Tuesday, June 07, 2005
Best Father's Day Ever!!!!
My Dad and I have always been more like friends and less like father and son. He never really had the parental instinct (neither did my mother for that matter) but we were able to bond over certain common interest and I love him very dearly even if I am not always the best at showing it. With my grandfather becoming ill my father has had to deal with a lot and sadly I have not seen him since January. I miss him and have been a little down since I did not make it to see him on his birthday. So I decided to write this entry for him.
The best Father's Day ever did not ever take place on Father's Day, in fact it happened over Labor Day Weekend 1991. My parents divorced in 1986 (they told us on Mother's Day but that is a another story) and since we moved an hour away I did not really see him except on the weekends I spent with him. Early on that was every weekend. He has a landscaping business and I would work the weekends with him. As I started to get older and hanging out with my friends on the weekends our visits became less frequent.
Well for this particular weekend we had planned a trip with all of my dad's family to the mountains. Everyone was meeting up there on Friday. As it happens I had auditions that Friday and could not leave school early. My father needed to finish a job so he decided to pick me up and we would ride together just the two of us (my sister road with one of my aunts).
During the drive we talked about nothing particular. I remember how foggy the Smoky Mountains were and thinking how I take things like this for granted at times. It was at this point that the trip became so memorable. Traveling through the small towns we became lost. Now usually when people become lost they worry but instead my father and I made the most of our extra time together. We stopped to laugh at Maggie Valley's Ghost Town in the Sky and the Santa Land amusement park. We thought about stopping at one of 6 places that claimed to have the world's greatest views of the Smoky Mountains but they were always some rotted boards stretched out over the mountain side that to us looked like they might give us a closer view than anyone would want.
The point wasn't that we went an hour out of the way, or were stared at by some threatening looking locals. What sticks in my mind is that we were laughing together and sharing memories that only the two of us have. Something that can never be broken or taken away.
As time takes its toll of both of us I will always look back at this moment and smile at the greatest gift my father ever gave me.
The best Father's Day ever did not ever take place on Father's Day, in fact it happened over Labor Day Weekend 1991. My parents divorced in 1986 (they told us on Mother's Day but that is a another story) and since we moved an hour away I did not really see him except on the weekends I spent with him. Early on that was every weekend. He has a landscaping business and I would work the weekends with him. As I started to get older and hanging out with my friends on the weekends our visits became less frequent.
Well for this particular weekend we had planned a trip with all of my dad's family to the mountains. Everyone was meeting up there on Friday. As it happens I had auditions that Friday and could not leave school early. My father needed to finish a job so he decided to pick me up and we would ride together just the two of us (my sister road with one of my aunts).
During the drive we talked about nothing particular. I remember how foggy the Smoky Mountains were and thinking how I take things like this for granted at times. It was at this point that the trip became so memorable. Traveling through the small towns we became lost. Now usually when people become lost they worry but instead my father and I made the most of our extra time together. We stopped to laugh at Maggie Valley's Ghost Town in the Sky and the Santa Land amusement park. We thought about stopping at one of 6 places that claimed to have the world's greatest views of the Smoky Mountains but they were always some rotted boards stretched out over the mountain side that to us looked like they might give us a closer view than anyone would want.
The point wasn't that we went an hour out of the way, or were stared at by some threatening looking locals. What sticks in my mind is that we were laughing together and sharing memories that only the two of us have. Something that can never be broken or taken away.
As time takes its toll of both of us I will always look back at this moment and smile at the greatest gift my father ever gave me.
# posted by J.F.Tobias @ 12:34 PM 
