Recently I celebrated Father's Day. Not that I was near my father or that I sent him a gift or a card. Okay enough, I'll be more prepared for his birthday but I digress. I woke up the other morning with a thought, "What the hell am I going to do for my dad?" And as I was racking my brain I started to think of my father, and reminisce about our times together.
My dad is someone who has always been a bit of an enigma, we run on different circuits. When I was a little girl I can remember watching him just walking around smiling,I'm not even sure he was happy. He loved mowing the lawn in yellow pants and a Hawaiian shirt. And please don't even get him started on vacuuming. If I were to write a biography of his life I could dedicate a chapter to his obsession with the vacuum cleaner. The whole room could cave in and my father's number one thought would be, " Where is the vacuum cleaner?".
As children my father had sayings that he would love to repeat again and again and again. Whenever one of us would be in front of the television, the words "you make a better door than a window" would ring out. My brother went through a phase as a child where he didn't like to take showers and my father's response would be "you're going to smell like a brick shit house". And then there was the old saying that my father quoted as though it was a bible verse, "You kids seem to think money grows on trees, I am not made of Gold Bullion." If only that last sentence could be in audio.
My father fought in the Vietnam War and loved to talk to us kids like we were soldiers. He woke me up every morning for school to, "On your feet trainee, position of attention, who told you you could move?" And whenever we were lazy or out of line he would like to remind us of how easy our lives were and we should have seen what it was like in Nam.
At the time it went in one ear and out the other. But as I get older these are things not to be taken for granted. The fact that my father was a man's man and sported around yellow pants, is very admirable. He hated animals, we had four. He loves to save money, the fam loves to spend. I could go on and on about all the things he gave up for us but I don't have the time and at this point in my life I don't think I can even fully comprehend all the concessions he made.
My father is a man of few words, not because he doesn't like to talk he just likes some words more than others. He is also man a lot of character and a great sense of duty. I'm not sure I could face the things he has had to face and has done so with such courage. He went to war and will still say that he had it easy. I'm so grateful for his love and devotion and am learning he had some valid points. I still can't find a tree from which to pick dollar bills.
Happy Father's Day!
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