A couple of my earliest memories involve my dad and some then horrifying, but now hilarious situations.
The first involves my favorite stuffed animal at the time, Snowball. She was a white cat with a long tail that I carried around, petted, and treated like a real cat. I'm pretty sure Anna and I even did a couple of veterinary surgeries and saved her life several times! So, picture our little family hanging out in the living room (I'm pretty sure only Anna, Ben, and I had been born at this point) and my dad was playing with my cat. I don't know what he was doing, but he must have been throwing my cat up pretty high in the air because all of a sudden, Snowball was hanging from, and being dragged in a circle by the ceiling fan D: I was horrified. But dad, always the hero quickly jumped to his feet! turned off the blades! and rescued her, unscathed. We probably even did a little exploratory surgery just to make sure. ;)
The second of my early memories involves me, Anna, and Dad along with a Red Rider wagon. It was a real Red Rider (metal, not plastic). We spent many hours of enjoyment leisurely dragging each other around with this wagon, but tonight was not leisurely. My memory is of us barreling down the street. Dad had rigged it so that he could hold a rope and pull, while my 6-7 year old self could hold the handle (turned backwards) and steer. Anna was somewhere, not sure whether she was in front or behind, but knowing her, she was probably fighting me to steer. ;) Anyway, back to the memory: we were barreling down the street. I don't know how fast we were going (Maybe 30 mph? My dad was a track runner and I'm sure at that time he could run as fast as a car, maybe even a speeding bullet! ;) So, for the third time, we were barreling down the street, and I don't know what happened, but all of a sudden, CRASH!!! We flipped. I remember dad being very worried about us at first, but he saw that we were ok and that there wasn't any blood involved...and the thing I remember him saying was this: "we don't have to tell mom, ok?" Haha! I know as soon as I ran in the door, she was the FIRST one I told the entire story to. Sorry dad, probably got you in trouble that night. It was fun though!!
So, you may ask, are all of the memories of your dad this rough and tumble? Was he only a rescuer of defenseless animals and a speed runner creating his own roller coasters? Of course not.
My dad is BRILLIANT!
He is very smart and on long drives I remember him playing word and math games with me. He made it fun. It wasn't a chore. We liked to play "Think Pink" and my favorite: "If a car is going 30 mph and goes 60 miles, how many hours did it take..." I didn't realize he was honing my thinking skills, I just loved the attention and the challenge.
On trips we also sang. Two of my favorites that we always requested were "Oh, Roll The Ratlin' Bog" and "The Unicorn." Both are by the Irish Rovers (because of course, we are Irish!). The 'Ratlin' Bog' is a round that keeps getting longer and longer. Usually I could keep up and sing the first 1-3 verses, but it gets faster and faster as it goes along and ONLY DAD could sing it perfectly all the way to the end.
My dad is also a hard worker and I knew it. I loved to help him. I can vaguely remember his kitchen remodel and garage enclosure, but I very specifically remember him putting up our basketball goal. He made a small court beside the house and I helped him dig the foundation. I could only have been around 9, so now looking back I wonder how much help I actually was? But, I felt, because he told me, that I was excellent and that he couldn't have done it without me.
So, my dad is crazy fun, smart, and a hard worker, but the list goes on!
My dad makes spritz cookies that he had a special cookie press to mold into pretty shapes. They were my favorite. He can also sew and braid hair! The hair braiding was important. Any time Anna or I wanted braids, he was the source. He can do one, two, right-side-in, in-side-out, ANYTHING. He also used to put our hair in rollers on Saturday nights so that it would be in ringlets for Sunday morning. This rollers thing took quite a bit of time and attention and got us LOTS of compliments. :) There were SO many rollers. One morning I was actually AT church and ran my hand through my hair and there was still a roller stuck inside the curls! That's how thick and curly it made it! No one had even noticed!
Theres tons more stories I could tell, but I'll leave that up to a different time and maybe different people. Anna, Ben, JI, Nate, Rache...or anyone ese! Any of you who want to comment and add your stories, that would be great!
I love my dad very much and I hope that he has a STUPENDOUS birthday! He is Brilliant! I only wish I was there to hug him today.
I LOVE YOU DAD! HAPPY BIRTHDAY!!!
-MC
Oh roll, the rattlin' bog
The bog down in the valley-o
The rare bog, the rattlin' bog
The bog down in the valley-o
Now in this bog there was a tree
A rare tree, a rattlin' tree
Tree in the bog and the bog down in the valley-o
Now on this tree there was a limb
A rare limb, a rattlin' limb
Limb on the tree, tree in the bog, and the bog down in the
valley-o......
Oh my! I didn't even recognize my own brother in law (is that what he would be to me? HMMMMMM...)! Anyways...sweet post MC! ;) Love you!
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