Happy Fathers day folks!

I woke up this morning to a quiet house.

My wife was already awake, but had taken the effort to not wake me up whilst getting out of bed. (not an easy task, I assure you). The children, usually so rambunctious and noisy, were quiet. In fact, the only sound I could hear was the ragged breathing of an old hound dog. The same hound dog that had woken me up by sleeping on my feet.

I picked up my phone from the nightstand to check for messages. There were several from friends, most wishing me a happy fathers day. (One just wanted to go fishing)

As I waited for the pins and needles to go away in the feet my dog had put to sleep I thought about fathers day. I was reminded of a time many moons ago that I tried to do something nice for my dad. I was not fathers day, it was actually his 50th birthday.

No one ever said my stories make any sense. Hell, if you think this is disjointed you should see some of the odd stuff I have dreamed. (last night included the movie “Apollo 13” but the cast was the characters from “Spongebob Squarepants”)

Anyhow, my dad’s 50th birthday was coming up some years ago. If I recall I was in 5th grade at the time, maybe 6th. We had recently moved to a new town where we essentially knew only each other. He was about to have a birthday, and there was no one to throw him a party.

A plan started to form in my little head. There was in fact someone who could throw him a party!

Me.

 

First I needed some money, that was the easy part really. For a couple of weeks I took my lunch money and only bought milk with it. There was an apple tree behind the house that provided my lunch for that time, two apples and a milk for my lunch. After a bit I had the money to fill out my shopping list. 

Waiting until a Wednesday (dad worked till 5 on Wed and I was home alone) I took my bike and my backpack on a long ride into town to the grocery store. Using my carefully hoarded lunch money I filled up my pack with things for his birthday, finding everything on my list except a card. Sometime that week I made one.

My dad come home the next Wednsday to find the table already set and dinner cooking. Ok, so hot dogs and ramen noodles may not be a steak dinner, but it was what I could handle. To say he was shocked was an understatement.

The best part was when I brought out a pineapple upside down cake with a five and a zero on top. The look on his face was priceless.

Not really a fathers day story, but it is a story about my dad.

Happy fathers day folks.