dad
i love you, dad. i love that when bitten by a rattlesnake you killed it, sucked the venom from your hand and kept right on working. i love that you were in a band called "wildfire." i love that you get choked up. i love your loud laugh- the chuckle is nice too, but i prefer the loud laugh and how it is only lasts a moment. i love that you called us "knuckleheads." i love remembering you pounding on my bedroom floor (your celiing) when i was talking too late and too loud on the phone. i love your wheat pancakes. i love your chopped off finger and wish, oh wish, i had real memories of looking for the tip of it before mom rushed you off to the hospital. i love that you played the guitar for us to sing to. i love your donald duck impression. i love that very, very loud clap of yours. i love the many memories of playing volleyball or performing in a concert or a play and hearing that clap in the crowd. i love that i can't buy buttermilk without imagining you putting a little pepper on it and gulping it down. i love thinking of those talks you used to have with me when i was punk teenager . . . oh, i hated them then, but thinking of your concern now makes me teary-eayed. i love that you have always encouraged us to be happy in life, and that success is not a word with narrow meaning. i love your self-control, your incredible example of hard work and patience, and the fact that i've always known that you love me, even when i was at my worst.
so, thanks dad, for all the reasons you've given me to love you. happy father's day.
Sunday, June 17, 2007 at 01:14PM
Reader Comments (3)
Katie, that made me cry. As did your birthday card to me last year, which I never mentioned, I don't think. Goood job. I love you.
Good heavens after that I love your dad and all his quirks. With the way you write Katie I'm convinced you could make me fall in love with pretty much everything & anyone, but that was a beautiful tribute to my father. All my dad got was a half hearted Elton John rendition of "My gift is this song" (or whatever it's actually called) by Alysha and me. If only you weren't so specific I would try to steal this and give it to my dad as a late father's day tribute. Sadly (for me) I think he'd have remembered losing part of his finger which would make me stealing this and passing it off as my own rather impossible.
Hee. Whoops. I meant to say YOUR father, not MY father. I don't like that I can't edit. Sure I could spell check & fact check before I post but that takes way too long but now, in hindsight, I should have cause your very beautiful tribute to your dad was indeed to your dad and not my dad, although I still do want to steal it, but still won't. This is me hitting myself in the head right now. And this is me posting twice in a row. Embarrassment thyself be covered.