Single in Stilettos

Memories of my dad

I was thinking about the whole father's day thing, and these memories came back to me.

When I was growing up, I was quite the daddy's girl. My dad would take me golfing with him and I just loved it. Not that I would actually golf. I would hit the ball a few times (maybe do one hole) then I'd just drive the golf cart. Looking back, WHAT IN THE WORLD WAS HE THINKING?!!! I was like 6 at the time! But still, I remember sitting in the drivers seat, driving down the fairways, and thinking my dad was the awesomest ever.

Until he bought my older sister kid size golf clubs. I never went golfing with him again. My sister never did go with him.... ever. So, you can imagine how hurt I was. The golf clubs never got used. We sold them at a garage sale a few years ago.

When my dad got his own place after the divorce, he needed furniture, so he thought it would be fun for each of us to go out and pick our own bedroom furniture for his house (not that we were ever going to spend the night... my mom and the courts made sure of that, thank goodness). We were out at swanky furniture places looking around. My sister and I spotted a beautiful four-post bed. I was immediately taken by it. We both rushed up to my dad and started pleading for it. He said he knew just how to settle it. Whoever could say, "I love you dad" first, got the bed. I won. I got the beautiful bed. My brother and sister got twin sled beds. I may have won because I talk extremely fast, but I like to think it was because he loved me best. I never slept in the bed. Not once.

The only thing that compares to that is when my dad forgot my 10th birthday. My mom had made a big deal of it. She threw an elaborate party for me and all my friends, probably spent a fortune. Since my parents were divorced, I saw my dad the weekend after my birthday. Yeah, he totally forgot. Not just forgot, but he was supposed to take my brother, sister, a few of our friends, and me to the lake for a day of waterskiing, and he showed up with his girlfriend and her kids... 3 hours late! We were all in our lake gear, only to have him tell us once we were on the road, that we weren't going to the lake, we were going hiking.

So, we hiked in our lake shoes and flipflops, wearing bathing suits with big coverups over them. And then it rained. And hailed. We were all soaking wet and getting pelted with golfball sized hail, hiking in the mud. As I called out to my dad for help, I watched him lift up his girlfriend's daughter and give her a piggyback. My world crumbled at that moment.

The next weekend when I saw him, my sister reminded my dad about my birthday. He panicked and gave me the first thing he could think of. His saddle. And the promise of horseback riding lessons. Too bad we were moving across the country in 2 weeks. He wouldn't let me take the saddle home and I never got the lessons.

Yeah, so happy belated father's day, dad.

posted by Me @ 1:44 PM