Today is "THE" day, people of Our Town.
The day we honor lots of our own for having the family title, Dad.
For over a hundred years now, America has set aside one day each year to honor the guy we have had the privilege of calling our father.
As one myself, I have been humbled by over 4 decades of having that yearly recognition shined on me. Truth be known, I have had the honor of being Dad to 3 children. There really is no real way to describe the inner feelings that frequently have swept over me in watching my 3 go through their early childhood, adolescent years, late teens, early adult, and now full-fledged maturity.
I know as I scribe this, I am talking to the choir, and many of you have had the same experiences and know precisely what I say is spot-on in your individual lives.
As human beings, our parents have the gigantic responsibility of helping shape our personalities. As previously stated in past writings, most mind-oriented professionals, agree our personalities are pretty well established just who we are and how we will perceive the world around us by the ripe ol' age of 6. For most of us, Dad played a major part in influencing those magical years in our lives.
For your humble correspondent, my Dad was almost my everything.
In the early 1950's, our family was living in metro Washington, D.C.(Falls Church, VA), and my father was a full colonel in the Air Force, working in the huge Pentagon building. My mother was a homemaker, taking care of my brother, 17, sister, 13, and me, 3. My mother became gravely ill with colon cancer, and passed away only 7 months after it was finally diagnosed. Faced with the monumental decision of how to best guide our family situation after my mother's passing at 39-years-old, my determined father decided to forego his excellent opportunity to become a brigadier general at the Pentagon, and moved back to Stillwater, OK, where he had obtained his college degree in the 1920's. He became the head of the then Oklahoma A&M College Air Force R.O.T.C. program, a position he held from 1953-57.
So, from 1952-63, my father remained single. He dated several local ladies, but did not remarry until I was 16. Because Our Town was so much smaller and had a definite Norman Rockwell-like existence, my Dad allowed me much freedom to play and roam with my many buddies all over our quaint little city, as danger was almost non-existent. I gained so much self-confidence and common sense thru his guidance and faith I would do the right thing. His jobs (later a freshman chemistry faculty member at OSU, 1958-69, and then OSU Arts & Sciences Extension employee, 1969-84) demanded much of his time and attention, but he always tried to save some time for me. His incredible wisdom and plain talk with me have provided me giant life experience rewards for many, many years.
He certainly wasn't perfect, and couldn't be all things for me, but he instilled in me the lifelong virtues of honesty, work ethic, humor, ease of expression, personal responsibility, and loyalty.
History easily shows we parent like we were parented. Simply put, our parents usually are our closest examples of how-to-parent, both good and bad.
For me, I certainly have attempted to take my father's strong points and relate them to my own children in a similar manner. I also recalled his weaker parenting traits, and have tried to overcome those with my own children. The past has shown I have not always been successful with overcoming those shortcomings, but it wasn't for a lack of effort.
As far as today's young fathers are concerned, society has really progressed, in my humble opinion. Modern-day Dads, seem to be much more in touch with their feminine side, and take a very active part in hands on parenting responsibility with their tiny and not-so-tiny children. With the vast majority of mothers in today's work force, too, the guys don't hesitate to step up and attempt to go 50/50 with their partners in raising their children. This attempt at win/win by both parents usually provides an excellent team effort.
That equal parental treatment both in terms of time and effort sets the stage for today's little boys to carry those life lessons over to the day they will be the center of attention on future Father's Days.
Let's have another big hug on the ol' guy. You know he really appreciates it today and every day!
From the bottom of my heart, thank you, Dad.
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