Thanks Dad
November 15, 2010, By Craig J. Heimbuch 0 comments
We all get a little weepy around the holidays. Nostalgic. Appreciative. We all think about the holidays as a time for family connection and Bing Crosby and Norman Rockwell.
And then they hit us. The traffic. The crap weather. The mall’s busy and claustrophobic. Uncle Billy in the corner pounding bourbon and Cokes, hitting on your mom while your sister’s new baby pukes all over the dog.
There’s no better way to tarnish the holidays than to actually live them. But, for now, for me, they are still everything Bing had them cracked up to be. I’m still looking forward to that first snowfall and the feeling of finding the perfect gifts for my wife and kids. And I want to capture that feeling, that deep and abiding appreciation. So, I thought I’d write this. A thank you note to someone I don’t thank enough. My dad.
My old man is like a lot of dads. Good man, good provider. He was there when I needed him, didn’t get in the way too much. Writing about him is hard because he has never really talks about himself all that much. He’s a problem solver, not a profusely affectionate person. He’s a proud father of my sisters, brother and me, but not a bragger. He’s proud from the top seat in the stands, proud from a distance, but always there. And he’s taught me a lot. He’s taught me that marriage is about commitment, that the only thing a man has in this life is his word – once that goes, you’ve got a long way to get to anywhere. He’s taught me by example.
I remember vividly the time when I was around 10. He was standing at the mirror in the master bath, lathering up his face with shaving cream and I was standing in the doorway, watching. He didn’t ask me if I wanted to learn, he just told me come in and had me cup my hands. He showed me how to lather, how shave top to bottom. He didn’t giggle or take a bunch of pictures. He didn’t call mom in when I was covered in foam for her to take a look. He was just there, with me. Present.
My dad’s given me a lot, taught me even more. And it would be near impossible for me to thank him for everything, so I’ll just point out a few. And in the interest of symmetry, I’ll do one for every year of my life.
So, thanks dad for:
- For teaching me the single and double Windsor.
- For teaching me to thread a worm on a hook so it doesn’t get taken away with the current.
- For showing me how driving has more to do with attention than skill.
- For that loan when I was young and worried.
- For taking me with you – to the office on Saturdays, to Canada fishing, to baseball games.
- For college.
- For signing me up for tennis lessons, then playing with me three times a week.
- For supporting me when you couldn’t relate.
- For understanding when you could.
- For not coddling and not berating.
- For the Jeep – still my favorite car.
- For handling it. All of it.
- For showing Jack how to build stuff.
- For pitching to Dylan.
- For loving my wife.
- For not pushing me and, for pushing me.
- For building the Responsibility Board.
- For not giving me the sex talk, but for teaching me about taxes.
- For caring enough to yell when I deserved. For not yelling when I didn’t.
- For taking me to court that time I rear-ended the cop.
- For Kosta.
- For always having steak in the freezer when I come to visit.
- For never trying to be bigger than me.
- For your dog tags.
- For making me seasick and, by extension, helping me define the word ‘home.’
- For investing in my career.
- For reading what I write.
- For the stories about Stan Musial and Bob Gibson. I still tell them.
- For always picking up the tab and teaching me why a man does that without saying a word.
- For making, then letting, me mow the lawn. And for getting me up early to snow blow the neighborhood after a storm.
- For trying to learn fly-fishing from me.
- For always showing up just when I needed you the most.
Thanks Dad, for so many things. I would not be the man I am without you and I can only hope that, one-day, my sons will say the same thing.
We all thank dad for different reasons ... check out more Thanks Dad from the Man of the House team.
