Father's Day

Stories of Dad

Let's ride on 2 wheels

Dad gets a bike from side of road on his mail route one afternoon. Old, blue, and used. Starts to teach Jessica. When I say "brake" push the pedals backwards. Runs down street w/Jessica - let's go - Yells BRAKE ................................... Jessica - w/out stopping - falls over. Jessica *crying* Dad frustrated.

try again

Same scenario

try again

Same scenario

Finally - Dad jumps on bike to "Show Jessica how to do it!" Jessica crying, with skinned up knees and elbows beside Mom, watches dad. Dad goes down road and yells, When I say to brake go like this!! Feet spin backwards like on a 10-speed bike. Dad yells Hey Virginia (Mom), this bike doesn't have any brakes!! Jessica sputtering says th-that's wwhh-what I ww-was tr-trying to tt-tell yy-you!!

update:

A couple of years later older sister taught Jessica how to ride a 2-wheeler on a bike that although was slightly too big for her - had working brakes and that's all the was important!!

Let's drive a car

It was a little hard for Dad to turn over the keys to Jessica. He liked to be in control. Mom mostly drove with Jessica. Jessica preferred it this way .... especially after the afternoon of parallel parking instructions. You know how they say, never grab the steering wheel when someone is driving - yeah, Dad never bought into what "people" may or may not say. He just did things his way. Believe it or not, when I took my driver's test my instructor grabbed my wheel also - causing my wheels to jump the curb - and he couldn't mark me off b/c he's the one that did it - I just pressed the gas. It was his fault for not being patient and letting me think out what I was doing. To this day I refuse to parrallel park if males are in the car. It would take a lot if I'm just in the car.

Let's not even relive going on the freeway for the first time. If it weren't having to travel home so much to see my family I'd probably avoid freeways also!!

Let's work on Arithmetic

My parents homeschooled my sibblings and I. If I was having difficulty in arithmetic I'd have to "Go see your father." Dad explained things differently than Mom espcially with subtraction and division. He would say, well what do you get when you take 9 out of 27? What?? Mom always said, well, what is 27 minus 9? I always loved math - even though it wasn't always easy, but I'm telling you - after working with Dad I felt like I needed to go back to 1st grade.

Let's check out your room

Dad loved doing spot inspections on Jessica's room. That just meant Dad would say at any given time - I'm going to look at your room. :O awwwwwwwwww!! Many tears were shed on those days.

Dishwashers

Dad's view on dishwashers. He had four. Rebecca, Jessica, Reuben, and Nathan. Personally I believe the last 2 dishwashers were useless - but who I am to complain about an appliance!

Polishing shoes and tying ties

I use to love to watch Dad polish and buff his shoes on Sat. night or Sun. morning. People wonder why I'm a bit zany - I think it's b/c of the polish fumes I inhaled! ;)
I also use to sit in wonder of how Dad could tie a tie. I use to sneak and get his ties and see if I could remember exactly what he did to make the tie knot right. To this day - I still don't know how - but I am determined to figure it out!! ;) fyi- I never asked him to show me. Kind of like playing Simon I just watched and tried to remember. I came very close a few times.

My lifesaver

One day Dad took Rebecca, Jessica, and Reuben fishing. While Dad fished the kids played by the water. Jessica slipped on algi and went in. Dad didn't notice. Fellow fisherman said, "Hey! I think your kid fell in!" Sure enough it was me. Dad saved me. On the way saw Mom walking down to fish with us. Dad said - Jessica stop your crying and don't tell your mother. Yeah - pretty much she figured it out right away when she looked back to ask us kids if we had fun and she saw me dripping from head to toe. Even as a small child I remember my dad getting that "And what were you doing?" look from my mom.

...... Dad never took us fishing again without mom!! ;)