Father's Day Thoughts

Having attended a memorial service last week for S's "second" dad (more on that later), I thought it would be nice to write a few thoughts about my own dad and remind myself how very lucky I am that he's still around (and calling me for free tech support on his vintage computer. I think it's a ploy for a new computer as a Christmas present. :-) )

I have three early memories of my Dad but can't figure out which is the earliest. My Dad is an avid photographer so early on I became one of his (unwilling) subjects. I remember holding my baby sister for a picture the first day she came home from the hospital. He was taking forever to set up the shot and in the interim my sister decided to "spice" things up by filling her diaper. I screamed that the baby smelled. My dad laughed. I was a few months over three.

The second memory is of sitting in a very small motor boat , fishing with my dad in the middle of Long Island Sound. There was a strong pull on my line and the two of us excitedly reeled it in. We were never quite sure of what it was that I caught - some huge, dreadfully ugly creature that I think that to this day makes me squeamish about swimming in salt water. I have a distinct memory of even my dad being frightened by this thing - which in turn freaked me out even more. He quickly cut the line letting it sink back to the bottom. Now that I think about it, I don't remember it splashing or moving. Perhaps it was Jimmy Hoffa. Nah - it was too far back for that. ;-)

My third early memory is begging my dad to take the training wheels off my bike. We had gone to visit some family friends and my friend was already riding a two wheeler. There was absolutely no-way-Jose that I was going to be outdone. I (respectfully, I hope) demanded that he remove those dorky training wheels and teach me to ride. I remember it as a warm summer evening. We were in the courtyard of our apartment complex in New York. He held the seat, ran alongside and I rode the damn thing. Forty years later, I still love riding bikes.

My dad taught me tons of stuff and I can't think of one iota of it that has not been useful. I've learned enough baseball strategy to give Joe Torre a run for Manager of the Year. I can do basic car maintenance. I don't throw like a girl. I've learned some very descriptive Italian insults and when (and more importantly, when NOT) to use them. I've built decks, installed hard wood floors, and have put in enough hours doing plumbing and electrical work to know that a little knowledge is a dangerous thing (last year I managed to blow out the transformer on the furnace).

And now, I even get to teach him a few things - mostly about installing more RAM, PCI cards, and using Photoshop. So I can't complain about being his own personal tech support hotline - I kind of owe him. Happy Father's Day!