My dad became a father nearly fifty years ago with the birth of his number one daughter, me. Five other children would follow in rapid succession. Dad is a sports guy. He spent his career filming professional and college sports. He is also an avid golfer. If you grew up with my dad, you knew sports. Even as a girl you knew the important things like how to read a defense, what club to use to reach the green, and where the top of the key is. But you also knew the important stuff too like, "Your daddy loves you" and the only sure fire birth control method in the world, "KYLC": Keep your legs crossed. I adore my dad,
My brother Dan, third kid in our family. Clueless. That's what he was when he came into parenthood 16 years ago. With twins. A boy and a girl. Then he was okay for a while when they were manageable. Now he's clueless again. Because they are 16. Dan's style has always been sort of "What?" as if he's forgotten all the stuff he did or that he had a childhood or the fact that compared to him, his kids are saints! He is a loving and wonderful dad; you only had to see his 16 year old daughter curl up in the chair with him last night to know that.
Dave, number four of the six kids. Dave has been a dad for 11 years. He has two darling daughters who Kathryn gets to see quite often as they live only 4 mile from us. Dave has a high-stress, high-finance, high-travel job. The kind that can ruin families and relationships. It hasn't. Dave, by sheer force of will and the love for his family, will not allow it. He's more of a strong, silent type. Not much for expressing emotion or words for that matter. Dave has inspired a sense of adventure in the girls that I wish I had. On weekends, they cook gourmet meals together. There isn't much that the girls won't eat.
After the US Open we ate. Pulled pork, potato salad, cole slaw, rustic bread and tomato salad, home-made ice cream cake. Wait, I said 5 dads ... that's only three.
Jon, Jon's dad, Jon's sister, Jenny. Confession time. Yesterday was not the day Jon wanted it to be. I caved to family (mom) pressure and the fact that my mom hosted the Mother's Day celebration. I couldn't say "no" when the call went out for a place to have a Father's Day celebration. Even though we had just talked about what to do on Father's Day minutes before, how he wanted to spend the day, what he wanted to do. Considering the only other choices (the other two moms) weren't even at the party yesterday....nope, I should have said no and I didn't. I'm really, really, sorry honey.
You know that in Kathryn's eyes you are the best of all the dads in the world. And if you promise not to tell my dad, I'll let you in on a little secret, I do too. Happy Father's Day!
