at the State Department in DC. He's written books on nuclear engineering that were used in Annapolis even though he himself never went to Annapolis and retired a Non-com-Chief Petty Officer. While I didn't inherit his gift of science and math, my IQ comes from him and my passion for learning.
9. Depression. I get my mild bi-polar disorder from him too but that's okay, it helps me understand him far better than I would otherwise. Watching him suffer quietly, stoically is also what made me determined to get help for mine.
For all the battlegrounds that I have shared over the years with my Mother, my Father was there, letting me fight for myself, but backing me up when it counted and interceding when he could. He's a good man to have at yer back and I love him to bits. When he's gone I will truly feel myself an orphan, but I'll also be what he's made me: an independent, intelligent, funny, strong-willed woman who is stubborn, cynicial, and who has a love for life that is as wide and deep as the oceans he sailed.
Happy Father's Day, Daddy.
Things I learned from my Daddy:
1. My love for reading. I'd taught myself how to read by about age 4 but it was my father's constant reading that taught me to love it. In 1969 he was home recovering from back surgery. I was pestering him so much that he handed me Jules Verne's "20,000 Leagues Under the Sea" and Heinlein's "Have Spacesuit, Will Travel." I disappeared for a day and then came back and asked for more. Both of us spend more than our weight each year in books.
2. The outdoors. My father is a Texas boy who loves being outside in any weather. A gentleman farmer, he taught me a love of plants wild and domestic. He taught me the names of birds, the animals of the forest, and the fish in the streams and lakes around us. He taught me how to fish. While he won medals as a sharpshooter in the Navy he couldn't stand hunting so I learned that elsewhere.
3. DIY. I'm handy and creative with projects around the house because of my dad; which is a bit of a giggle since my dad really WANTS to be handy but isn't. He's an effin rocket scientist when it comes to nuclear engineering but it once took him five HOURS to hang a simple ceiling fan!
4. When I was eight and helping him build a pantry for our house in Virginia, I hit my thumb with the hammer and swore a blue streak. My dad just watched me do it, checked to make sure I hadn't broken my thumb, and then said "yeah, I know kiddo--just don't let your mother hear you say that."
5. Breakfast. Breakfast is a meal for any time of day. On the rare occasions dad was home alone with us at night dinner was french toast or waffles--home made too! I also learned that powdered donuts and Miller Lite was the best breakfast to be had at 4:30am on a bass boat in some lake in Texas. Me, Dad and my Uncle Bill would go fishing. I'd watch these two old navy mates grumble over their tangled lines and argue over whose lure was best and never bat an eye as I helped myself to yet another beer--at age 14.
6. Travel. Join the Navy, See the World. Yup...we did. That and more. Every time we transferred if we could drive to it we did. That way we could visit places en-route that we wouldn't see otherwise. My father never drove past a historical marker (we call them hysterical markers). He taught me that the Journey is the joy and that detours and getting lost were simply opportunities to discover new things. To this day I have an excellent sense of direction, a sense of where I am, a fearless joy for traveling to new places I've never seen and where I know no one. I'm still traveling.
7. History. My father is a history nut. I've seen every civil war battlefield in the US--some of them more than a few times. Revolutionary war sites as well, as far north as Upstate New York. While my father celebrates military history, I celebrate world history and archeology much more. Still, along with my love of books and learning, my absorption of history and my passion to know MORE comes from Dad.
8. Intelligence. My dad blew the bell curve on his Navy entrance exam in 1954. He was in boot camp before he could even blink--that farm boy trying to escape little ol' Commerce, Texas. Ten years later he was rubbing shoulders with Fulbrights, Kennedys and more while working at the State Department in DC. He's written books on nuclear engineering that were used in Annapolis even though he himself never went to Annapolis and retired a Non-com-Chief Petty Officer. While I didn't inherit his gift of science and math, my IQ comes from him and my passion for learning.
9. Depression. I get my mild bi-polar disorder from him too but that's okay, it helps me understand him far better than I would otherwise. Watching him suffer quietly, stoically is also what made me determined to get help for mine.
For all the battlegrounds that I have shared over the years with my Mother, my Father was there, letting me fight for myself, but backing me up when it counted and interceding when he could. He's a good man to have at yer back and I love him to bits. When he's gone I will truly feel myself an orphan, but I'll also be what he's made me: an independent, intelligent, funny, strong-willed woman who is stubborn, cynicial, and who has a love for life that is as wide and deep as the oceans he sailed.
Happy Father's Day, Daddy.
