My best teacher, my biggest disciplinarian, my biggest provider and now that I'm all growed up one of my best friends, as well as my biggest hero, was born on February 19.
This person is quite, Wise, kind, calm, loving, DEPENDABLE, funny, intelligent, creative, respectable, well spoken, interesting, Brave, proud yet humble (he isn't going to like all this praise one bit!) FORGIVING, understanding, honest, faithful, hard working, unique and just about every good adjective I can think of... he's all these things!
So does this wonderful guy have a name? Well, his friends call him Jimmy or Jim, but I call him Daddy, but more often these days he's known as Paw Paw (hearing Dax say Paw Paw absolutely melts my heart because he already loves his Paw Paw so much and vice versa).
When I told him this was going to be his Birthday present he told me the same thing he always does which is "I try to forget my Birthday" (that makes two of us Dad) and "don't put all that on the internet."
Dad, sorry to disobey you but there's no way I'm going to post about all these fine people that are/were special in my life and leave you off the list when you are one of the most important.
I'm sure many of you reading this post feel the same as I do. When writing about all the good things our parents have done for us or how important they are, you could easily write a book the size of the dictionary and then some. But, I'm going to try to keep it short-er. ;o)
FACTS:
- Born and raised in Mt. Olive to Travis and Athlyn
- Has a younger sister, Sherry.
- Grew up watching The Gene Awtry Show, Rawhide, Gunsmoke and Bonanza.(apparently the Mickey Mouse Club too. Boy, does he make wearing those ears look cool!)
From Old Photos - Was a member of the 1st Graduating Class of G-dale.
- Married my mother at the age of 20.
From Old Photos - Was a Staff Sergeant in the US Army Reserve.
From Old Photos - Had a Black Belt in Karate.
From Old Photos - Has two kids; my brother, Brian, and me.
From Old Photos - Is and has been an Electrical Engineer for Alabama Power/Southern Company - close to or more than 30 yrs.
- His shirts are always nicely ironed, tucked in with boots nice and shined (he doesn't wear ties as much as he used to, but, he still wears one of my all time favorite Father's Day gifts from time to time (below).
(That doesn't mean he hasn't received bad Father's Day gifts that get put somewhere in his room to collect dust for 15+ years - ahem - Bath and Body Works Cologne and Soap... what was I thinking??)
- Was raised riding horses. So, he in turn raised us riding horses.
From Old Photos 
From Old Photos 
From Old Photos - Loves to ride his Harley with my Mom.
- Enjoys making heavy duty farm equipment to attach to his tractors. (He's probably working on something right now as you read this)
- Has 6 grandchildren and counting.
- He can fix anything with mecurochrome. Sever a leg? Just put some mecurochrome on it, it'll be healed up by morning. In the picture: Dad's medicine cabinet: plenty of mecurochrome (iodine tincture).
- Now has a head full of gray/white hair with my name written on every strand.
Eventually I came around when I realized I had nothing to be rebellious for to begin with. I only needed to be THANKFUL because he loved us so much. Thanks to both my parents I had/have a wonderful life filled with many blessings. But, to this day I wince when I think of what I put my poor Dad through. My mother said she never worried as much because she didn't have to; Dad worried enough for both of them. So he got the brunt of it even though my mom got a good dose too. What goes around - comes around and I'm sure it will come full circle when Dax hits the teenage years. I'm positive I've got it coming. ;o)
WHAT I LIKE MOST:
Writing these posts about very different people draws on very different emotions or reactions from myself. While writing about some make me laugh, others make me cry and some just make me plain stir crazy. The feeling I get when I write or even think about my Dad, is the feeling of Awe. I'm basically just in awe of him and pretty much have been since I've been old enough to grasp a concept of the person he is and the father he always has been. And it's not just me. Clint has pretty much vocalized the same feeling. There's too many things I really admire about my Dad to name just a couple, but these are some that are easily put into words.
My Dad has always been quite the teacher. He never told me I couldn't do something. When I'd follow him around at the barn with the horses, making home improvements, using power tools or just piddling as he calls it, he'd teach me what and how anytime I showed interest. With the exception of really dangerous power tools and what not. Plus the "girl" in me had standards and a power saw just didn't appeal to me but working/spending time with my Dad did ;o)
He never got annoyed with the fact that I'd hold him up either. He always had patience with us. I never heard him say "go inside with your mother." He was always too happy for me or Brian to tag along and we loved it. (Especially to go load hay. Yeah, loading hay... let the good times roll, huh? But we loved it. I still have fun doing that. When Dax is old enough to help, he'll have a blast climbing and jumping from one bale to another.)
He was like that with everything in life. Always asking our thoughts to see what we'd learned - his way of making us think for ourselves maybe? He rarely tells us you MUST do it this way. He listens to our thoughts and either he'll agree or politely point out a better way. That is of course unless we were dealing with something potentially dangerous. In that case, he commands like fathers do to keep us safe.
He's worked hard all his life to make sure that our family was taken care of. It's always been such a tremendous comfort knowing that he's there for us. If he could, he would take any pain we had away and suffer ten fold to keep us from harm or hurt. When he's witnessed me go through a really bad migraine, I can see in his face that he'd gladly suffer that migraine for me if he could. To be loved that much by a parent is what's expected but, sadly, doesn't always happen. That's never been the case for me or my brother. I think I've said before that we know how to love our children so much because we were so loved by him and my mom as well.
Dad, since I know you are glad your Birthday is gone and over with I will just say thank you for being the best Dad I could have or would ever want and I love you!!!
No comments:
Post a Comment