A Father’s Day Tribute to Dads Who Do
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I’ve realized since becoming a parent that my dad did a lot of things with me that he didn’t necessarily want to do. Things like rabbit hunting in the desert and fishing at an overpriced trout farm. He did them because I liked them, and that’s a marvelous thing.
At the ball park recently, watching Boy 8 make himself a target, I was wishing I had my camera so I could capture some of the dads actively engaged. One guy wrapped his arm around the shoulders of his very dejected-looking son, bending down to talk to him.
Another crawled through the tunnel at the playground, following his three year old daughter. Her face said this was the best day of her life. His said he would rather smear himself with honey and lie down on a fire ants mound. But he was there. That’s admirable.
(On a side note, Girl 2 just came and shared her licorice with me for Father’s Day. “Wanna bite?” she said. Distracted by writing, I took a bite without looking. She shared the end she’d already been gnawing on! Pre-chewed licorice is the greatest.)
So this is a shout out to all you dads who are in your children’s lives instead of in in the La-Z-Boy. (Like this guy, who hates fishing, but that’s only because he ain’t doing it right.) It’s not always easy, but you pull it off and it inspires me. It’s a bonus that some of you are bloggers and share bits of your life over the tubes. Happy Father’s Day to these on and offline warriors:
Bad Dad Radio (Roland)
Freaked Out Fathers (Pete)
The Molkster
The intrepid fisherman from the picture
And many more who I look forward to meeting.
June 16th, 2008 at 6:41 pm
Man, you made me laugh, you made me choke up. “His said he would rather smear himself with honey and lie down on a fire ants mound.” That’s gold! (Hmm, maybe there’s a writer in you…)
And a very happy fathers to you too, though belated! May there be many more strands of licorice for you to ingest .. just not pre-chewed!!
June 16th, 2008 at 10:38 pm
Thank you for including me in that list. It actually brightened my day. My belated best wishes to you and other dads reading this.
-Roland
June 17th, 2008 at 5:28 pm
Thanks Joe… I’m enjoying spending time being a full time Dad and Husband in this latest ‘unemployed’ patch, and totally relate to all the father stories you list in this post. Pre-chewed everything tastes best - at least when you didn’t know it was before you ate it!
Happy (belated) Father’s Day USA to you, and here’s to the tubes… may one day we all slide down the right one and meet somewhere in the middle…