[SilentServiceCPOWife]

Happy Father's Day to all of the Freeper Dads.

I'd like to give special acknowledgement to my step-father. He is a kind, strong and patient man and he'd have to be to live with my mother. His love and guidance have been invaluable to me and my sisters over the past ten years and we're all grateful that he came into our lives and showed us what a real father is.

Happy Father's Day, Geo.

[xcamel]

Thanks, Same back attcha..

[SandRat]

Took My WWII NAVY Vet Dad out to breakfast yesterday. Just he and I sitting out side at a local resturant talking cars, family, laughing, remembering what it was like when I was small and all the trouble I got in. Just Father and Son talking over the breakfast table about guy stuff.

[umgud]

My 4 kids took me to a nice eatery yesterday and showered me with gift ceretificates to my favorite gun store......... today they will BBQ for me whilst I watch NASCAR. As for my dad, I've pre-paid a guided hunting trip for the fall and broke the news to him today.

[No Blue States]

I threatened once to run away and my Dad said: "fine then run away."

So I did.

All the way out to the field in front of the house where I had dug a hole in the ground and called it my fort. I brought some bread to eat and a coke.

After a couple of hrs I heard him calling for me. The grass was high so I peeked up enough to see him, but he couldnt see me.

I ignored him because he did not know where I went and he needed to be taught a lesson.

But he kept calling, and the tone of his voice told me he regretted it and didint want me to really leave.

He went back in the house eventually, but came back and hollered for me some more. I ignored him some more.

Finally I decided he had learned his lesson and came crawling out of my fort and crossed the field to my house.

When I came in expecting a whipping he didnt even mention it and we watched some movie and ate popcorn.

Happy Fathers Day, Dad. I should have invited you to my fort.

[ElkGroveDan]

Now that I have five kids of my own, I really appreciate all my Dad went through to keep the five of us fed and in shoes and clothing year after year. I now know that special burden he went through during times of employment upheaval and uncertainty.

God Bless all the Dads who's lives are given up to their families.

By the way, the gang gave me my first digital video camera for Fathers Day which I can open now or go back and swap for another brand or for one with different features. Anyone here experienced in home digital video have any regrets over missing features, or appreciation for this or that, or other experiences you want to share with digital video?

[american spirit]

With all the knowledge we have on FR I'd like to see any and all words of wisdom posted that can be helpful to the upcoming generation of fathers. Guys in their late teens and twenty's have been fed so much BS about homo & metrosexualism they don't know who they are anymore as well as how important strong fathers are the only hope for this country as we enter the next stage of radical feminazi Hillaryism.

[docman57]

Thank you! And happy Fathers Day to all you fellow Freepers, especially those of you still on Active duty and in harms ways!!

[Gabz]

Thanks for posting this!!!

Happy Father's Day to a few of my favorite FReeper dads.

[MortMan]

Because of some health issues, and a middle-aged man's guilt left over from being a typical teenager, I recently sent my Dad a seven page letter talking about some of the memories made with and lessons learned from my father. I did it because I wanted to tell him I remember...

I remember that he was there at every single game/match/whatever. He supported me in everything I did, whether or not it was something he was really into - like musicals!

I remember him being - kind of - patient when I was his unwilling accomplice - trying to install a one-piece muffler/tailpipe on a '72 Chevy van on what had to be the coldest February Sunday ever.

I remember when he baby-tapped a deer in the early evening on an icy road - traveling to a wrestling match to watch me compete. Both deer and '72 van were fine. Deer and driver were startled, though!

His response? "I was just trying to do my best." Dad, your best was THE best - it was exactly what I needed, even if I didn't know it at the time. I'm a Dad now, too. I hope my best is half as good as yours was!

Thank God I took the time to tell him before it becomes too late! God bless you, Dad! May he give you many, many more years.

I want my kids to see you the way I do.

I love you, Dad.

[bizeemommie]

Thanks, dad! Happy Father's Day!! Love you!

[No Blue States]

[REDWOOD99]

Father of 4 here wishing all fathers the blessings my children have given me.

[catonsville]

He was only 5'2" tall but was the hardest working, toughest person I ever knew. He supported a family of three working 16 hours a day seven days a week in a series of Brooklyn candy stores. My father had come to America from Russia at the age of five, want to work full time at 13, had only two years of schooling, could only print the alphabet, never had time to learn how to write it. He closed his small store only on one Jewish holiday, although this did not stop some customers banging on the door demanding he sell them cigarettes.

I remember his thick fingers on hands that could throw tied stacks of a 100 pounds of old newspapers 10 feet out to the curb.

He would order goods he knew would not easily sell because a salesman had a large family to support.

He treated his customers with more respect than they treated him, I was angry at this, but he wasn't. He loved the neighborhood kids, would often give away candy. He extended credit to the poor and would sometimes forgive the debt when he knew they could not pay. This did not stop him being hassled or his windows being broken a few times by neighborhood bums, He was never afraid of them.

He had so little time off until he had to stop after cataract surgery when he was in his sixties. Not working was difficult for my father. He retired to sitting on the Brighton Beach boardwalk watching the Atlantic Ocean.
He developed heart trouble, kept it to himself, until I found his pills. He died quietly in his sleep at the age of 77.

I never heard my father say a bad word about anyone. He raised two children who got graduate school educations.
He never complained, was quiet, shy and decent.

My father worked much too hard, but he felt he had to. Life was not fair to him, he was a honorable man who deserved better.

He was embarrassed whenever I sent him a Father's Day present. I could never persuade him how much he deserved it.

[reagan_fanatic]

This is my eight-month old pre-born daughter Samantha. She will be joining my family in about one more month, and will join her 14 year-old sister and 17 year-old brother.



Fathers Day definitely applies here!

[CyberAnt]

I give a special salute to my DAD who loved America and was always sad that he was too young for WWI and too old for WWII. But he taught me to love America (even with all her warts), and I remember going to see every military movie they made which showed America as the VICTOR.

Thanks DAD for a great inheritance - loving my country.

[Theresawithanh]

My father passed away two weeks ago, so this Father's day is a little hard for me, and probably will be difficult every year.

At his funeral, many of the family got up and talked about what he meant to them, their grandpa, their dad, their brother, their uncle. Some of the tributes made us cry, most of the tributes made us laugh.

My father was a wonderful person. His only wish was that all of his family would take Jesus into their hearts. A lot of times he'd say that maybe this life wasn't always so easy, but God had guaranteed us the best retirement plan!

[cubreporter]

Happy Father's Day to all the Freeper Dads. May you live to be one hundred with your great grandchildren sitting on your lap. God bless you all.

[Pharmboy]

Well, three of my five were here (the three that live with me and the bride). Oldest working today in DC and son working also--NYPD. But it is a great day--some others are over, and I got a bottle of Glenlivet 18 among the gifts. Even my dogs gave me stuff.

For me, the highlights are the computer-made Father's Day cards that the kids make for me. Excellent crop this year. Hope you had a great one...

Best to you,
PB

[DoughtyOne]

It's the one day of the year when I reflect back on the path that fatherhood led me down.  It's the one day of the year when I acknowledge something that I don't often dwell upon.  It's the one day of the year when I realize that the happiest moment in my life was just being somewhere.  It actually happened not once, but twice in my life.  Sorry ladies, it wasn't either of my two wedding days, although those rank right up there.  As I look back now over the years, the most special moments of my life were spent in rooms during the early morning hour when Ronnie and the late morning hour when Jennifer were born.

I'm not sure that women fully understand this, but men cherish their children every bit as much as they do.  Even though we did not carry our children inside us, we are instantly bonded to them.  We know that the fact that they entered this world at all, was because of the intense love we experienced with you, their mothers.  We anticipate their arrival and love them intensely before they are even born.  We see in them your eyes, our cheeks, your hair our hands.  We do not express this love the same way you do.  Some of us actually think telling the children ten times per day that we love them, is counter-productive.  Once every few days seemed more believable to me.  Saying it with my eyes, smile and hugs seemed more believable to me.  Saying it by going off to work and coming straight home every day seemed more believable to me.

Those of you who are not fathers should know up front that fatherhood is not always the rewarding experience boys and young men think it will be.  Being as perfect a parent as you were determined to be will not be possible.  There will be times when you will be happy with the way you handled things.  There will be times when you won't.  You will cherish the moments you were together and learn to handle the periods when you are separated.  For many of you, that separation will be the most unbearable pain you will experience in your life.  Fortunately most men make it through this.  Even more fortunate, many will not have to go through this at all.

There may come times in your life when you have to let go of your children.  You may not see them for periods of time.  You may think that you have weathered the storm well, have let go and have come to grips with that.  And then that one phone call will come and the emotion that you thought would never be there again, will overwhelm you.  You will come to understand that very few women understand this.  You will come to realize that society does not understand this.  You will come to realize that the deck is stacked against you.  You will weather the storm and sometimes have great affinity for a single giant California Redwood.  It will be the one with a great big crack in it and a burned out base.  It will still have a few green sprouts near the top, and be standing tall.  Few will line up to see it, but some will appreciate what it has been through, and marvel.

Perhaps it is best on Father's day to focus on some of the pitfalls of being a father.  Perhaps it is as important to understand the intense pains of being a father, as it is to ponder the moments of elation.  Perhaps this is the only way to realize how important your father was in your life, whether always present or not.  He's probably not that much unlike you.  Perhaps he felt the unrivaled anguish that fathering you brought into his life.  Perhaps you have never understood that could be an aspect of his relationship with you, or you to him.

On this day fathers across this nation will be recognized for the fact they hold a special place in your life.  Few will be fully recognized for the incredibly special place you hold in theirs.

Life is not perfect.  My father Elwood Len Doughty exited my life when I was two and a half.  When the divorce hit the fan, I was shipped off to the maternal set of grandparents.  My father never know that I spend the first year telling them that I hated them and wanted my father and mother back.  He'll never know that I know that he and my mother were inclined to put us up for adoption, and my grandparents stepped in and put their foot down.  Not even my grandparents ever knew that I knew that.  My aunt Elaine told me.  My brother was fifty years old when I learned how jealous he was that I arrived about six months after him at the grandparents farm, and stole his thunder.  Forty-three years later and he still carried the scars.  At seven years of age I was the first person picked up on the rural school bus route.  I remember asking the bus driver if he thought it was possible my mom and dad might ever get back together.

I determined never to put my children through that.  Decades later I would struggle to keep a relationship together, and put them through a different kind of hell.

My grandparents, both registered nurses gave my brother and I the best early years they could.  My grandfather was my bud.  I sat next to him on the widened tractor seat as he worked on the farm.  We spent late nights listening to the St. Louis Cardinal baseball games.  Harry Carry and Jack Buck gave us blow by blow for Musial, Brock, Boyer, Flood, McCarver, Gibson and others.  Henry Charles Grounds was a gruff older man.  He died when I was fifteen.  He remains frozen in my memory of that time, not a perfect man, not a man that I grew old enough to understand the human frailties of.  He was this overpowering figure that I respected and loved a great deal.  He instilled in me a fondness for baseball.  I spent twenty-five years of my life playing organized softball/baseball due to him.  He's probably the father I modeled my adult behavior after, for better or worse.  Some of it definitely worse.

My step-father didn't impact my life a great deal.  Roy Caperton was a semi-truck driver for Reynolds and Company out of Joplin, Missouri.  He was patient with me.  Although I was a pain at times, I did try to respect him.  Looking back now, I wish I would have expressed more of an appreciation to him for being my mother's husband, and a brief parent to me.  He was a good guy that had been though rough times.

At eighteen years of age, I had become a little hellion.  I wasn't all that bad, but I wasn't all that good either.  It was determined that I'd spend the summer with my father living in California.  I left for California and seldom looked back.

Although my father had picked my brother and I up for vacations every two or three years since the divorce, our relationships were nearly nonexistent.  My father was stable.  He was a good man.  He had three other children and I had a step-mother.

My father grew up around Glendale, California.  He had entered the Navy at 17, a little bit of a hellion of his own.  He served as a supply clerk in the Pacific Theater during WWII.  He was stationed in Hawaii, Japan and was present aboard ship at Bikini Atoll during some of the nuclear testing there.  My father talks fondly of his service in Japan.  He was able to travel by himself freely there around six months after the war ended.  The Japanese people were very respectful.  On a bus one day, a pregnant Japanese lady stood up and offered him her seat.  He thanked her very much, and asked her to please use the seat herself.

He remembers watching nuclear weapons tests from five to ten miles off, after the initial blast flash.  This is something I did not know until just a few years ago.

My father joined his father as an ambulance driver for the county of Los Angeles when he returned from the war.  He married my mother and they had two boys, my brother Len and myself.  After the divorce he remarried and had three more children, Susan, Jim and Steven.  He served as a Los Angeles County Deputy Sheriff under Peter J. Pitches.  He served as a patrol officer, a sergeant, a sergeant with the Special Enforcement Bureau and as an internal investigations officer.   In his capacity with the Sheriff's Special Enforcement Bureau, my father was involved in the apprehensions of both Patty Hearst and Charles Manson.  There were large details so it shouldn't be construed that he was the actual officer who took them into custody, but he was there as part of the operation.  As a patrol officer my father and his partner busted the largest commercial theft ring in the history of Los Angeles, up to that time.

During one of my visits to California as a young boy, my father gave me tours of the Wayside Honor Ranch and the Hall of Justice Jail in downtown L.A.  Around fifteen years later, I would spend a portion of a four and a half month stint at the later, on roughly the 22nd floor.

My father was a good man.  I always respected him.  He conducted himself in an exemplary manner at work.  He provided a good home for his second family.  Although I had reason to be bitter, I never went through that.  I'm not sure exactly why.

My father was both a blessing and at times a curse to my first marriage.  I'm sure others could understand this.  Despite this, I love my father very much.  I do not always tell him how much I do, or why I do, but I do.

At this stage of my life, I understand how things happen.  I understand that your desire for things to turn out rosy don't always flesh out.  I understand that my father is human.  I understand what a good one he has always been, and continues to be.

I believe that he is a better man than I.  I don't really think it is necessary to tell him that.  I guess this is something to file away in that place where I file the pain of missing him for sixteen years as a child, along with the utter destruction that took place each time when knew he was leaving and I wouldn't get to see him again for two or three more years.

In the next ten years, perhaps much less, my father will be leaving again.  He won't be coming back this time.  Today is the day I make sure he knows how much he has meant to me, and still does.

Giving these special people a few hours of our thoughts on this day is both edifying for them, and a growth experience for us.  It certainly has been for me.

Perhaps it's time for that second call today.  "Yes dad, I know I already called.  I just don't think you understood how much I truly do love you."

Hope your day was special forum dads.  Every one of you have experienced some of what I have, and I do think it's great that you became fathers.  It's a growth experience that places you in a category of understanding that men who do not make that choice will never enter.  You have been tested and tried.  Kudos to you.  It's a personal growth thing.  You have graduated with honors to a certain degree, everyone of you.

I would like to thank the folks who participated on this thread.  I hope you enjoyed it as much as I did, reading the other contributions and how they apply to you and the realtionship you have with your father.