Oh, My Pa-pa...

to me he was so...different.  The "different" relates to some of the lessons he shared--like how to take out the neighbor's crazy-mean German Shepherd.  But I covered that last Father's Day.  This year I want to repeat the oddest story about my dad.  If you're squeamish, you might want to skip to the bottom!

Back in the day, where my dad grew up, boys were not circumcised until just before they started school. When it was my dad’s turn, he was rewarded with a bag of candy for taking it like a man. Later, his younger brother asked if he could have some of the candy. My dad told him no, it was only for boys who'd been circumcised. My uncle was afraid of doctors, but he really wanted the candy. My dad came up with a solution. He'd watched the doctor and was sure he could handle the procedure. Yes! He grabbed his mother’s shears and took his little brother down to their barn. A few minutes later their younger sister walked in, saw blood, and ran screaming for help. Fortunately that uncle was fine—he went on to father 4 kids. No DNA confirmation though. ;P

Hearing that story (and others) helped me to understand why my dad seemed to believe childhood was boot camp for adulthood--and he was the drill sargeant. He knew first-hand the trouble kids could get into and he wanted to keep us out of it.  But I was such a good kid, I really didn't need to be kept out of trouble.  Sure, there was the mushroom incident, and the slingshot incident, and the cast iron skillet incident, and the...but I'm getting off track.  The point is that I rarely got into any trouble (that my dad knew about).  Like any thoughtful child, I did my best to not cause any problems (that my dad would hear about).  That was my gift to him.  It was the least I could do.  =)


PS - I joke, but I really was a good kid--the one in the group who steered his friends away from doing dumb things.  Usually!  Sometimes dumb ideas were just too well camouflaged as good ideas.  Live and learn.  lol