Happy Father’s Day! My dad has been gone for over thirty years, but he is still here in my memories and my heart. He was a good dad. He worked hard on our farm and expected my sisters and me to do our part to help. I was the youngest child and should have been the boy I’m sure he wanted, but he never made me feel like I was a disappointment. He was glad to have his girls.
My mother’s dad died when I was five and about the only memory I can pull up about him is sitting in his lap and watching him smoke his pipe and blow smoke rings. Yet he’s the one I used as inspiration for Victor in my Rosey Corner books. He went to France and fought in World War I. When he came home he was a blacksmith at a time when cars were taking the place of horses. He loved books. My grandmother once said that her happiest times were when they were sitting together in the evenings each reading a book. So my Victor and Nadine in my Rosey Corner books loved books too. Mom loved to talk about her growing up years during the Great Depression and I added my imagination to her stories to come up with my stories about the Merritt sisters with her memories threaded into the background.
I knew my dad’s father a little better, but by the time I remember, he was an old man who either spent his days sitting on the front porch in the summer or sitting in front of a coal fire in the winter. I sometimes sat with him and watched him poke the coal to make it break apart and spark into flames. I wasn’t old enough to know the questions to ask to hear his story. He did have a cat he called Muggins and he would tell us what awful things were in the hot dogs we thought were such a treat when we went to his house. Dad’s sister never married and she took care of him and spoiled us girls. My aunt and Granddad are sitting in the photo with my two sisters and mom and dad in the back. I was the photographer. I always wanted to be the one taking pictures.
But then I grew up and fell in love with a guy who made a great dad for my kids. And he showed his sons how to be great dads too. But I wouldn’t be surprised if they might have said or still say some of the things below.
THINGS DADS SAY
• Enough is enough!
• Because I said so, that’s why!
• If you don’t stop crying, I’ll give you something to cry about.
• Wipe that smile off your face.
• Act like you’ve got some sense.
• Two wrongs don’t make a right.
• When I say no, I mean no.
• Shut the door. You act like you were raised in a barn.
• Cut the comedy!
• We’ll do it the right way. My way!
What are some of the things your dad said that make you smile now?
As always, thanks for reading.
Comments 2
You mentioned blacksmith – my dad was a blacksmith in the Navy then welder in the shipyard and lead welder when he retired. Six children in our family, 5 boys and a girl (me), 3 older and 2 younger than me. Only me and my younger brothers left – still think of them as my little brothers though now in their mid-seventies. Was with my dad when he was cutting wood in the forest across from our home. Something happened and he said, “Son of a seacook.” I laughed so hard, thought that was the funniest thing I’d heard. Still to this day I use that expression when something goes wrong and always think of my dad.
Author
That’s a fun memory, Doris. I always find it interesting the things that stick in our memories. It’s good when those things that do stick are things that bring a smile. I’m wondering if your dad wondered why you were laughing so much. 🙂