Perfect dad?

Is there such a thing as the perfect dad? When I was little I thought so. When I was little I adored my dad.

I loved that my dad worked in construction. I still love and smile every single time I pass by a construction site. I loved that he took me to work often when I wasn't in school and when I could drive I could go up there and eat lunch with dad anytime I wanted. Dad wore jeans to work and so could I. I loved that my dad would pick take me to the Post Office with him before work and we got to go to the P.O. Box and get all the mail for the office (which was called Lions Country which I also loved that it was called that). Then when we got there dad would let me go around with him to all the offices and hand out the mail. I am sure dad could have gotten someone else to do that for him but I think he loved going around and talking to all the people as much as I did. I still remember a lot of the people he worked with like his best friend Pete and Bozelle and the guy that took me to get a McDonald's sundae every time I went in to visit.

I loved that my dad encourage me in sports and made a commitment to go to every single game I ever had ever. From the time I was 5 and he made me play on the boys basketball team (b/c the girls basketball team was shooting underhand) until I graduated high school varsity. Maybe I could have gone to a school other than UT to play basketball but as discussed yesterday that wasn't an option and that I just wasn't good enough to be a Lady Longhorn though thanks to my dad that had been a childhood dream. I went to Lady Longhorn basketball camp every summer and my dad took me. He came to every volleyball game, every track meet. He was there. He might have been yelling and screaming at me, the ref, and Kelly from the rival team to "get off her back!!!". But he was there. Except for soccer. He hated soccer as do most Americans and since later soccer tore my ACL I have to now agree with him on that one.

I loved that every Sunday my dad made Daddy Breakfast. Daddy breakfast consisted of and entire package of bacon, a giant plate of scrambled eggs (cooked in the bacon grease) complete with chopped chives fresh from our garden, homemade hash browns these were potatoes that he would bake first and then chop and fry up with onions, bell peppers and garlic and then a stacked high half a loaf of buttered white bread with jelly. Dad would dip his jelly toast in his coffee, we thought that was sooo gross.

I loved that my dad loved UT so much and loved to collect stray animals and then give them all baths all the time (or throw them int he pool to see if they could swim - the best swimmer was the snake!). I loved that my dad loved practical jokes and April Fool's. I love now (not then) that my dad loved to embarrass me - for example if I asked my mom to drop me off a block from school she did it - if I asked my dad he would DRIVE UP ONTO THE CURB of school honking wildly and screaming "good bye heather I love you!!!".

I love that my dad loved his records so much and shred them all with me, he used to make us listen to them all the time and he cultivated my love for 'The Beatles', 'Phil Ochs', 'Simon and Garfunkle', 'Janis Joplin', 'Jimmi Hendrix', and hundreds more. I have them all now and make my kids listen to them.

I love that he loved M*A*S*H and watched every episode multiple times and he made me watch them multiple times!

I love that my dad called me every single solitary day of my life up until the day he died. Usually multiple times a day and usually just to tell me something funny that had just happened or he had just seen. Even if I had talked to mom that didn't count as talking to him. This happened from the day I left for college until the day before he died. I tried to call him the day he died and tell him that Willie Nelson was on Howard Stern "two of his favorite people" and he wasn't able to talk to me, that was when I knew things were not going to be OK.

As I got older I stopped adoring my dad so much and started seeing all of his faults. No he wasn't perfect, there are a lot of stories untold that I will never tell that don't need to be told. I went through a period of time where I didn't talk to dad and I was angry about this that or the other. I envied people as I went to their weddings that seemed to have "perfect dads" who would get up and say the "perfect thing" at the wedding and dance the "perfect dance".

I finally came to realize however that my dad was the "perfect dad" for me. He did the best he could with what he had and what he knew and where he came from. He wasn't fancy and now I love him even more for that! I love that he had the time of his life at my wedding because he loved me and he loved Erich so much. We were married in Japanese Gardens and dad was smoking a cigar and dancing the entire time. (You think it was legal to smoke that cigar in the middle of the wood platforms at the Japanese Gardens in Fort Worth...hmmmm...) I love that my dad's wedding speech was the following spoken with a bottle of Bud Light in his hand - not a champagne glass - "She's done a lot of things wrong, but she got it right this time". I love that we danced our daddy/daughter dance to "My Girl" and that we were goofy and doing the Twist. Who cares about all the other stuff, I don't anymore - he did a lot of things wrong but he got it right most of the time.

Love you dad and miss you more that you will ever know and you may not have been the "perfect" dad but you were the perfect dad for me.

There are lots more funny stories about my dad but I will save those for another time....