To my Dad

I have an amazing husband, I really do. He is kind and caring and very intelligent. Today however, since yesterday was fathers day, I want to talk about my Dad. I spent a lot of time as a kid trying to please my Dad. Not that he is demanding but I just knew as a kid that my older sister was "daddy's girl" and I was not. Let me just say my Dad did not play favorites, he loved all his kids, it is just that my sister was the first child and they had a special relationship that he and I did not have. I even pretended to like things he liked to make him like me more.

Things like liver and horehound candy.

YUCK!

Papa and The Bug

I know now as an adult that that was a stupid thing to do but who doesn't do stupid things as a kid. As I got older I realized that my Dad and I have one very important thing in common. We both have a very peculiar sense of humor. He got it from his father and I got it from him. I don't think that this is a trait that the rest of my siblings inherited. Not that they don't have a sense of humor but it isn't quite the same. My dad will tell the same corny jokes all the time. Like he tells people that he has "Dunlaps disease" when they look at him with concern and ask what that is he says

"My stomach dun-lapped over my belt".

My Dad making "bitter beer face"

He also has a wicked temper. I remember the arguments he and my Mom used to have when I was a kid. They both have very booming voices, and I swear they could shake the walls. When I got to be a teenager (over the age of 16 that is) I learned how cool my Dad is. He listened to the same kind of music that my friends and I did. Not in a vain attempt to be cool like some parents do, but because that is what his boss listened to at work and he had learned to really like it. How many parents did you know who listened to X96 and knew the names of all the bands on it?

Papa and Lou Lou (I do believe they were both asleep for a minute there).

When S met my Dad for the first time they hit it off right away. My Dad really liked him because of a little "oops" that S pulled when he called my Dad bald and greasy the first time they met.

They are a lot alike.

I married the person that was the most like my Dad. My Dad and I have a great relationship now and I think that is because he talks to me like an adult. I know a lot of parents who don't treat their grown up kids like adults because of the whole "I changed your diapers" syndrome, but my dad has treated me like an adult since I was old enough to understand what that really meant. I know this is kind of rambling and is probably more about me than my Dad but I hope it made sense anyway. I love and respect my Father and I know he loves and respects me.