Dad

In honor of Father's Day, this post is about my dad.

My dad rockin the ruffled tux

As I mentioned in a previous post, my dad used to play his guitar and sing for us at bedtime. I also have memories of singing to the radio with him on car rides. We LOVED to sing 70's and 80's music. We would sing, "Wake Me Up, Before You Go-Go," "Brick House," "Dancing On the Ceiling", "Jesus is Just Alright," and "I Love a Rainy Night." Road trips when my parents were still married, consisted of car sing-a-longs to "Horsey Horsey", "Daisy Daisy" and "I Love the Mountains". Have you ever seen this commercial?

Yeah, it was kind of like that.

My dad loved animals. He always brought home strays. He brought home a cat with a fish hook stuck in it. Another time he brought home a puppy. We had birds, and fish. One day while mowing the lawn, my dad caught a garter snake. We kept it in a jar to show all the neighborhood kids.
We used to play Hide and Seek with my dad. He would hide us in clever, hard-to-find places, for the one who was "it" to find. I remember hiding on the top shelves of closets. Another time, he hid my sister by putting her feet in his army boots, and her body inside his army coat, hanging in the closet.

My dad taught me "Karate" lessons. I put that in quotation marks, because he really just sparred with me, doing "wax on, wax off" after we watched the Karate Kid.

My dad loved dressing up for Halloween with us.

Me as a scary witch, and my dad as a ghost

My dad almost always had a mustache. We were so used to seeing him with it, that when he (rarely) did shave it, he would call his shaved alter-ego, "Uncle Conrad."

My dad was creative and fun. He jumped on the trampoline with me, (which incidentally, was how I lost my two-front-teeth. My knees came up on a big bounce and smacked me in the mouth.) and roller skated with me.

He built this giant snow bunny!

My dad used a lot of "clean" cuss words, like "Judas Priest," "dagnabbit," and "gad dang," but I also distinctively remember him saying the "F" word once.

My dad took me ice fishing, and deer hunting, and we shot tin cans with a 22. Despite all this, I never doubted that I was Daddy's Little Princess. I had him wrapped around my little finger, and I knew that if I just asked, my dad would pay for an expensive formal gown, shoes, and jewelry. He loved to take me shopping.

My dad was my biggest fan. He always told me how beautiful, talented and smart I was. He encouraged me to pursue acting and singing. He came to every performance.

My dad and I during the Miss Magna pageant.

My dad was a truck driver, and in 2005 he was killed in an accident. A teenager, who was drunk and high on Meth, fell asleep at the wheel, crashing his car into the gas tank of my dad's 18-wheeler. The truck rolled, and the tank exploded. Another truck driver, who stopped to help, tried to get my dad out of the truck, but was unable to get close enough.

I am grateful I have such good childhood memories of my dad. I am grateful I had a close relationship with him as an adult. I still miss him, every day.