10 things I love about my dad

My dad...

1 - often took my sister and me to the local Tasty Freeze when we were kids for soft serve ice cream cones.
2 - taught me how to ride a bike, play softball and my favorite outdoor activity... Frisbee!
3 - is a good sport and loves to laugh.

Story: He goes to the Silver Sneakers program at the local YMCA with my mom to participate in their senior fit activities. One of the exercises in the routine is a little sample of the Chinese mind/body practice called Tai Chi. I can't imagine my father doing any group activity that requires expressive body movements and just about fell out of my chair laughing when he confessed to me, "When I look around at the others in the class, I'm the one always going in the wrong direction!" Keep it up, Dad, everybody loves that guy!

4 - took us camping.

I always got sunburned, mosquito bitten, poison ivy, and then there was the incident involving an angry hive of bees. For some reason I called that fun in my youth.

5 - went to all of my softball games.
6 - always wears the clothes we buy as gifts for him.

Occasionally I'll hear him mumble something about not wanting to wear the color pink or asking in puzzlement, "Do men wear these?" But he does… yes he does.

7 - is always helping out others.

Mowing neighbors’ lawns, driving the elderly to appointments, or helping out a stranger with a staled car.

8 - always plays by the rules.
9 - passed a genetically great set of teeth on to me. But a crappy singing voice.
10 - uses southern jargon.

Old sayings like "we didn't have a pot to pee in" “I’m fair to middlin” or “Plum tuckered” "useless as a plugged nickel” and “You're gettin’ too big for your britches” - those embarrassing expressions that made you cringe as a child yet are often experienced coming from your own mouth as an adult! Must be some kind of Okie curse.

He loves colorful adjectives like “dad-gum” “cotton-pickin’” “high falootin’ ” and a few others that can't be used in polite conversation. All usually strung together in one sentence. Such as: That dad-gum, cotton-pickin', high falottin' so-and-so is stubborn as a mule!

He would sing old tunes like, "Jambalaya and a crawfish pie and file' gumbo..."

Son of a gun, I hope you have big fun ~ Happy Father's Day Dad!