In honor of Father's Day, I would like to pay tribute to all of the ways my father changed my life without my ever really noticing.
My dad was the traditional, work all day, go jogging (okay, not so traditional), eat dinner, watch television, and go to bed, father. He supported all of my many, many after school activities, but I didn't just hang out with him. That didn't stop me from being Daddy's Little Princess, though, and only now do I realize how much he influenced my life. By sharing his love of these things with me, I learned more about my father and began to see him as more than just my Dad.
1. Cars and motorcycles. My mother would definitely like to insert her opinion here, but after my dad bought his Harley, I bought my first motorcycle. With a Corvette and Road Runner in his past, it seems odd only to outsiders that within our family we own four Mustangs ranging from the years 1966-2013. We also support the gasoline industry.
2. The Shadow. My father grew up listening to radio dramas. One year my brother bought my him a cassette collection of the radio show, "The Shadow," and although I'm sure my dad appreciated it, my brother and I listened to them even more. The mentalist “who knew the secrets that lurked in the hearts of men," he was an even more menacing version of Batman.
3. Mel Brooks. My father has what can be called a juvenile sense of humor, and nothing cracks him up like the bean scene in "Blazing Saddles." As a kid, Mel Brooks' absolutely filthy but brilliant humor mostly went over my head, but I so loved "Young Frankenstein," “History of the World Part One,” and "Blazing Saddles." Again, my mother would have probably liked to have had more of a say in what I was watching at that point.
4. Looney Toons. Watching Saturday cartoons with my dad in front of the television. Nothing gets better.
5. Bruce Lee. I know it's a stereotype, but my father romanced my mother by taking her to see Bruce
Lee martial arts films. I'm not sure which man my mom fell in love with first. I always thought that Bruce Lee was a superhero.
6. Charlie Chan. Another stereotype, but my father took our family to see a retrospective showing of Charlie Chan movies at a theater when I was around ten years old, and I loved them. Charlie Chan was the Chinese Hercule Poirot, and the dysfunctional but very traditional belittling of his Number One Son was hilarious. And actually realistic, as it was believed that praising ones’ children too much would make the gods jealous, causing Them to take the children too soon for themselves.
7. Cell phone. My dad worked for the telephone company, so in college I had one of the first cell phones available. It was the size of a shoebox, but it was a cell phone. The irony of this is that my dad now refuses to update to a smart phone or part with his flip-phone.
8. Elvis. Every Christmas we still play his Christmas album. Nothing beats Elvis.
9. Clint Eastwood and Westerns. I'm combining them, but Dirty Harry and “The Good, the Bad, and the
Ugly,” all seem the same to me. My father loves Westerns and movies where a lot of people die, and Clint usually embodies both. My mother countered this with “Paint Your Wagon.” I love them all equally.
10. James Bond. The old school, sexist, racist, Bond. They're all wonderful, but Sean Connery will always be the OG of James Bonds.
Thank you Dad, for sharing with me the things you loved so that I could also make room for them in my heart. You are Bruce Lee, Charlie Chan, James Bond, and Clint Eastwood all rolled into one.
Recent Comments