Father’s Day 2013
Each
year at father’s day I feel this immense self-burden. I struggle with this inner torment to
properly and proportionately show my cult-like devotion to my daddy. Father’s and their daughters have a “thing”
that boys and their dads will just never get. There is just something uniquely
magical about a dad and his girl. I know
not everyone is a “daddy’s girl” and some of you don’t know the first thing
about what I am typing about because…well, your reality is that your dad kind of stinks. To you I am sorry! To you unfathered or poopie fathered ones
here is a glimpse of the magic that is a REAL dad through his daughter’s brown-like-dad’s long-curly-eye-lashes-like-his eyes. I will share the magic so you can know the feeling. I know there are really awesome manly things
that you guys get to do together with dad that is likely just as magically cool and epic but a dad in his daughter’s eyes
is a superhero with no kryptonite unless her little finger is the kryptonite. When I was a kid my dad came to the “club
pool” after golfing sometimes and threw me and my brother around and it was THE MOST
FUN! That feeling of my tummy soaring like the fall of an elevator was the greatest thrill because my dad was the one tossing me so I knew I was safe. My daddy still to this day when
walking in a parking lot, well anywhere really, could point his index finger in my direction
with a downward slant and I would instantly fade into
little girl me and grab it like he was the only gravity keeping me on this
planet while at the same time fighting back the urge to skip with him because
at 5 and superhero it was cool but at almost….well I’ll just say, now, we might
have a welfare call or two placed. I also know that if I asked him to, he would STILL skip with me. I
hear “What a Wonderful World” or “Don’t It Make My Brown Eyes Blue” and I think
of car rides singing with my dad in the front seat with no belt and no airbags
just holding his big hand that looked just like mine only a bigger, boy version, crooked
pinky and all. I NEVER had to set an
alarm clock until I was in college. My
father would call to me upstairs and try to wake me up.
Come back and walk upstairs to physically lift me up out of the bed while my poodle,
Chien (yes dog in French), yapped at him!
He got his morning hugs and he walked this sleepy-eyed, I still don’t do
morning-time, girl down the hall to the bathroom. He came back and hollered from downstairs to
make sure I got IN the shower and didn’t go back to sleep. In the winter, he turned the heater on in the
bathroom, so it was warm. I would meet him down at the bar in the kitchen after
that, if I managed to get ready quickly enough, to eat breakfast. He had it all ready and when I arrived he
would even pour my milk. I was his PRINCESS!
We would eat and talk or not, but with me it was mostly talk. “Dad, do you like your job? How did you pick it?” We talked about insanely deep and important
things like, sports! “Audra, you can NOT
pick a team and then when they start to not do well change to a different team
who is winning. You pick your team and
you stay with them through the good the bad and the UGLY. It’s called loyalty and it is important!” Sometimes, it is disappointing but it isn’t the
end of the world and this life is so full of disappointment and magic and if
you don’t experience those disappointments you will never know the JOY of the
victories that come after was what he didn't say that I learned later. My dad’s eyes
sparkle with a dance I cannot explain when he sees me and now my kiddos! It is
different than the sparkle he has for others as it should be. When I talk to my father in person or on the
phone I feel like the sun came up today just for me! Aren’t the rest of you lucky that I’m
kindhearted enough to share it with you?
My father is human. I get he isn’t
perfect. When I was young and our dog
Tammy died, I found her later in the TRASH!! HOW COULD HE?! After my hysterics were calmed she was
PROPERLY buried and later that night when my daddy found me crying because I
wanted to see where she was, he carried me down the stairs and out into the dark
back yard to show me. He smoked when we
were kids. I cried and said “you’re
going to DIE FROM THAT and YOU’RE killing us with the smoke!!I” My brother
offered to pay him to quit. Phil and I
bought gag poppers and loaded up his Newports with them. BOOM randomly a completely blown up cigarette often the first one of the day. We would hear a word said or two due to the
near heart attack we almost gave him I am sure.
He not once yelled or got upset at us that I remember for literally
blowing them up. One day he just
stopped. Cold turkey and never went back
for him and us or for us and him. He
tolerated my “dad, there’s a new kitty outside” “AUDRA!!! DO NOT FEED THAT
CAT!!!” He knew I would and we would
have another cat! I remember once waking
up and my dad wasn’t awake. Something
was wrong with that picture. I found out
very quickly that my dad was still in bed! I, literally, thought in the core of
my being that my father was dying. It
was 10:30AM and my father was still in bed!
He was sick. That one time was
the only time I remember him being so sick he slept that late. He worked hard. Sometimes, he would take us
to the store on weekends when they were closed and my brother and I would race
to his office to turn on all the lights.
I never remember him missing work because he was sick, or tired, or
because he didn’t feel like it, but when I got a job and went to work not
feeling well, he most certainly picked the phone up and informed my manager he
was to send me home! He taught me to
treat EVERYONE with kindness and dignity because you may have to walk in the
same shoes as them one day. He taught me
to go with the flow. “If you’re stuck in
traffic or at a light, don’t be upset, just see it as you’re stuck here to
avoid a wreck up the road and be thankful for it.” “No matter your circumstances or situation,
it could ALWAYS be worse, so don’t complain, be thankful that that other awful
thing isn’t happening!” He taught me work ethics, the meaning of
duty, the grace of forgiveness even when I completely killed his golf game one weekend, and possibly his clubs because I made them “pretty”
when I cleaned them by using armor all on the GRIPS and they were more like
slicks than grips. Or snapped the back
axle on the back end of my brand new car!
In the 1980’s he bought OU season tickets and
it was soon discovered that my brother’s sports-loving gene was absent. It is completely missing from his “Y”
chromosome! Apparently, my father has a
rare chromosomal abnormality where this gene is passed on the “X” chromosome
instead. Phil had ZERO interest. I had more than an interest! I had BOOMER-SOONER!
THERE IS ONLY ONE…OKLAHOMA! Crimson and Cream streaked blood in the shape of
footballs and schooners and still do. Saturdays in the fall my dad and I would load
up and drive to Norman with the rest of The Sooner Nation. Here at OWEN FIELD, I may never accept the
advertising bought name, I was taught Sportsmanship. “Be respectful to that team AND their fans
regardless of how they act. We live up to our standard no matter what everyone else may do” “They have worked hard too.” “One day we won’t win. Do not treat them in any way like you wouldn't
want to be treated.” I cannot say I
always stayed true to this teaching, but I felt badly when I didn't. Don’t
freak out Sooners! Yes, Texas sucks, but that doesn't mean if someone is a
Texas fan I have to call them names and such.
I just realize everyone is mistaken or taught something incorrectly every now and then. Bless their little
Texas fan hearts; they must have had one of those poopie dads! I was taught Sooner magic and faith that even
when you think your team might not win, don’t give up until all the clock has
ticked away!! Sometimes, there is magic and sometimes there ARE miracles.
I could go on and on about my dad like this FOR DAYS!!! You get the idea. What does a daughter do that can even begin
to say “hey dad, that sun coming up in the morning thing, thanks!”? No tie, no
card, no sleeve of really cool golf balls can compete with that. My dad could CARE less about me getting him
“something” for father’s day anyway which is good because usually all I get him
is a phone call.
So, this year, I decided to meet dad at his own table of genius
and brilliance! My father worked hard all his life and thankfully he has all could
ask for still, there are certain things in this world money cannot buy. I just listed a whole bunch up above! This year I found it! Something close- this
year my father’s day gift is a donation in my precious daddy’s name in honor of
my son’s teacher’s daughter,Molly's, battle with cancer to the St Baldrick’s
Foundation (http://youtu.be/oBMd_CKEyIY)
This is a charity organization which not
only funds research, but who’s help is credited by my son’s teacher as a huge instrument
for saving her daughter’s life. Read more about all that right here!! https://www.facebook.com/pages/Mollys-Miracles/264281943599422 Somewhere in this world on this father’s day
there is a daddy somewhere who would give ANYTHING within his power to trade
places with his child. Somewhere in this
world this Father’s day a dad will hear “your daughter has cancer” and his
superhero status cannot keep her from the treatment and agony her little body
will have to endure. This father’s day
there is father hoping against hope that this isn’t the last father’s day with his
little girl or that this is the last one they will have to be in the hospital,
or sick, or sleeping. THIS father's day there is a daddy who really could use some magic and a few miracles too! This father’s day
there is a daddy who hopes and prays and sends up smoke and positive light that
his daughter stays in remission from the treatments funded by this foundation! This father’s day I am going to extend the
magic my father gave his little girl and go out on faith say the money I spent
on your gift, dad, is going to give some little brown-eyed-girl, brown like her
daddy’s who’s lashes may grow back someday, maybe even curly like her daddy’s
the chance to ponder what to get her superhero for father’s day!!
I love you more than I could EVER type, speak or write in
words! You inspire me every day and are still my superhero!
HAPPIEST OF FATHER’S DAYS DAD!!!
I think you might like this years present!!!!
XOXO,
Me
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