Posted on 06/21/2015 11:13:44 AM PDT by blueunicorn6
Many things. But, my Dad was from Brooklyn. He unwittingly taught me the proper way of naming the scoundrels... basterds ( pronounced, properly, bah-stihds).
One of my dad's favorite sayings was that every hair on my head cost him $10...I had thick hair. And that was in the '50's.
My dad went to hear Ronald Reagan in 1956 and we heard about RR for at least a month! It was my first exposure to RR as more than a movie star.
My dad was a good husband and father.
When I saw a kid he bought me video games.
I don't remember him.... but being without a “daddy” my dad, in his absence, taught me to seek my “Heavenly Father”.........I learned I was ‘never’ fatherless as I thought.
My Abba Father never leaves me, we walk together every moment of every day... he taught me all that I need to have for life now and eternally with Him, and He's never broken a promise. He always ‘listens’ and is right there whenever I want to talk to him about anything ...and he understands even when I don't.
My Abba Father loves me unconditionally, he's there to mend my heart and revive my very soul when life doesn't seem fair. He uses everything that comes into my life to teach and make me stronger as an individual...just a good father would.
I love my Abba Father.....there is no greater love.....
We need some sitcoms on TV that incorporate these wonderful stories.
saw=was
Got mom pregnant.
He raised me into an 18 year old who voted for Reagan. He also made pay for my own cars and insurance from 16 and up.
My Dad and Mom had 7 children. When we were all very young, he had two jobs. He worked day shift a steel plant, then went to work in the evenings at a cheap motel downtown as a night manager. He got about 5 hours a sleep per night for several years. We kids lacked for nothing.
Don't know if you've ever seen he bumper sticker "Be Good To Your Kids,Some Day They'll Choose Your Nursing Home".
My Dad,who lost my Mom about 35 years earlier,lived in my home for 9 of the last 10 years of his life.Near the end he had deteriorated mentally *and* physically (at age 88) to the point where a nursing home was the only responsible option.
He was damn good to us so we chose the very best one in the area.
I have to leave this thread for now, my screen is getting too blurry and I really have to go do some stuff that I’m already avoiding.
But I want to say my dad was the best, a man of great faith who suffered without complaining, truly knew how to hate the sin but love the sinner, served in the Pacific in WWII, raised 3 children, put up with our mother and was a very good looking and charming man too.
I miss him every single day.
He was a good provider of shelter and sustenance, and some luxuries.
He “loved” me insofar as he defined the term.
My dad served our beautiful country for 25 years in the Navy and Air Force during WW II, Korean and Vietnam Nam wars. He was the most humble, honest human being I have ever known. He did many things quietly for people in need. He loved our Awesomw God!
My Dad passed in 1996, age 78 and I still miss him everyday.
Most of all he taught me to depend on common sense. To think with precision, consider all ideas, thoughts, etc.
When hammering a nail he said, “It’s the hammer that’s hitting the nail, not you. Let your arm and hand be just an extension of the hammer.”
When sawing a piece of lumber he said, “Don’t press down on the saw. That’s a good way to saw a crooked line. Just draw thew saw back and forth. It will saw straight by itself. Let the weight of the saw do the cutting.”
In other words, let the tool do the work. You just provide the horsepower.
I’ve remembered these sayings all my life. True then, true now.
My Dad was a fairly taciturn man from Missouri who never tired of being shown how. One of his favorite sayings, instead of “It’s all yours,” was “It’s all urine.” Then. he’d just grin.
My dad was a great guy and a hero. He was a bus driver in the thirties and forties and refused to enforce Jim Crow in the south. He was the manager of the Houston Bus terminal in the 50s and integrated it way before the Civil Rights Act. His company (Greyhound) had to put him on unpaid leave unless he would move north. My brother was a junior in HS so we waited a year until he graduated. I dont know what we lived on. I remember when I was in college and my dad was giving me some advice and I told him off and asked him what he had accomplished. I still cry when I think of that. He cried when I graduated with my advanced degree, the third of his three children to do so. He had not been able to go to college since he came of age as the depression hit and his parents lost their farm. He went to work, driving that bus. Thank you Dad. Hes with my mother now in heaven. I just assigned him the job of watching out for my daughter in laws brother who died at 17. One of my brothers, the one who we stayed in Houston for, has passed and is there too. I miss them all a lot.
My dad was a WWII vet. He had 6 sons and 2 daughters. Of his 8 children, he left all his worldly possessions to me. Not to spite anyone, but because he knew I was the most mature and the most trustworthy. I have the flag that draped his casket at his funeral and all the pics he took during the War. I also have a hand written note from him saying why he wanted me to have these things. :-)
He’s still living at his apartment near me (2 minutes away) but I have help 5 days a week.
All of that is going to change, soon. Between him running out of $ and his health issues, it’s time for him to be in a supervised setting again...where he THRIVES. Stubborn old Kraut! ;)
He left me with some pretty choice aphorisms.
On worrying about something before you can do anything about it: “We’ll cross that bridge when we get to it.”
On there frequently being more than one solution to a problem: “There’s more than one way to skin a cat.”
On cheapskates: “He’ll squeeze a nickel ‘til the buffalo poops.” (He didn’t say “poops” btw.)
He tried his best to teach me how to make a straight cut. I learned pretty well, but even with all the jigs and guides I can come up with, they are still never as straight as his were.
Not only that, he's largely the inspiration for my charming personality.
My dad was a great dad, in spite of many tribulations in life, including that his own parents had died while he was an adolescent, and he married very young. He stuck by his family with great loyalty and tenacity, even though neither he nor our mom was demonstratively affectionate. He taught us right from wrong and up from down and that was that no waffling. He respected people as he found them, but like others in this thread, Democrats and Communists earned his private contempt.
Dad brought us up from the working class to the upper middle class through hard work and willingness to continuously learn and improve. He lived his life as an example of a dutiful, kind, sportsmanlike, friendly and righteous Christian man, always keeping us on the right trackso much so that when he died and the pastor came to ask us what we wanted said at Dad’s funeral, Pastor ended up expressing envy at our outpouring of gratitude for the way Dad was. He wondered whether his kids would be able to honor him in such a way when his time came.
Before Dad died, he had cancer for a couple of years. During that time, he started praying with us and expressing love and affection most generously. How I wish I had saved some of the answering machine messages, such as when he sang me the Stevie Wonder song, “I just called to say I love you.”
I love you, too, Daddy.
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