Who's your daddy?

Sunday, June 19, 2005

Hi neighbors. It's Father's Day! Since all the family traveled to Nevada for Bushwhackers, they might as well stay around one more day and help Dad celebrate his special honor.

If you are fortunate enough to still have your father with you, please help him enjoy the day. Of course there are lots of things to do with your father! Fishing, hiking, camping, grilling, sailing, going to a ball game -- these are all considered traditional father's day events.

Not certain what he would like? Maybe you could just take some time to sit and talk with him and rediscover what his currents interests are. If you still live at home you probably have a good idea. But if you've been out of the nest for even a few years you might be surprised.

We all change as time goes by and so does our interest in different activities, people and places. What your dad couldn't get enough of three years ago may not be something he would want to get involved with now.

On the other hand, things you thought he had no interest in at all may now be his favorite hobby. Only one way to find out for certain -- ask him.

Maybe things are different with daughters, or maybe it was just my father's nature but I don't remember talking to him about many things that I now wish I had taken time to find out about him.

Things I do know about him are things my mother told me. Dad just never talked about himself much and now I regret not knowing more about him.

I know how he liked his coffee -- cream and three spoons of sugar. He liked his eggs well done with just a little bit of liquid yoke. He wasn't big on ketchup on anything. He preferred mustard. He wanted dinner early at 5 p.m. when he got home from work. He worked at Beech Aircraft in Wichita for more than eleven years.

His favorite television shows (once we got one) was Gunsmoke, Bonanza, Rawhide, and any other western that was on. When not watching westerns he liked anything with Jackie Gleason in it -- The Honeymooners then Gleason's Entertainment Hour.

He loved wrestling on television! Now this was "back in the day" when actual wrestlers were in the ring and real referees who could fine them and even stop them from working for a while if they didn't obey the rules.

My Dad's cousin would come over every Saturday night and watch wrestling with him. My brother and I enjoyed just watching Dad's cousin during the fights.

In remembering my Dad, who has been dead now for almost 34 years, I wonder how much of who I thought he was reflected his true nature and how much of what I saw of him was my mother's influence.

Although we went to the park every Sunday, I don't recall us ever camping as a family.

Dad was a Boy Scout leader for a couple of years and took my brother camping. I think Dad had pretty traditional views of what women should do -- and should not do.

Then again, maybe we didn't have family camping trips because Mom didn't like bugs, (hopping, flying or crawling types) and she didn't like open fires that might burn us all to death in the night.

He and my brother would go to another of Dad's cousin's farm to help him plant in the spring and harvest in the fall. I had no idea of what all folks did on a farm because I had lived in Wichita since I was three years old.

I did think it very wrong for my brother to get to go ride tractors and see cows while I sat at home. When I'd beg to go my Dad would just brush me off and say, "girls don't do that work and you wouldn't like it anyway." But I always thought I should get the chance to decide for myself if I liked it or not.

On the other side of the coin, I never had to mow the grass. That was "men's work" and my Dad and my brother did that each week in the summer. I never begged to take part in that activity.

There are many great memories I have of my Dad -- but not enough! Not enough! Until the next time friends remember; we celebrate Father's Day to honor that male role model in our lives. Don't know what Dad would like for Father's Day? The best gift might be just taking time to find out.