Ok, you guys keep asking me what I want for Father’s Day so here you go.
My dad’s best friend, Joel was a school teacher and he was (still is) a great guy. To this very day he is one of the funniest people I’ve ever met. He would laugh about the good things and the bad equally hard, just like God had let him in on “the joke” and he was there to translate for us.
My dad and Joel took us kids on many memorable adventures as well as some character building drudgery. Often I remember him with a wry smile and he would say to my dad, “Happy Father’s Day, Lucky!” He would say that even though it wasn’t father’s day, and I didn’t really understand why until recently.
Joel would come and stay with us and work with dad during the summer months. They would tell stories and jokes and make fun of politicians. At least that’s what I remember. They would try to explain worldly things to my brother and I and then have a great time listening to us retell what we had learned to anyone that would listen. I guess our interpretation was funnier than theirs.
After working long days we’d quickly drive to the lake and water-ski in the calm of the evenings before sunset. My dad, taught me to water-ski, snow-ski, drive, fly a plane and thousands of other things; they all seem like such adventures now. The interesting thing is that Joel was right there for a good deal of it. I never really thought about it much before, it was what it was; and it was pretty fun.
There were times when more of mom and dad’s friends would come and stay and if they had enough people they would get out a blanket and pull it tight between all of them. Us little guys (one at a time) would get to climb up on the blanket. Then the adults would let it go slack and on the count of three… 1, 2, 3 PULL! They would send us sailing straight up into the clear blue summer sky, like a rocket! We would come down screaming like it was a carnival ride and they would catch us in the blanket and SPROING… straight up into the wild blue yonder again. Wow! It was just so fun we never wanted it to end.
So, back to what I want for father’s day.
I didn’t know it at the time, but the last summer Joel stayed with our family he was getting a divorce. You see for a long time he and his wife tried to but were never able to have children. This troubled his wife in a way that drove her to do strange and hurtful things. But while Joel was around us you just knew he was the happiest guy on earth. Just like I didn’t know what he was going through, I didn’t know why he would say to my dad, “Happy Father’s Day, Lucky!” For a long time, as a teenage boy, I thought it was a sarcastic joke and he took some type of pity on my dad for being tied down with us. Now I have come to understand just how lucky he really though my dad was.
You guys ask me what I want and I already have it. I’m the luckiest dad in the world, I am so grateful for you. Happy Father’s Day Lucky!
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