Posted on 06/21/2015 11:13:44 AM PDT by blueunicorn6
My Dad taught me how to drive a car with a manual transmission.
"Let the clutch out slower next time."
My Dad helped other people all his life .
He never met a stranger, as a matter of fact, wherever we went, no matter how far from home, he would run into a friend or acquaintance.
At 5 years old he told me "if the bully is bigger than you then its all right to pick up a stick"....(I did)
My Dad taught me how to fish, hunt, fix cars, build homes and furniture, and to see the beauty of nature and to be a God fearing Christian. He also taught me how to love one woman for life and make a marriage work even through hard times.
My Dad was a hard worker. Still is, he gardens every day ... from a wheelchair. He does not believe in being idle, one must be busy and have a purpose at all times, and he instilled that in his children.
My Dad is very generous, to a fault sometimes. One of his famous quips is “long as I’ve got a biscuit, hon, you’ve got half”.
Professor Emeritus of Education at Valdosta State University. Has a brick on the Retirement Walkway there.
Lost him in 1986, way too early.
It was all secretive, he could not tell my mother where he was going, and all their letters were censored; no postage as he had a franking privilege as I think all servicemen then did. Later it became clear where he was.
He did so many good things for my mother, me and my sister, it would take pages to tell about all of it.
He taught me how to drive in a manual transmission car with the stick shift. I drive a 24 year old Honda Civic five speed to this day. He taught me a little secret about parallel parking. When I was done with my driving test at age 16, the instructor told me to pull over to the curb which I did. He asked, "Who taught you how to drive?" "My father." "Well, he did an excellent job." The schools didn't have drivers' ed yet.
After his military service he worked for the Corps of Engineers and projects up and down the Mississippi in his district. His last big project was Chief Design Engineer of the Red Rock Dam and resevoir near Pella, Iowa. Now I see they have broken ground for a hydroelectric plant.
I said a little prayer of thanksgiving and for his soul today. I also wished Our Heavenly Father a happy Father's Day today :-). My father died in 1982 at the age of 72. I think he would be astonished and greatly saddened by the path our country has taken politically, socially and economically.
I notice that among us conservatives, the fathers have many of the same characteristics. A lot of the comments others have posted could have been said about my dad, and I suspect the reverse is also true.
No wonder we are the way we are, and liberals are the way they are, God help them. Especially the fatherless ones, or the children of mom and a parade of boyfriends.
Read and learn, liberals.
placemark
my father's idea of a big time was roller skating in downtown Philly...he was given nothing and he had nothing...
it didn't stop him from enrolling underage into the Navy and fought bravely in WW2...
he worked diligently on his meager job, supplementing it with selling Watson products on the side and then started a small catering business..
he never became rich but he had no debt when he died and was able to leave money to each of his 6 kids...
mostly,my father was the one who took us trick or treating, who always made sure there were presents under the tree....even as adults, he seemed to always give us things, and money....
they do not make men like my father anymore..my husband is about as close as it can get, thankfully.
My father served in WWII, Korea, Vietnam and every little clean up mission they sent the Marines on in between. Two things he hated most in life were welfare and conscientious objectors. He was the only person I ever met who was more conservative than me. I miss him but I’m glad he’s not around to see what’s happened to the service since he passed.
My dad was the hardest working man I ever knew. He didn’t believe one had to go to college to earn a good living. His goal was to leave each of his children a million dollars. He did that and used up his health and good years doing so. My mom and dad never traveled or took vacations. Their main luxury was a nice ranch with a cabin and small lake he dug himself that we could make memories at and we still do. I thought he would be found dead on his dozed someday but Dad is still with us, - bedridden with Parkinson’s now. I’ve been cooking all morning to take him and Mom supper so am going shortly to visit. I sure wish he could go to the cabin and fish with me. Happy Fathers Day to all you dads out there.
He taught me to play and love the game of baseball.
My father encouraged me to paint and about the arts. Introduced me to the art of Van Gogh, the impressionist movement, the life of Michelangelo, Poe, Letter’s to Theo, Dante’s inferno (for the Dore illustrations) Cocteau’s Beauty and the Beast and to recognize phonies and hypocrites.
I miss him every day. He was a poet himself.
Mine taught me to shoot. The 82nd ABN taught him...
He escaped communism so his children would know freedom.
(I say, “know” freedom rather than have freedom. It is up to us to keep it.)
Three quotes from my dad:
1)
There’s them that’s good
There’s them that’s bad
And then there’s them that just needs killin
2)
STUPID should hurt
stupid SHOULD hurt
stupid should HURT
3)
Wish in one hand, spit in the other. See which one fills up first.
well, he actually said something other than “spit” but that is close enough.
My dad was a WWII veteran as well. He made it onto the beach on D-Day and several weeks later got cut down by a mortar in St. Lo. Evacuated to a hospital in Britain and stayed there for a year. He got home, got married and had me and my brother. He worked like a dog, I never remember one day him being home sick. Mom died when I was three and he stuck by us all those years. He was a rock, a true member of the Greatest Generation. They all were. God bless them and Happy Fathers Day.
My dad lived the American Dream and passed its promise on to all of us.
He never wavered in his love of God, Family, Country.
As a kid you don’t understand how courageous a man must be to hew to those simple values.
May God bless him and Mom too.
Oh my. Where do I start?
He was our hero. We never feared for anything when Dad was around. For my sister he was her Knight in Shining Armor. For me he was the best buddy ever and consummate role model.
He could scold with just a glance or a humph and that was all that was needed. We knew we had disappointed him and that was enough to get the message. He believed in us so much.
When we got older we found out he was not superhuman or perfect and we respected him all that much more because we then saw that all that he did he did for love.
He was every bit the Grandfather that he was Dad and maybe some more because then he had experience. Somedays, in many ways, I think my son is his greatest work and he is so much like his Grandfather in so many ways.
I can’t say enough about him. He was athlete, artist, musician, historian, poet writer, engineer, mechanic, craftsman, gardner, adventurer, professor, leader of men, even a fighter pilot and he loved our Mom and he was a God fearing man. Neither of us can remember him once not having time for us. We could set our watch by the time his old pickup would roll to a stop under the big oak tree after work and none of us could wait for him to get home. Including him. We thought everyone grew up like we did and then when we grew up we found out that hardly anyone did.
His integrity is nearly legendary in our home town to those that knew him. We are expected to maintain that legacy and do. He does not haunt us, we are part of him.
He as been gone 10 years now and I still can’t mention him without crying. I’ll never get used to him being gone.
Happy Father’s Day Poppa!
My whole childhood was one big long father and son project.
What a nice way to put it!
Yes, it would be something worth doing and seeing.
A tribute to great men nobody knows. Much greater men than those destroying and leading our nation that get way too much publicity, too much good said about them and not enough truth about how awful they really are.
A tribute to good men who were busy doing the right things and minding their own business. Good men who didn’t need to lord over others to make their mark.
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