Happy Father's Day

(This is a picture of my first fish and there in the other picture is Autotuner1 and Inca_runner6.)

A happy Father’s Day to the fathers. This blog has opened up a conversation that I have not been apart of for many years. If you have taken time to read the posted comments you will find that 2 of my brothers have dominated the comment section. Their initial comment may be about my blog, but then they get off on a ‘conversation’ of their own bringing up anything from our growing up to serve as ammunition. I am sure that I have thought about this before, but when thinking about my brothers and sister, I still think we are those 5 children and teenagers going on vacation, loading up in a station wagon, pulling a tent camper, driving through the night just waiting for dad to find the perfect camping spot. It always appeared that dad could find the ‘post card’ camping spots. I remember one place we pulled off the road, down an embankment, and camped right beside a picturesque running stream. I remember this place because this is where I caught my first fish – it was about a 9 inch Rainbow Trout. There was another place in Wyoming that we were camping and my brother Doug and I went hiking up the mountain. We got above the road and we started throwing good-sized rocks down on the road. Upon impact, they would ‘explode.’ I don’t know why, but the highway police frowned upon that activity. They ‘apprehended’ us and took us back to our parents – now having a record on file in the state of Wyoming. I wonder if there is a statue of limitations or we still have a record.

It has been about 3 years since my dad died. Even though the last years of our lives were not spent together, there was still a closeness and connection whenever we talked or saw each other. Spending the last couple years of his life in bed, he was either playing Nintendo or watching sports. I would call and get his take on the upcoming football season or what was happening in hockey. He always kept up with the Canadian Football League. I would have loved to have called him this morning and ask him about the hockey game last night. The Edmonton Oilers won game six of the Stanley Cup playoffs to force game 7. Not being able to watch it over here, I would have loved to hear what he would have said. Some of my best memories with dad was when I was growing up playing hockey. I always liked it when dad would lace up and tie my skates – he always got them so tight. After the hockey games, we’d get into his big oil company ‘testing’ truck. He would leave the engine idling with the heater on – it felt so good to get into the warm truck. It always smelled like petroleum.
I quickly learned that whenever we as a family would go to the store or the mall that it was best to stay around dad. Dad loved ice cream. If there was a place to buy ice cream, we’d end up there. As I start to think about it, we did a lot of things and went a lot of places. We traveled to both Disneyland and Disneyworld. I think we visited every theme park that we came into contact with. Dad liked rollercoasters. I remember riding my first roller coaster with Dad – it was in California. Several times we traveled from Canada down to Los Angeles to see family and friends. We were at Disneyland on July 4th, 1976. Those were some fireworks. On our way home, we would travel back home up through Oregon and Washington State stopping and picking fruit at the orchards.
I guess as time passes, the good memories get better and the bad ones fade. It seems the older I get, the better my childhood and life gets. God is good and He has blessed me incredibly. Thank you, God, for my father. Happy Father’s Day.