This Is a Post About My Dad

This is a post about my dad.

This is a post about my dad, about how he was elected coolest dad of my third grade class when he let us choose the name of a road he had built. And then how he was banned for life come fifth grade when he came to show us slides of Germany. Wearing lederhosen.

Its a post about how he taught me how to make my own cocktail sauce and how he gave me an appreciation of the raw oysters to dip in it.

It is a post about how he took my brother and me to see this new movie he heard about called Star Wars and then had to indulge our lifelong fascination with it. It is also about how, two years later, he took us to see Alien and then indulged me sleeping at the foot of his bed for the next seventeen months.

It is about how he left a job as an insurance salesman and built a house out in the country to sell, and when it did, he built a second one. And when that one didn't, we moved out to the country. It's about how he now speaks all over the country at ceremonies honoring him for building Green homes. It's about how I once sat in the audience at one of these events and listened to him describe the innovative  techniques he started using back in the 1970s and how I spent the rest of the presentation wondering how he had been so smart back then and how he had so cleverly hidden it from me.

It is a post about how I used to find him awake late at night watching Monty Python reruns on PBS.

It is about how he will always play pool just a little bit better than me.

It is a post about how he knows everyone in my hometown and can't go anywhere without stopping to visit. It is about how once, when I was sixteen, he started talking with a friend at our local barbecue joint and then made me feel like the biggest man in the world when he turned and handed me the keys to his car and told me I could head on home if I wanted to. And it is about how he didn't kill me when I wrecked the car before I had even left the parking lot.

It is about how he will turn down clients who want him to build big, wasteful homes, but is secretly wants someone to ask him to build a house out of compressed blocks of earth.

It is about how he can sleep through anything except the gentle clink of an ice cream spoon against a china bowl.

This is a post about my dad and how today is his birthday.

This is a post about my dad and how I am proud to be his son.

This is a post about my dad.

 

Comments

[Victoria]

Love.

Thank you for sharing your Dad with me.

[margie blystone]

Lucky Guys... Both of you!

[Jaci]

Your dad sounds so cool, lederhosen and all.

Happy Birthday to Looky Daddy's daddy!

[Beth]

de-lurking to thank you for sharing this... Beautiful words to describe a beautiful soul.

Happy Birthday!

[You can call me, 'Sir']

Dammit, Brian. Stop melting my cold black heart.

[Mia]

What a wonderful post! It is also my dad's birthday today and his ancestery is German.

[heidi]

this is a comment for lookydaddy, who made me cry in the afternoon.

[Krys72599]

Thanks, I see my next scrapbooking page right here... My dad died in 1987 and I've been trying to do a page about him for the past three or four years.
I will now be able to do it.
Stories about my dad - what a wonderful tribute to him.
Thanks for loving your dad so much and sharing him with us. He has a great son!

[Brian]

My dad's website, in case you wish to know more about his pioneering work as Green builder:

www.andersonsargent.com

The Dad, I come here to laugh not to cry! I'm sitting at my desk at work with tears streaming down my face.

What a lovely testament to your dad. He sounds like a great man. You're lucky to have him.

[Hatchet]

Happy Birthday, Dad of the Dad.

That was a lovely tribute, Brian.

[Lissfull]

I lost my dad over almost three years ago. This brings my own fond memories to me. You are lucky to have each other. He sounds like a great man. Happy Birthday to your dad!

[Amy]

Happy Birthday Dad of the Dad! Sounds like you're both the coolest!

[Swamper]

This is a post with a typo.

[Brian]

Thanks for pointing that out, Swamper. It's fixed now.

Ass.

[pharmgirl]

Dude....
that was lovely.

We should all be so lucky to have our children remember us that way.

Thank you.

[Tammy]

Well, now I feel like an ass (like Swamper over there). My dad's birthday was Saturday and I posted no such loving tribute.

[Clare]

Thanks for sharing. That was one of your sweetest posts ever.

[elana]

happy birthday to the dad's dad! this is such a beautiful post about your dad.

[Lori]

(delurking)

Dangit... I come here to laugh so hard I can't swallow my water. Not to tear up and sniffle over this really sweet post.

(I miss my dad)(yours sounds great -- you have a great example to live up to)

[Good and Crazy]

All Right! You are back! I first caught your site (from Karen Cheng) in mid-February. I nearly snorted my morning cheerios at the pool/poop story. And then realized I was going to have to wait...for more. So far WORTH the wait. Sorry about the flu and all. And love the post on your dad's birthday--spoon on the china...that's my dad!

[jazzy]

good stuff. thank god it was just his birthday. i thought this was going to be your tribute to your dad who was no longer with you; then i would have had streaming tears rather than just be teary-eyed.

[Jozet at Halushki]

That's not a post about your dad.

That's poetry about your dad.

And I'd love a compressed earth house with extra room for many ice cream bowls.

[b]

He sounds like such a sweetheart. Lucky you and lucky him to have each other in your lives.

All of us who are parents would be honored to be written about someday with so much love in every word.

That's so sweet. Your Dad might cry like Brett Favre after he reads your blog, if he hasn't already read it.