Happy Father's Day

Lisa Mynx reminded me today that white roses are a symbol for fathers no longer here with us. On a day like today I am reminded how great a dad I had. He served the Canadian military for 34 years but you would never have met a more gentle caring guy. He only ever struck me once (and I totally deserved it). I was bugging him to go to the toy store and he barely grazed me with a backhand. I was already moving backwards and fell through one of those cheap ass basement plywood doors. You could not believe the look of horror on his face when he though he had hurt me. When we lived in Europe he made sure that both me and my sister saw all the museums and history that we could. He even made sure we went to a concentration camp - Dacau - so we would never forget the reason why he was a soldier and why evil had to be fought. He signed up for a program where we were able to see performances in the famous Strasbourg Opera House. Plays, opera, symphonies; everything. Every Sunday we would drive through the Black Forest to this tiny little gift shop near a water wheel that had been in use since the 1600s to check out the famous woodcarvings and get some ice cream. One Christmas we didn't have any toys since our boxes had not yet arrived from Canada. We had only been in Germany a week or so. He had NO toys for his kids on Christmas. He went out to find something, anything for us and all he could get were two large chocolate bars with these stupid troll dolls attached to them. But he did stop in at his work and the World Book encyclopaedias he had ordered for us were in. All that Christmas he taught us about history and science and music with those books. To this day I can say it was the best Christmas we ever had. He only had a grade nine education (before he went back to school to get his grade 12 so he and I could graduate together) but he loved learning about new things and made sure both of his kids went to college and university. He gave me my first comic books and my first action figures. He believe in me when he could have very well tried to force me to be someone other than who I was. We solved crimes on TV together and loved the same old movies. To this day I can't watch the Quiet Man with John Wayne or The Hunt For Red October without thinking fondly of him. He was the greatest man I ever knew. I love you Dad - Happy Father's Day