Dad, you were right about everything.
This is my first post, ever. I simply couldn’t have a blog about being a dad without mentioning my own wonderful father.
He’s been gone for over 10 years now. Sadly, he never got to meet my girls, but somehow I think he’s aware of their glowing humanity. I remember when he was sick and in the hospital I came into his room and sat down in one of those lovely hospital chairs. He was asleep so I just watched him. He started to stir, then sort of raised his hands up in the air and broke into a huge grin. When he woke I asked him was he dreaming? He said, yes he was dreaming of picking up his grandchildren. At that point we didn’t yet have the girls. It was just a few short months later after he died that we found out that Lisa was pregnant with our first. I think he knew something.
My dad was (as is any self-respecting guy) a huge gadget/technology lover. We had one of the first cable TV packages called StarPower. He had one of the first Commodore computers. The list goes on and on. I can’t tell you much he loved his computers. If you dropped by his house he was invariably reading a software manual. Funny, I find myself immersed in the same activity all the time. He would have LOVED this blogging thing.
He was a tremendous spoiler of his kids. He was kind. He was gentle. He was very generous. He had the deepest voice. He loved the Senators and the Redskins. (Oh how he hated the O’s and Yankees.) He believed in God. He ADORED my mom.
I remember as a teenager thinking two things about my dad. The first was he let my younger brother Kevin get away with murder. Those early thoughts were correct and have not changed over the years, Kevin did get away with murder. The second thing I thought about dad was that he didn’t know shit. How could he when I already knew everything? Those thoughts started changing when I hit my 20’s. Slowly, as my “genius” teenage mind emerged from the primordial ooze I began to sense dad wasn’t so dumb after all. It became clearer and clearer as the years pressed on that he was indeed smart and getting smarter by the day. It also became clearer to me that perhaps I wasn’t the genius I thought I was. Hhhmm?
Well, ten plus years after he has gone I know for certain that he was right about everything. He was right when he told me leaving his tools laying in the grass for weeks will make them rust. (They did.) He was right about leaving all the lights on in the house. (They make the electric bill go up, way up.) He was right when he said, “someday you’ll see that I’m right about (insert topic here)”. He was right about it all.
Dad, I miss you. I love you.
E,
Is your first entry supposed to make your readers cry!?! The tears never actually came out because I was too busy thinking about the grandfather who tortured us with long holiday speeches (pinky fingers up!)and odd Christmas presents like toasters and toilet paper. The man that had a two hour argument with his wife over which way you turn the door handle to make it lock! I thought of his other love - food (by the way - we were the lucky recipients of one of those Commodores). He always said “Eh, it’s ‘turable’.(terrible) You won’t be able to eat that”. It was of course, always delicious. And did he say he always made too much or not enough? I can’t remember.
Anyway, blog it up and remember if you need help remembering what it was like to parent a 2 and 3 1/2 year old - just let me know.
WORD!
My father’s parting advice when I went off to college: “Son, you want to find a middle-aged, heavy-set gal with lots of money and a bad cough.”
I didn’t follow his advice but he was right.
Great idea!! Great start - keep it going!!
Susy Fineli
Uncle Flakey, you don’t have a Gravatar? Shame on you sir! Do I have to do everything?…move: http://site.gravatar.com/
Susy, Hi nice to hear from you. I’m glad you like it so far. I’ll be posting a lot more stuff about places to take the kids to. Got Mount Vernon coming up as well as a review of the Baltimore Aquarium’s Rain Forest vs. the Zoo’s Amazonia exhibit, University of Maryland’s Maryland Day and a bunch more. If you have any ideas just shoot me an email or use the “Contact” feature here. Oh yeah, tell your friends!
Thanks - Ed
My Dad has been gone since 1993. I’m still recovering. There aren’t many decisions I make that I don’t put through my built-in DAD filter. He was one of a kind in my book. My feet are significantly larger than his were, but I pray that I can somehow fit in his shoes.