Happy Father’s Day to all the dads out in reader land. I hope you have a great day with your family.
Each and every year, I get asked the same questions from my daughters, “What do you want to do for Father’s Day?”
My answer is always simple and to some, boring, I’d like a barbeque. It never changes for me because I don’t want to put my family out and I really like barbeques.
Summer for me is outdoor fun, lounging and cooking on the grill. My poolside days are long gone, but if that’s your thing, go for it.
What’s more important to celebrate Father’s Day than family and food?
Then the second question from my girls is, “What do you want for Father’s Day?”
Well, heck, $1,000,000 would work, but since that isn’t in the cards, then I’ll take whatever their little hearts desire.
They really think I’m hard to shop for and trust me, the barbeque would be just fine for me and nothing else, and I’m not hard to shop for. I have only a few interests in life. I enjoy motorsports, particularly Corvette anything, tennis and maybe gadgets such as Apple electronics or power tools, and of course photography.
If you hit me on any of those areas, you’re gold.
I might be obvious, but I’m not a clotheshorse, so buying me a pair of pants is a bit much especially since I don’t even like buying myself pants. My poor mother would buy me clothes as gifts for Christmas and it always made me feel bad because as I got older, our tastes for clothes were not the same. I guess it was the mother instinct in her to want to buy her child clothes.
So whatever happens today, it will be good as long as I can spend it with my children and family.
Of course, having my dad back from the heavens would be a cool thing, even if it were one more time.
Dad was a great guy who was diagnosed with Alzheimer’s disease at the age of 53 and passed away about six weeks from his 67th birthday. His personality began to change several years prior to the official diagnosis, so for me it’s been a very long time since I had my dad without any disease. It’s probably been 45 to 50 years since my father was a well man.
I think of all the things he’s missed since his passing in 1996 and even the 14 years before that, seven of those 14 in a nursing home.
Don’t get me wrong, I’m grateful for having my dad for 39 years of my life, albeit not all good years.
I got to see and appreciate how hard the man worked for his family. He always seemed to have an additional job besides his full-time job at Tobyhanna Army Depot, a place that he loved and cherished.
While at the Depot, he served a two-year term as Commander of the Veterans Council, a job where he did not lose sight of the importance of the duty.
He was one of the founders of the Red Cross Blood Drive, an achievement he also took pride in.
For 18 years, he worked at what was then Pocono Downs as a teller. Some days we’d only see him for 30 minutes between 5:30 p.m. and 6 p.m. when he would arrive home from Tobyhanna only to rush through dinner, change his shirt, freshen up and head out the door for the track.
If he worked that night, depending on the track attendance, he’d come home around midnight, which was most of the time. On slow track nights, he would be home by 9:30 p.m. or so.
My grandfather, his dad, would say to me, “Antnee, your Daddy’s a hard worker, he always work since he was a little guy.”
Gramp always called me Antnee and I enjoyed the nickname from him, but I’ve always wondered if Dad knew how much time he had on earth and how his life would be cut short due to an illness, would he still have worked two jobs or as much and instead spend more time with his children? Maybe one day I’ll get to ask him that question, but for now I can only speculate the answer would be no, it wasn’t in his DNA not to work.
He was a great supporter and of course, my mom loved nice things and Dad made sure to make her happy. Happy wife, happy life!
I mentioned the other important man in my life and that was my father’s father, who I was named after.
My grandfather was very influential in my life teaching me things my dad did not have time for like how to turn a wrench or hammer a nail or change a tire or even take apart a carburetor.
My grandfather and grandmother would take my cousin and myself for Sunday rides where I got to learn the highways and back roads of Northeastern Pa.
Happy Father’s Day, Dad. Say hello to Gramp.
Thought of the Week
“A father is neither an anchor to hold us back, nor a sail to take us there, but a guiding light whose love shows us the way.” – Unknown
Quote of the Week
“A father is the one friend upon whom we can always rely. In the hour of need, when all else fails, we remember him upon whose knees we sat when children, and who soothed our sorrows; and even though he may be unable to assist us, his mere presence serves to comfort and strengthen us.” – Émile Gaboriau
Bumper Sticker
“Every son quotes his father, in words and in deeds.” – Terri Guillemets
