Memories from the Jar - My Dad

My little sister Tamarie does something on her blog that I absolutely love. She calls it "Flashback Friday". In these blog entries, she picks some aspect of her life, usually from early childhood, and writes down everything she can remember about it. Through these posts I have discovered something about Tamarie that I never knew before she had a blog...she's an awesome writer! Tam is only 2 years younger than me (well, actually, 1 year and 9 months) so when she writes stuff she remembers about childhood, for me it's like reading a page from my own life history, except for that she writes it better than I would. And there's an added bonus...she sometimes remembers things I wouldn't have, but reading about them brings them back as clearly as if they happened yesterday. Her most recent Flashback Friday post recalled that our kindergarten teacher wore a long gold necklace with a crystal ball pendant. Never would have thought to write about that, and I'd actually forgotten, but reading about it was just such a great blast from the past. Anyway...reading these posts of hers has inspired me to try something new here on our blog.

A month or two ago at an Enrichment meeting, one of the activities we did was on creating a life history. Sister Carlson gave us several sheets of paper filled with questions meant to evoke memories or otherwise give food for thought. We cut these questions into strips of paper and curled them up and put them in a jar. The idea is that when you have a few minutes, you pull one of these curls of paper out, read the question, and write about it. After awhile you have a pretty good written account of your life. This idea appeals to me because although I did write a pretty extensive autobiography for a college class, that was 10 or 11 years ago (I know, I'm getting old!) and there's a lot to catch up on. So, I've had this jar sitting on my shelf, thinking that one of these days I'm going to start this project. Then I realized it could be fun to take time now and then to do this on my blog, and maybe in the process you'll all learn something about me while I create my life history. I tried to think of some catchy title like "Flashback Friday"...and as I'm not very creative, I didn't come up with anything. Then I realized I probably won't do very well at making sure it's on a certain day of the week anyway, so maybe I'll just call it "Life HIstory Day" or something. I've got to come up with something better than that...if you have any ideas let me know. Anyway, here goes!

The first question I pulled out of my jar is this:

"Describe your father. What is his best trait? His worst? Which traits do you share with him?"

What a fabulous first question! I love my dad and could write a lot about this. Since this is already kind of a long entry I'll try not to go overboard.

My dad is tall, over six feet tall, has dark brown hair (well, had dark brown hair...sorry Dad! It's more silvery gray now, but very distinguished looking, I think), and bright blue eyes. This is a picture of me with him on my baptism day in July of 1986. Dad is an educator by profession. He taught sixth graders for almost the entire time I was growing up. I think I was twelve or thirteen when he went back to school to get his Masters' Degree and then went on to be the principal at the Middle School where he'd always worked, but he always preferred being in the classroom. Along the way he started doing work with training teachers on improving the education in their classrooms, and a few years ago he retired as principal of the middle school in order to do this work full time, and he loves it. My dad is a master teacher...he knows the art of teaching and is just fantastic at it. Every time I've been called to a teaching responsibility at church he has been an invaluable resource in helping me prepare lessons.

Dad worked very hard to support us. In addition to his work as a teacher, he worked on Grandpa's farm for most of the time we were growing up. He would come home from a long day at work, eat dinner, and turn around and go back out to the farm to put in more time there. I never realized as a kid how exhausting that must have been for him, but it was very important to him and Mom that she was able to stay home with us, so they both sacrificed what they had to in order to make that happen.

I think my dad's best trait is his warmth and exuberance for anything he feels passionate about. Things that fall into this category are his family, the church, and education, among others. Even though Dad had to spend a lot of time away from us as kids, I don't think any of us ever felt that he was a "distant" dad. When he was home, he really focused his attention on us. He would play with us, hug us, tickle us, give us piggy back rides...I always kind of saw my dad as a great big, warm, happy teddy bear kind of guy. As I got older, I found that my dad was different than a lot of my friends' dads. When I got to college my roommates were often surprised to learn that I felt comfortable calling my dad to to talk about things that really mattered to me. I remember telling him about guys I was interested in, problems I was having with my roommates...I can't really think of any subject I wouldn't feel comfortable discussing with him. He always listened with a lot of openness and offered thoughtful, welcome advice. He's also just the person you want to talk to when you've accomplished something and you need someone to give a whoop of excitement in your behalf. A year and a half ago when I decided to take up running, I'd call my dad every time I hit a major milestone in my running experiences...I called him the first time I was able to run half an hour without stopping, the first time I ran 3 miles straight, the first time I ran a 5K, the first time I ran 5 miles straight...Dad was always SO excited for me and, since he's a runner himself, had great advice for me when I hit obstacles (shin splints, for one). Now, as a parent, my dad is a great resource when I'm frustrated with my kids...he always offers encouragement and often has great suggestions for how to handle my kids. He's just always there when I need him and always knows the right thing to say to make me feel good.

This question asks me to list my dad's worst trait. That's a hard one. I think, like most traits, a good trait can double as a bad one, depending on the situation. My dad is very focused, so if he's focused on a ball game, for example, it's pretty tough to get his attention. :) Once you've got his attention, though, it's all yours, so it can be a good thing. I love my dad, it's hard for me to come up with a "bad" trait. As far as what traits I share with him, I'm afraid I don't share that many! I am A LOT like my mom...more on that in some future post I'm sure! But though I may not be much like him, I sure do love him! I have one fantastic Dad.