It’s Father’s Day today. I miss my Dad. My Dad was mostly a fun Dad, an inspiring Dad and a mentoring Dad.
There were only really a couple of times I felt the wrath from my Dad. Once was when he thought I had stolen something from his dresser, which I had not. He chased me around the house until we were both exhausted and he pinned me on my bed and my final plea was that I wouldn’t lie because I was a Brownie. Well, that just put him into hysterics and the event was pretty much over. Wrongly accused but relieved of the blame, finally. LOL
The second time was during one long hot summer. We had a pool in the backyard and I wanted to sit out there listening to the radio. Unfortunately the only radio I could think of was in the car. Unfortunately the car was parked right in front of our freshly painted garage doors. Unfortunately the car was standard and unfortunately the car was in gear.
It only took a couple of seconds to plow the car right through the garage doors. The damage was pretty remarkable. When my sister came home she helped me at least get it out from under the door, which allowed the door to crumble down around itself.
We called the music school to give Mom and Dad the ‘head’s up’ that there had been an ‘incident’. When my Dad got home, he looked at the damage, looked at me, and proceeded to DO NOTHING!!! There was nothing worse than Dad doing or saying nothing when I knew he was furious. I made sure never to do anything to make him mad again. LOL
And mostly I didn’t. Mostly I felt like his pride and joy, like his baby girl, like his student - and later in life, his guardian.
Today as I sit at his desk, his picture smiling at me – I say a quick prayer of peace for his spirit. Life is not the same without him, but I will forever cherish the time we did have, and I honour his life by listening to and sharing his music.
For Father's Day - Here is my Dad playing the 1940's standard, Tangerine.