Sunday, June 17, 2007

Father's Day: Happy and Sad

I've had a nice Father's Day. Went to a Quaker picnic with my son. He and I both have casts on our left feet. Mine's due to come off this week, since the three stress fractures are healed. His is for a sprain, and he'll wear it for a week. Like father, like son. It was a fun day. My son ate a brownie and some strawberry shortcake. I made a feeble attempt to get him to eat some "real" food! You know, being a dad. I don't know if he did, but he seems to be growing anyway.

Watching the Cubs today. They are losing to the Padres, 9-1. I was reflecting how I used to watch these games with my dad. It was a place where we could hang out, the baseball world, Wrigley Field. Watching the Cubs struggle was part of our lives together. I miss him today, not just because of baseball. He died 5 years ago on my birthday. He had emphysema from being a life-long smoker. But I feel there's a lot more we could have shared. I also wish he and my son, Poodledoc, Jr, would have had more time together. Of course, we had some tough times, disagreeing a lot on politics, mostly. But that seems so trivial now. Not what we needed to be talking about.

But I'm really missing him today. At his funeral, I sat at the traditional post-funeral luncheon in Springfield, NE, at the Methodist Church, amongst his surviving high school classmates. Out of 15, there were 8 present. They showed me a framed class of 1944 photo. They told me that when one of them would die, the program from the funeral/memorial service would be put into a pocket on the back of the frame. They asked me for the program. I handed it over, even though they all had copies. It was some kind of ritual, I think. The son handing over the father's honor, or something like that.

Later, there was a lot of laughter. I felt very at home with these people. They grew up with my dad and loved him. I asked them for some remembrances of my dad. One of his classmates said: "I've never seen ANYONE throw a baseball that far".

4 comments:

Suzy said...

It's funny ... fathers' day is probably the one day I don't think about missing my dad. If we recognized fathers' day he'd grumble, "It's just a Hallmark holiday!"

Can't believe Tristan sprained his ankle. He's a chip off the ol' block, isn't he?

Sorry I missed the picnic. It turned into one of those days with event piled on event. Didn't even get to go to the "Y".

poodledoc said...

The picnic was very.....relaxed. Tristan tried to put as much whip cream as possible on his strawberry shortcake. He sprained his ankle while jumping on the trampoline at Zephy. Nathaniel landed on his foot. There were a dozen kids on the trampoline, so something was bound to happen.....

Tristan got me a gift card for the Evil Empire. I've corrupted him......bwahahahaha

Suzy said...

Enjoy your gift card. Whatcha going to buy ... Ann Coulter's latest? Bwahahahahaha.

poodledoc said...

Yes, I thought I'd get it for you as an advance birthday present! bwahahahahaha!