Easter 1977 - Detroit
I can only assume that I was frozen solid and not actually sleeping.
Not a clue where we were or what exactly was in the bottles.
Considering that was back in the good old days when it was perfectly legal to load your kids up with Paregoric for "teething" and "colic", I'm sure my parents had no problem driving out to the middle of nowhere to tromp through a field of wild flowers.
Here I am, the black sheep of the family, they only took me out in public from time to time when they were quite certain I wouldn't be recognized.
On this Father's Day, I am thinking about all the good things my Dad taught me,
including but not limited to:
how to clean, load and fire a wide array of perfectly legal firearms;
how to change a flat on my car, all the really important parts of the engine and the need to properly maintain a vehicle;
how to drive a boat;
how to gut a deer;
to never, ever put a car in gear without first having my seat belt on;
that just because it's Chinese Food in China Town, doesn't make it right;
how to do minor home repairs;
how to tie my shoes;
how to bait a hook;
how to understand that when the A/C goes out in the car in the middle of Las Vegas, that it is just a part of life;
how to act in an emergency room while getting all stitched up
and
how although my children never met him,
he watches over them
and he would have been so proud of them.
Maybe not so much the green hair, but everything else about them would have made him proud.
