Life With Father

I had the best Dad in the world.  He was kind, strong, supportive, witty, and intelligent - unfortunately, like most 13 year old girls, I was too caught up in my own self - image to notice.  We all remember that stage; that stage where we had to be "cool" and our parents were nothing more than the goofy, embarrassing people we had to be seen in public with from time to time.  To my utter dismay, my Dad was also very insightful - and very mischievous - he took great pleasure in finding all those hormonal buttons and doing the proverbial Mexican Hat Dance all over them. 

I remember having to take a trip with him to the local hospital to refill a prescription.  I made it through the front doorway with no problems - no one I knew had seen me, no one my age was anywhere in sight - and then, lo and behold, the cutest 15ish year old guy I had ever seen walked through the door in front of us.  Alas, at that very moment, my Dad discovered that the walkway into the building was "oh, so clickety-clackety" and proceeded to do an impressive shuck and jive ALL over it.  Yup, all 6 foot 7, 250 lbs. of him, gleefully pulling a Ben Vareen up and down the entryway. I wanted to melt into that cursed noisy walkway and emerge somewhere else. 

I was, however, left standing in that same spot, so embarrassed I’m sure I turned a lovely shade of purple. 

A group of elderly woman was standing at the other end, giggling.  A young couple came through the door and giggled a little, then rolled their eyes playfully.  We made it into the hospital eventually (after a 15 minute cover of “Singin’ in the Rain” by my Dad).   But that wasn’t the end of it. 

Oh no, I couldn’t be THAT lucky. 

We were standing in line for to fill the prescription (finally), when we became “next” in line.  Now, I had never thought this to be a very extraordinary thing, but apparently my Dad thought it was absolutely novel.  He grinned widely at me, and I cringed. 

“LOOK HONEY!  We’re NEXT!  Oh, there’s nothing in the whole wide world like being NEXT!” (Cue big theatrics here.) ”You know what?”  He gasped as though he’d just had the most life-changing revelation ever.  “We should let the guy BEHIND us go IN FRONT OF US, so that we can be NEXT – AGAIN!”  He clapped his hands and grinned at me again.  Still, I had not acquired the supernatural ability to disappear or melt into floors, so I was, however begrudgingly, stuck. To my utter horror, my Dad turned to the man behind us, who stepped back a little. 

“Sir,” he said politely, “Would you like to go in front of us?”  

The man shrugged, “Sure?”

I’m still not sure if he was only agreeing so that he could get what he needed done, and get out of there quickly, should my Dad snap and decide to do something REALLY crazy.  The man moved in front of us. Alas, we were next again.  “SEE HONEY!?!  Isn’t this GREAT?  Wanna let the lady behind us go in front of us so we can be next AGAIN?” 

Sigh.  “Sure, Dad.” 

This went on for some time. 

Looking back, I giggle.  Ok, strike that – there have been times when I look back on that day, and days like that, and laugh so hard I almost wet myself.  Looking back, I regret that I wasn’t mature enough to see the humor in it, and appreciate the kind of man that my Dad was.   

Today, I look forward to my daughters being 13 years old, and myself being the one that makes them want to melt into a floor and disappear with random acts of silliness.  After all, it’s memories like that that last forever, memories that you think back on and wish that you knew then what you know now, but wouldn’t trade for all the gold in the world.