How awesome is your dad?
polycounter lvl 19
Stealing this idea from SomethingAwful, but I think it's pretty cool to hear about peoples upbringing.
My dad is so cool. Sometimes I wish he'd given me more life instructions, but he gave me so much emotional support I can't really fault him. Some of my fond memories:
He would put me in a wheelbarrow full of leaves as a kid and push me all around the yard.
We went fishing once and I caught the largest fish. When he started cleaing and gutting them, I got all sad for my large fish and asked if he was going to do that to my fish too. When he said yes I asked if I could take it back and release it in the pond and he let me. I felt so much better for having rescued my large fish.
We would play a game I affectionately called "rawwr" My sisters and I would get on a metal playset, and he would hide beneath it, pop out when we were least expecting it, and yell "rawwrr" It always caused us to yell in surprise and then fall into fits of laughter.
When I was 8 and had a mullet, he took me to one of the weddings he was shooting. He was in a tux, with a pedo-stache, and I was in a sweatsuit with a mullet. I still have a picture of him holding me and we're both smiling at the camera. I remember it was the first time I got to eat luxury food items.
When I was very young and Coke still came in glass bottles I asked him if I could have another (he had to open them for me). When he said he'd be a moment, I decided to open it myself with a hammer. I still have a scar behind my ear from the glass shrapnel. (not sure why that's a fond memory, but it is)
Watching he and my mother jump on our large trampoline.
He taught me how to wrestle. We had so many nights of rough housing.
He and my mother were very supportive when I decided to go into art. They cosigned for massive loans without any idea of if I'd be able to make money afterwards. Now they brag to all their friends that I make more than the two of them put together (with their three masters degrees between them, while I don't even have a bachelors).
Yeah I love my dad.
My dad is so cool. Sometimes I wish he'd given me more life instructions, but he gave me so much emotional support I can't really fault him. Some of my fond memories:
He would put me in a wheelbarrow full of leaves as a kid and push me all around the yard.
We went fishing once and I caught the largest fish. When he started cleaing and gutting them, I got all sad for my large fish and asked if he was going to do that to my fish too. When he said yes I asked if I could take it back and release it in the pond and he let me. I felt so much better for having rescued my large fish.
We would play a game I affectionately called "rawwr" My sisters and I would get on a metal playset, and he would hide beneath it, pop out when we were least expecting it, and yell "rawwrr" It always caused us to yell in surprise and then fall into fits of laughter.
When I was 8 and had a mullet, he took me to one of the weddings he was shooting. He was in a tux, with a pedo-stache, and I was in a sweatsuit with a mullet. I still have a picture of him holding me and we're both smiling at the camera. I remember it was the first time I got to eat luxury food items.
When I was very young and Coke still came in glass bottles I asked him if I could have another (he had to open them for me). When he said he'd be a moment, I decided to open it myself with a hammer. I still have a scar behind my ear from the glass shrapnel. (not sure why that's a fond memory, but it is)
Watching he and my mother jump on our large trampoline.
He taught me how to wrestle. We had so many nights of rough housing.
He and my mother were very supportive when I decided to go into art. They cosigned for massive loans without any idea of if I'd be able to make money afterwards. Now they brag to all their friends that I make more than the two of them put together (with their three masters degrees between them, while I don't even have a bachelors).
Yeah I love my dad.
Replies
My dad is entertaining, and friendly. I have the same laugh as him. We share alot in common. I get my game from my Dad. dad is a hero to me. But....
My Dad likes to emabarass me in front of the girls I hit on. I think he thinks that he's sharpening my game. In reality he's just causing me problems.
Other than that we have an okay relationship. Wwe talk about money, and every-day-life stuff. We love eachother...but we don't have a special relationship like I do with my Mom.
-R
My brother and I used to have a game we played as children at bedtime. After my dad said goodnight and was leaving the room one of use would shout "goodnight carrothead" or some other silly name and my dad would respond with something silly. This would go on for a little bit until either my brother or I dropped the bomb, "Goodnight, FROGFACE!" My dad would act like it was the most insulting thing he ever heard and then we'd all crack up laughing.
He read me the Chronicles of Narnia when I was very young, I think of Aslan as having my father's voice to this very day. He was always willing to talk about problems and give advice, most of my friends considered him a second father.
I could go on and on about my dad but I don't want to make a long and drawn out post. My dad, Frank Meisse, was and still is my hero and I miss him greatly every day.
Also Justin, your frogface story cracked me up. I can just imagine a dad doing that.
he was an artist as well and spent hours drawing with me, but stopped drawing when i got better than him, i think it was when i was around 14 or 15. he is also an avid outdoorsman and we would go camping and fishing at least once week, at one time we lived in a tent on the beach in a rual area of the gulf coast for 2 monthes.
fondest memory would probably be a camping trip we took to port St.Joe when i was around 15. we stayed up really late and he started asking me to concentrate on things really hard, like he would say pick a shape or color and concentrate on it, then he would guess it. He got everyone right, and to this day i am convinced my dad has superpowers. and i still cant beat him arm wrestling.
we still have an awesome relationship and i talk to about 5 times a week. he is my best friend.
He just got done with his cancer treatment and though he looks like hell, he is full of life and energy and after kemotherepy, radiation, and a radical neck surgery, they cant find any more cancer in him, i am so lucky i get more time to enjoy with him.
Example: My birthday was sunday. Of course, at my age I don't expect gifts, but contact would be nice. Nothing of course, until monday morning when I receive an e-mail along the lines of 'hello old boy, I remembered that it's that time again, so happy birthday'.
Gee, thanks for the effort Dad. Must have taken a minute or two to write that. In six years of living in the US he has called me once. So cherish what you have! I envy you guys really.
I just sent him a birthday card for his 60th though. I try.
It's just an unfortunate fact that the older you get the more funerals you have to attend.
On the flipside, my high school art teacher kind of fell into place as a father figure for me, total awesome down to earth guy that for the last 7 years I've known him has supported me much, much more than my own father ever has. He's one of my best friends(its sorta weird having a best friend thats 15 years older then you, but it works out) now and he more then anyone has shaped how I grew to be a man from the boy I was only 3 or 4 years ago(I'm 20, and if you knew me when I was 16 or 17 I was a tottaly different person). So while not all of us can have great fathers, at least sometimes theres someone else to fill that void.
-but he's a pretty rad dad, I might add.
Sometimes he's in a good mood but that just means he'll start singing annoying and embarrassing songs and generally annoy us.
S'bout it.
How awesome IS your dad?
He's sort of like an old mommy wuss boy... meaning he does everything his mom tells him to do (yeah she's still alive).
He rarely ever calls me and it's usually me who tries to get in touch. When I was still living in Germany, the day I told him that I'd move to Canada a week later he just said "Oh ok. I'm going to go downstairs into the basement and get some meat from the freezer" =/
He doesn't show much emotion... and he's not exactly "bright" :S
As a kid he and I also played sports ALL the time, whether it be tossing a football, a baseball, me struggling as a kid to score a soccer goal on him, etc etc. He's always been a great dad and made sure our family had food on the table, even if he was the cook, then it was mac and cheese, or hot dogs and tater tots or burritos all week long haha!
My dad was never really there for us. He worked long hours, then came home and went on his PC the rest of the night. Never really did anything with us. It was all my mother. She kicks ass. Then my parents got divorced when I was about 7, and that's been that. He's tried to be more dad-like the past few years, but still doesn't call on holidays or my bdays, though he says he tries and gets busy signals....yeah.
So my dad = the lose. My mom = the bomb.
I'll post pics/stories about her later
I grew up with my mom, my brother, my grandparents, and my uncle. We all lived in the same little apartment when I was a kid. It was actually the basement of a doctor's office, with a bedroom and a kitchen.
I have great memories, but none with a dad. For some reason, it was never an issue for me as a kid. I just "didn't have a dad."
My dad is in a rock band, and rides a Harley.
How awesome IS your dad?
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My dad told Milton Berle to go f#%k himself!
My dad is deffinatly awesome. He's probably the hardest working person I've ever known. He works as a firefighter, and on his off days works doing contracting work. Which meant he worked a shit load, usually just to make sure that we had everything we needed (or wanted). At the same time he always found lots of time to spend with the whole family, and brought me up with good principles. He's also a natural leader and has an extremely strong personality.
Tonnes of memories of him, everything from him coaching my hockey and soccer teams or helping me train in different sports to camping trips or just hanging out at home.
There's a lot more to say on it, and I couldn't say it all here, but I respect him more than pretty much anyone else, and have in the past little while (probably about 2 years) realized how much I have gotten from him. I am very much like him, and that is something I am extremely proud of.
And at the same time, my mom kicks all kinds of ass too.
I guess I got really lucky, both of my parents are about the best parents one could have.
My dad's pretty amazing. He's 65 in a few weeks. He took up windsurfing in his late 40s, and a couple of years back was windsurfing some of the best surf Hawaii has to offer with top wave-jumpers and surfers a third of his age. He's a wonderful underwater photographer, and keen skier, and a veteran diver. He's always been a wonderful father to me and my sister, and it's utterly impossible not to like him.
When I was a preschooler he converted a soda bomb into a tiny aqualung and teed up a tiny mouthpiece for a regulator, so my sister and I could lie at the bottom of the pool and make bubbles without making bad smells.
He cried when I got married.
He's completely besotted with my nephew, and is as good a grandfather as he is a father.
I love my father more than I can say.
That picture was taken early this year, just after he began treatment for prostate cancer. He's still going strong, and I thank any intelligent forces that might exist regularly that he had the sense to have regular physicals, and acted immediately on his diagnosis. Men don't need to die from prostate cancer. Most who seek treatment in time do so successfully. That's a message to all you guys who think it won't happen to you.
Since I can't say how awsome he is, I will say my Mum is awsome, albeit completely dotty - we're going to meet her and her boyfriend in Florida for Christmas. She doesn't live in Florida, she just figured it sounded like a good idea when we suggested it.
My Father in Law is also awesome, even though I'm still terrified of him. He's a blackjack dealer, I mean that's awesome by default, right?
Not too cool :] BUT...I will say, that not growing up with him around was probably the best thing he could have possibly done for me. For that...I am grateful.
Now my mom? My mom is fucking metal. :]
I don't see or hear from him much these days, but he's adopted my dog as his little baby to dote on so he's happy.
My dad has always worked very hard, and done a good job (as a geophysicist), and I really respect him for that. He can be a bit pushy and shortsighted, but he is a reasonable guy who has always been there for me when I needed help out.
My folks supported me in my art, but at the same time never had the same respect for art as they did for scientists. Being technically minded, they had no clue how to help me, and could offer no insight into how my life could work for me. That was fine. I figured it out for myself.
One of the funniest things my dad ever told me is that he thought me liking video games was a phase that I would grow out of.
I love and respect my dad. He really taught me a lot.
Still whats more important to me is being a great dad. Ive come home so that my kids have a dad that is *at home* not moving house every year through their exams (my parents) or away all the time working (my wifes parents) Supporting my kids with whatever they want to do (my daughter wants to do performing arts) spending time with them ( I recently took my 8 yr old and 4 yr old boys fishing).
It has meant that my career has taken a back seat but its worth it.
My dad and I get along... well.. if you've seen American Chopper... then yah... it's like some wierd mix between how Paul Sr. treats Jr. and how he treats Mikey. We get into some pretty vicous arguments at times over the many projects we work on at home and at his business, but when it's all boiled over we still laugh about it and get right back at work.
I can definitely say he shaped my mentality growing up, as he went along with me on pretty much every Boy Scout outing he could, taught me how to drive, and definitely taught me (and continues to teach me) the value of being able to do / make / fix something yourself (not to mention the ability to figure out how to do so). His money and time management skills are something I envy and hope to be able to emulate to a degree someday, but his tendency to be a work-aholic at times is something I never cease to rag on him about.
All in all, I have a great deal of love and respect for him, and know he feels the same about me. I hope someday he'll actually retire (50's, and talking with me about starting another company... sheesh) so he can go out to the garage and spend his time doing woodworking with all the tools he's spent countless thousands on over the years. I think we'll have to tie him down in his coffin when he does kick the bucket, cause I can garauntee you if the lid squeaks he's gonna get right back up and fix it so it doesn't.
He now lives in an RV travelling somewhere along the west coast of America, trading native American jewlery and acting in folk festivals. He took a job in a university teaching folk law and story telling, needless to say, he tells a good yarn and can captivate an audience. He knows no such thing as embarassment, which was hard for me and my sister when we were growing up, but then I guess all pairents find it easy to make thier kids embarassed
In my childhood, because of his dyslexia, he found it impossible to forge a career for himself. He had many jobs including; Interior decorator, binman, toilet cleaner, forrestry guard, gatekeeper for a castle, flag raiser, HIV aids testing "pat down" guard in Haite Street mobile clinic San Francisco, archeology dig site guard, grounds keeper and others! He's also an awsome carpenter.
His first wife died of cancer when he was just 23 years old.
My fondest memories of him are when he used to come home covered in grass from using the strimmer, and proceeded to explain to us how he hit a few dog turds... Also I praise him for campaigning to get a re-cycling center built in our town.
My worst memories are of him shouting at me and my sister, he's one scary guy and (was) built like a brick shit house. Now he's just a skinny old man with a massive beard. I haven't seen him in years. So I guess he does fall into the category of awesome for his hard life, but he also loses points big time for moving to the United States when my sister and I most needed him.
My dad created the world from the festering bits of a dead frost giant.
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Dude my dad could so kick your dad's ass!
Here is a picture of me when I graduated Officers Training school. Right next to me, my Dad.
My Dad was a fighter pilot in Vietnam. He loves the Dixie Chicks. Yeah, hes cool.
hes a dude that tells governments how to help poor people in rural areas of africa and asia how to develop their skills and resources.
he used to be a prpper academic type (i know what happened to me i can barely rit me name), one of my fondest memories from highschool, was being told off in geography for not paying attention to a graph we were studying, asked why, i told the teacher, that i was just amused because my dad had written the book that the graph was from.
haha up yours Miss Dodd
My dad and I have always been huge hobbiests. One these hobbies is archeology. When I was young, we'd be looking for arrowheads and such, and I would tire out after only a short while. He would then carry me on his shoulders and we'd continue looking. If he found a point, he would many times call me over and have me try to find it before he would ever pick it up. Sometimes he would pass one up in hopes that I would point it out. If I'd miss it, he would pretend like he thought he saw something and would call me back over.
Now I'm 26 and we still share this hobby. I work now, am married and now have a daughter...so we dont get the same kind of time we used to. That makes me sad in a way. And I'm glad Ben started this post...because it makes me really reflect on all my Dad and I have done together. The loss that will someday come...will certainly be one of the most difficult things I'll ever have to bear. (Thanks Ben, for making me cry at work). :P
Even for all that, he spent the greater part of his life trying to make sure we'd live well enough. So, at the least I respect him for that. I just try to not say anything beyond what's necessary, lest he have a fit.
Despite all that, mom says I'm just like him. Scary prospect.
Not to mention HL1+BS,2 and GunMan...
He can even kick my ass in Total Annihilation!
He taught me how the world is and he taught me this early on and I realized that parents are not invulnerable and that nothing is for ever.
I can't really say he was a cool dad; well he left when I was 9 & my brother was 5 and he tried to sell the house we lived in with my mum after he took up with another woman and then stiffed us on child support.
It's my understanding that he was a better husband than a father, my mum has never loved another like she did him and while they were together is was a whirlwind romance, genuine romantic love.
Being a dad though, it wasn't for him so he left and I tried to be my own dad. I'm not really bitter about it, I'm old enough to understand that he lost more than I did as he never got to see what my brother and I became over the years as we grew into men.
The experience as a whole taught me what a kid needs and what a woman needs, because I had time to articulate what my brother, mother and I had lost.
Nowadays I'm living the best days of my life and know it while in the midst of that and every day that I watch my daughter and my wife swell up with warmth , love and confidence in contentment at the rightness of our lives...
...well, I think I appreciate the worth of that more than most so in an odd sort of way, I can thank my dad for that.
Though, I thank my mum a whole lot more!
r.
It's annoying and cool at the same time, since we sometimes get lively about it.
But he definitely isn't cool when it comes to art. He's the "You're literally crazy, and you will be a bum if you become an artist" type.