Who we are and what we do can often be traced back to our fathers (as well as uncles and grandfathers.
Can you change a brake pad? You probably need to thank your dad.
Are you able to field dress a deer? Thank your dad.
Go muddin’ on your four-wheeler this weekend? Thank your dad.
Been to a race track this year? Thank your dad.
Fixed your roof? Thank your dad.
So far, my dad is 0 for 5 in the ‘Thank You’ department so far. He wasn’t a car guy, a hunting guy, a racing guy, or a construction guy.
And, predictably, I don’t score very high marks in any of those departments, either. There is some hope for me, though. I can change my car’s headlamps, I have hung drywall, I do periodically read about NASCAR, and I did catch a mouse once!
But there probably are a few things that I could thank my dad for.
Thanks, dad, for giving me your love of playing sports. You not only put a hoop in our driveway. You put a basketball court in our basement! If only I grew another foot, I would have been a regular on ESPN highlights with all the power dunks I learned!
You taught me the art of punting. You built our house on a double lot so our home was the place to be for backyard football and baseball. You took your four kids to the tennis courts. You let us tag along when you coached high school sports. You coached our youth teams. You spent hours on end hitting me grounders for our ‘Flubba’ games. You even put this in our yard…
It didn’t get any of your sons to the U.S. Open, but we sure had alot of fun hacking around ‘Aljansga National Golf Course’. And I wanna issue a belated apology to our neighbors for any divots we put in your yards. No broken windows, though!
Thank you dad, for giving me your love of music. Some of the music you played made me cringe back in my youth (I am talking to you, Ray Conniff!), but you gave me an eclectic taste in tunes from Sinatra to Mozart to the Beatles to Motown to Johnny Cash that I now cherish.
Thank you, dad, for your cheesy sense of humor you gave me. I like to believe I trimmed out at least a third of the cheese in your recipe and replaced it with some dry wit. But I still have a heavy dose of Andy Velveeta. I don’t know if my three children, my wife, my 8th grade students, or my blog readers 100% appreciate the humor you bequeathed me, but I’ve think I have squeezed out a few smiles.
By the way, I just watched yesterday one of those old Peter Sellers Pink Panther movies. Funny as ever. I know to be careful if I ever ask someone the question, ‘Does your dog bite?’
Thank you, dad, for passing down your love of Cleveland sports teams.
Well… maybe not.
But anytime there was a twi-nite double header at the old stadium, we were there. (By the way, could the kids of this generation sit through 6 hours of baseball?). And I loved our many trips to the dog pound for Browns’ games. We also sprinkled in a few journeys to the Coliseum for World B. Free and the Cavs.
Thanks for giving me your love of teaching. I can’t tell you how many of your old students have come up to me and told me how much they appreciated you as a teacher. This blog from an old student sums you up perfectly as a teacher. I just finished my 22nd year, and it has been a great career choice. I need to continue to remind myself of how you went the extra mile to touch students’ lives. Teaching is a great opportunity and privilege to be a positive influence, and you epitomized it.
Too bad you missed out on all this fun new stuff that legislators have ‘blessed’ educators with!
Thanks, Dad, for all of your encouragement, smiles, and hugs. They irritated me from time to time as as a teenager, but as I look back, I see how much they lifted me up. I find myself putting them to use on my three kids. But I need to remember to use heavier doses of Grandpa Andy joyfulness and much less of my own creation of ‘grumpy dad’ home brew.
And thank you most of all, Dad, passing your love of God down to me. You not only read me Bible stories and took me to church. You lived your faith by your choices and your actions. You always looked for ways to serve God, especially by serving and caring for others. Thanks for being an example and inspiration to me. I hope I can better strive to follow your lead.
I can thank you for so much more. But I want to thank you for being a big part of making me me.
Though I could probably do with a little less cheese.
I love you and miss you very much!
