A science show would come on and he would tell me about astronauts. Dad really liked learning.

He still does.

Love your dad, Shenmue.

WW2 Vet, 10 years service in the military, 25 service to the Post Office. 1925-1998. Best dad ever!

Love your post, she. Did he let you honk the horn of his truck? I hope so. So much fun.



My father built B-24s during WWII in Ypsilanti, MI. He specialized on training the Polish immigrants who spoke little English. He had the patience and wherewithal to get them through it, even though he spoke no Polish. Yup! He was kind of amazing.

My best to you, as always.

Yet he let me ride my tricycle all over the garage for the trucks.

I think your dad was amazing. So are you. Love.

I don't think my dad would have allowed it either.

But it still would have been fun.

Beep! Beep! Honk! Honk!

Think of it on this Father's Day, my friend. How cool would have that been? And all the other traffic in a panic!

Actually, when I found myself, he was already there. My little sister and brother were too...stair-steppers as they say. My father died in WWII. We kids NEVER wanted for anything and I didn't know we were barely making it. There was so much love in the family and Christmas time was my favorite time of the year. He was born September 1922 and died Christmas morning 2013, two years after my mother and the day he made happiest for us kids. Although I'm a girl, every year afterward I would remember Christmas with one of the songs I would hear around our house during the Christmas season.

Nat King Cole The Little Boy That Santa Claus Forgot

and since my dad refused to cook anything that didn't go into the microwave, I was cleaning out the old food in the cabinets and tossing it, all the bulging cans, rancid pasta, dead spices...you get the picture. I found an open box of cereal and started to toss it into the bag. My dad said "Hey! That's still good!" and took it to put into the "save" pile.

Just as he said "good," a huge palmetto bug (cockroach) skittered out of the box and up his arm. The look of sheer horror followed by resignation as he put the cereal into the dump bag were priceless.

No, I didn't say I'd told him so.

They don't want to let go. Lol.

I love your dad and I love you Warpy.

They are not suppose to go before we do. That pic. She was so beautiful and your dad so happy, csziggy.

Your dad sounds like the best. Reading to you. My dad did as well. So glad you still have Kiplings book.

Growing up. All our pets were strays except the one he holds in his arms. That dog died of cancer. That dog gently brought us kids down the hill when we got near the street.

Thank you for sharing.

And when I grew up, he became a best friend. I got very, very lucky when they were handing out fathers. Mothers not so much, but I got a great father.

Dear Old, I miss him every day even twenty years on.

I was just thinking about that the other day - I still remember The Elephant's Child, and the great grey green greasy Limpopo river, all set about with fever trees, and the elephant's child's 'satiable curiosity...


Good memories.

But they were always there when we needed them. They never abused us and both worked hard to give us everything we needed to be functioning adults. Overall they did good.

I still miss Dad, but he had a long and happy life.

He was a pedophile and beat us regularly - he was never abusive to my mother however...odd eh. I will dance on his grave the day he dies.

I always rejoice at people who have father's who loved them. I find that amazing and sometimes hard to believe.

You were a very lucky woman to have a grand father.

Never leaned on anyone for anything...period and became a tough feminist to the core!

Always remember your gift of having a swell pops!

I think in another election we could have been friends!

He walked out and left my mother with 6 young children, ages 9 years to 3 months, My mother had nowhere to turn, I can remember her being on the phone to see about putting some of us in an orphans' home. Her two younger brothers, who were not married, were just discharged from the army right after the war. They came in and took us over. My uncle Frank bought a house and we all moved there and my two bachelor uncles took over the raising of us six kids. Times were hard,my mother sewed for people and babysat ( in addition to taking care of us six kids). We didn't have much money, but it was a home filled with love. My uncles were true saints to give up their dreams to help us out. I will always be so thankful for them. All six of us kids have been very successful in life, this because of the good foundation my uncles gave us. My mother and my uncles have passed, but when we sisters and brothers get together, we always remember them and what they did for us. Happy Father's Dad, Frank and Bob, you were so loved!

They were loved and they were loved.

but I still think about him almost every day. He was one of the earliest heart bypass patients at Cleveland Clinic. But he still died at age 68. Love him still.

I miss him every single day.

Poem from his funeral service.

When I'm Gone
by Mrs. Lyman Hancock

When I come to the end of my journey
And I travel my last weary mile
Just forget if you can, that I ever frowned
And remember only the smile

Forget unkind words I have spoken
Remember some good I have done
Forget that I ever had heartache
And remember I've had loads of fun

Forget that I've stumbled and blundered
And sometimes fell by the way
Remember I have fought some hard battles
And won, ere the close of the day

Then forget to grieve for my going
I would not have you sad for a day
But in summer just gather some flowers
And remember the place where I lay

And come in the shade of evening
When the sun paints the sky in the west
Stand for a few moments beside me
And remember only my best

I have also lost my Dad and also spoke at his funeral, not an easy thing, but I had to. I wish I could say it gets easier, but it's still tough sometimes. I miss my Dad every single day, too.

1919-2011

He taught me to sail - some of my best memories.

v

I still miss him terribly.

He treated her with respect and as an equal partner in their marriage. We never heard an argument or cross word spoken between them. What a great example for his three daughters, although it was a bit of a shock when we grew up and discovered not.all.men...

My most cherished memories are of them walking together, because even after decades of marriage they always walked hand in hand. We didn't have much money or material things, but he gave us a priceless gift by making our home a place of love, peace, and safety.

Very far from perfect.

What I do know. Was he loved me, brer.

To know that you were loved means a lot.

My daughter's father left when she was 3 years old and didn't bother to maintain any contact. She is 40 and still wonders why she was so unlovable to him. No amount of therapy will ever undo that. I was thankful that she had my father to know and love and be loved in return.

I am so sorry for your sweet child. Three? Dear Gawd. 40 and still wondering.

Mine was far from perfect. The fights. At least I know he loved me, so sorry your daughter never had that. I am so very sorry.

Very nice. Excellent that you have positive and fun memories!

Everywhere we lived, he built an observatory--with a roof that rolled off--in our backyard.

This is my dad in 1953 in his observatory at our house in Chatham, NJ. I would have been 2 that year. When I got older,
I would go out sometimes at night and look through the telescope with him. I can never look up at the moon and not think of him.

[URL=.html][IMG][/IMG][/URL] 1910-2002.



Look how pretty it is tonight, here, from our back deck

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When I was about 6 or 7 or 8, my dad's laboratory had developed a treatment for textiles that would ultimately become what was known as permanent press after his company sold
the rights to it. He and his lab were taking samples of the treated fabric around to textile shows--looking for a buyer-- and they needed a way to fasten the samples to a clothes line. Regular clothes pins
were too heavy. So, my dad asked if he could borrow the tiny, colored plastic clothespins that came with some accessories for one of my dolls. I agreed. They were just what
was needed to display the samples!

Happy Father's Day!

I do have a brother, but he was pretty absent.

My dad taught me sheetrock, and plumbing. He did the electrical, that was never my thing. Taught me how to bleed my brakes and change my oil.

My dad cheated at poker and pool and he cheated me. He taught me to pull a ball and field like no one else.

He loved me more than anyone. He died a year ago in February, and it was a bad death. Since then, my life has changed. My life now is a path no one treads.

I'd give literally anything I have to be with him. Today has been hard.

How amazing it was that God put all our brilliant founding fathers among us-at the right time.
He was fed up with politics when he died in the early eighties.

I cannot imagine what he would think of our 21 st century politicians.

from his period. I learned a lot of good from him, but that is one area I vowed to correct. He died almost 40 years ago, didn't take good care of himself either. I'm still lucky to have had him, issues and all.

I leave you with this thought:

You have each been given a bag of tools
A formless rock and a book of rules
and each must make ere life is flown
A stumbling block or a stepping stone.
Author Unknown

Dad was the 5th of 12 children and was a mechanic on P32's in WWII. His whole life was fixing everything from cars to combines and building powerlines and steel frames for buildings. He worked hard physical jobs and came home tired, but he would help out someone else when he could.

I guess we were poor, but his 5 children didn't know it. We all knew we had to help around the house, garden and yard.

I miss him everyday.

Thinking of you today.
With so much love -

Was a husband first, a father second, and a history professor third. He was much-beloved by his students. We could count on him being stopped out in public by students telling him how much they loved his class and how much he made them love history. He was a phenomenal teacher. As good a teacher as he was, he was a better father. Any time I do something right, I know it's what he would have done. Any time I do something wrong, it's usually something he would have avoided. I never had a moment's doubt in my lifetime that he loved me. He was completely supportive in the right way. And by that, I mean that when I did something good or something right, he backed me completely and let me know he was proud. When I did something bad or wrong, he let me know that he did not back or support my actions, but I still knew he loved me and would help me right whatever I'd done. I couldn't imagine anyone being a better father. And as good a father he was, he was a husband first. He and my mother were married 48 years. Every time she came in the room, he would light up. He never stopped being that way. She was the most important thing in his life, and everything else was a distant second. He was also a wonderful grandfather. He was brilliant, funny, was a true scholar, had the best people skills I've ever seen, was charismatic, put his family first, was hard-working, and one of the most caring people I've ever known.

He was also courageous. Cancer took him, but he fought it fiercely. He had two different radiation regimens, and had 52 chemo therapies with four different agents. I've never known someone to fight it harder. And he didn't fight it for himself. He fought to try to stay with us. That's how much he loved us.

If I am ever a fraction of the spouse, father, or teacher that he was, I'll be doing fine in life. Heroes tend to fall away from us in life. He never will.

The Encyclopedia Britannica salesman came by and he bought that too. We were so poor -- my mom never forgave him for the Great Books.

I remember playing with the Britannica before I could even read, looking up all the colored plates (there were only a few in those days, like gemstones; all the ships and RR trains were in b/w). When I started being assigned essays at school, I used it, though I didn't know how to distill and cut.

Oh yes, the World Book set. Mom was all for that.

She herself was an avid reader her whole life and taught us many things, as well as reading stories to us. She was a teacher to her marrow. So I read to my kids and my daughter reads to hers. We get that from her.

But sad about the Great Books. In their old age, Mom moved them to another state and told us all to come and get whatever we might have left behind that she hadn't already cleaned out. I told my youngest brother I wanted only 2 things: the cookie jar, and the GB set.

I lined them up with my college paperbacks, just to see how many I personally had read. When I looked into them, I found Dad's signature, along with what I think are the various dates that they were either delivered or that he read them.

I thought: this was his college education, the one he never had. This was his yearning. And I remembered a time when I loved him.

And cried a little, as I am now.

The cookie jar sits in my kitchen. I gave the GB to my son some years later, with only a little of the story. And let it go.

He loved to sing and play the harmonica, he loved to fish, and to drink beer and hang out with his friends. I was an "accident," born when my siblings were 14, 12, and 10. I used to tease my parents that I was the result of their celebrating the American victory in the Battle of the Bulge. My father read to me, bought me books and clothes that I considered gaudy (the clothes, not the books), and made sure that I never lacked for anything. He died much too young, at age 57, from a lifetime of smoking unfiltered Camel cigarettes, and I miss him every day of my life. Thank you for asking, and thanks to everyone else for sharing their memories, especially the bad ones. I greatly admire your courage. I can't begin to imagine how awful it would be to have an abusive father.

a ballet. He learned to swim from Duke Kahanamoku. That was when he was stationed in Hawaii.

After he died on Christmas day, 1998, I went through his papers. One was of his courts martial when he was in Hawaii. He was off base and had a couple of drinks. Shore Patrol caught up with him and he had it all figured out. "There are several thousands of guys on this base. If I punch out the two SP's, and get away, how is anyone gonna figure out who I was."

He spent the summer month in the brig, watching guys marching up and down the field. He figured is summer was better than the guys marching back and forth in the summer sun.

Father's Day will always be hard from now on.

My father had his demons, alcoholism among them. Lots of hardships and ugliness resulting from that. But he always put me and my brother first. RIP dad....

This August it will be five years since my dad died.

My very old MP3 player was acting up yesterday - and I couldn't get off of a playlist. When I gave it a whack - this song came on and kept playing four times. Funny I was thinking of my dad at that time.

He's right here . . . sheshe - your dad is here.


Through my Veins
I saw you sitting by the window
Of a cafe I passed by
And though clearly my reflection
It was your face I recognised

And after all these years I'm still right here
Where you left me

And I've been calling out
Believing you would answer
But I'll try to let go now
Cause it's you running through
My veins

You'd come by when I was dreaming
But lately you've been gone
Maybe I've been trying too hard
And maybe you have just moved on

I guess there's not a lot that you forgot
To tell me

And I've missed you hanging round
And the way we were together
But I can't let go now
Cause it's you running through
My veins

Oh
It's you running through my veins
Oh
And it's you running through my veins
Oh
It's you running through my veins

To our dads...

You are such a kind person, it has been great getting to know you.

Thanks for sharing. Nice thread.

But when I got to be 21, I was astonished at how much the old man had learned in seven years.”

-- Mark Twain

I lost him in 2009, and miss his wise council every day

him and me in the olden times: