Taking my father in law to a baseball game on Sunday. Should be fun. My dad has always just been a steady, solid presence in my life. I don't have a lot of crazy stories of him, because he was always calm, and he worried too much to get involved in anything weird or outlandish. But a lot of the most peaceful moments in my life surround him. I can still feel what it was like to pack a PB&J sandwich and be out on the lake in a canoe, as the sun rose and the morning mist started to burn off. The first thing I really ever remember anyone teaching me was him showing me how to skip a rock on the water. Or when we'd build a science project in the basement, pilfering the endless collection of small parts, screws, bolts, and scraps of wood that every dad seems to have. I never really wanted to have kids. Still don't, and it looks like I never will. But I know, at least, that I had a great model for how to be a father.
No, but it has an aftermarket stereo that sticks out because the center console is too shallow, so you can only change the CD if the gear shift is all the way back.
Dad passed about three years ago, my kids are in the states and I’m not, I’m feeling a little down today so I’m reminiscing a little. Here’s something I wrote quite a while back that I reread today for the memories: I figure it’s been about thirty-five years since we did so, but dad and I threw a ball back and forth for a little while in the rain yesterday with my kids as he showed us the proper technique for gripping and throwing a knuckleball. It was about thirty-five years ago that I hung up my spikes for cigarettes and delinquency and dad and I have not thrown together since. We golf together now and hang out together when I have time but we haven’t played ball since I gave it up so long ago. Dad was a powerful hitter when he was young and I heard stories of him hitting balls on top of the mill in Hazelwood from their game in a nearby parking lot. Dad’s uncles were knuckleball pitchers and dad got the pleasure of trying to catch for them as they practiced. My brothers and I played ball when we were young. They were much better players than I but we all loved the game. For practice, dad would take us to Frick park and hit monster fly balls to us from one end of the softball fields to the other. Now my daughters are players and we spend our Spring weekends at ball fields and batting cages. I throw and hit them fly balls and work on their throwing accuracy. I watch as they work on their hitting at the cages and I try to help their batting eye and swings so that at game time they’ll be hitting screaming line drives. We share a love for the game and we catch till my shoulder hurts and they play hard and work to be good players and it’s a beautiful thing to me. In the movie “Field of Dreams,” towards the end of the movie, the character played by James Earl Jones talks about how the one constant in American life is baseball. America has rolled by like an army of steamrollers. It has been erased like a blackboard, rebuilt and erased again. But baseball has marked the time. This field, this game: it’s a part of our past. It reminds of us of all that once was good and it could be again. So it is with my family. Baseball carries through us as generations come and go and it is the one constant that runs through it. We steamroller through our lives and go in different directions and always there is baseball binding together the lines of my family. For a moment yesterday the lines of my baseball family merged as three generations took ten minutes in the rain and threw knuckleballs back and forth. It was a good moment binding together a thing that we all shared and it connected me with my dad with his uncles with my kids. I told my older daughter a while back that I want to have a catch with her when she’s thirty and her life has moved on. She laughed and said sure and didn’t understand what I was reaching for, the continued link of baseball, the continued connection that we share, the simple act of having a catch that connects us to our individual youths and times in our lives that are good and simple and together.
My FIL is a total deadbeat who spent 12 years in prison. Im glad that I don’t have to spend any time without other than the perfunctory visit 2-3 times a year.
WOOOO! Twenty years a dad, and still dad-bod number one! With no maintenance! I'm looking forward to watching movies in bed all day tomorrow. Jungle Julia got me one of those electronic picture frames that plays a slide show. It was supposed to be a surprise, but she left the website open this morning. It's been four years since my dad died, and I still miss him.
My dad died not quite 3 weeks after my son was born; mom died almost 2yrs to the day before dad. I get sad in moments with my son that should be happy. I find they remind me of activities my son should've been able to do with his grandparents. At times it's a struggle...I shouldn't get sad when my son starts laughing and giggling.
Dad died a few (5?) years ago, I have no kids, so Father’s day is nothing more than a sale on tools for me at this point. I hope the rest of you with kids/dads enjoy the day tomorrow!
My dad passed 13 years ago and sadly I really don't have many memories of him. My parents were divorced when I was 4, dad was in the military and only showed up for a few days every couple of years. He did try to make up for lost time later in life, and the memories of flying with him are some of my most treasured. My boy passed 10 years ago and that's what the holiday reminds me most of. He never got to realize the man he could've become. Like Wut had posted, he and I revolved around baseball. He and I would play catch in the backyard for hours on end talking about everything. Except we weren't throwing knuckleballs. We were trying to throw the ball through each other, with extreme malice.
I've kind of grown used to her voice, but more than anything I like the attitude she puts across. A band's frontperson needs that kind of attitude and if they can somewhat carry a tune that's just a bonus. Our singer was shit (And the rest of us weren't much better), but the dude could work a crowd and peacock across the stage like nobodies business.
I can’t imagine losing a kid, sorry to hear about it. I can see why tomorrow would be hard. Once when one of my nieces was visiting with her college ball playing boyfriend, my daughter and I were playing catch and she was throwing with a little extra snap to make the ball crack in my glove, a bit of showing that she was a player too. I do miss that sound.
Something a little less depressing... I'm still looking for an old farmhouse and it's starting to look like southern Minnesota might be the promised land. Check this out...$30K:
I wouldn't laugh until you've successfully fired up your AC with it... you may need to up the size of the capacitors in your AC unit in order for it to kick off or else it might trip the draw protection in your generator.
water well and fridge, not AC. House gets rid of heat well enough and we have pools near us and other places we can go if that’s the issue. Just save the food in the fridge and run some fans we’ll be good