Happy Father's Day

THINGS I REMEMBER ABOUT MY DAD:

1. Climbing on his back. He would lay down on his stomach to read the newspaper. We little girls would start on the back of his knees, arms out stretched for balance, and walk up to his shoulders and jump over the newspaper. Every now and then he would pretend to sneeze and we would all fall off in a pile of giggles.

2. Sleeping princesses. when it was time for bed we would all scatter and hide. Dad would walk through the room and loudly proclaim, "Well, no one is here, I guess I will just go to bed. Goodnight, Momma," and walk out of the room. Then, one of us would run out and lie in the middle of the room, pretending to be asleep. All the others would yell, "Check agaaaaaain!". Dad would come back in and gasp, "A Sleeping Princess. I'd better rescue her before the Eeeevil Loon Dragon comes to get her." He would gather our feet in his massive hand, and our wrists in the other, then he would swing us. "A one, and a two, and a one-two-THREE", he would swing us back and forth, then he would let go of our hands as the momentum carried us up and over his shoulder. then he would carry us off to bed singing, "Sack-a potatoes, sack-a potatoes". It was terribly sad whenever one of us became too big to be a sleeping princess.

3. His laugh. My dad was a very tall, very large man. He had silvery blue eyes and curly hair with silver threads running through it. When he would laugh, and I mean really laugh, it was an unexpectedly high pitched, whistley laugh. Put your tongue up against your top back molars, smile, try to whistle, and sing a high B note. Yup, that is what his laugh sounded like when he was laughing too hard to control it.

4. His jokes. "Dad, guess what!" "Ummm, your won a million dollars." "No, I..." "Don't tell me, I'm still guessing"

"Pull my finger"

"Hey, Dad, know what?" "Yeah, I met him years ago"

"Anybody want to go to Dairy Queen?" "Yeah!!!! WE do, we do!!" "That's nice." (Then he'd drive right past it. About once or twice a year he would actually take us.)

5. Making mom laugh. If mom was in bed crying from post partum blues, or from other unexplained reasons, dad would get all us little kids to line up in front of her. Then he would loudly say, "Come on kids, lets give something to cry about!" Then we would all make faces and silly sounds until she would start laughing.

6. Throwing pizza. My dad was the neighborhood pizza maker. We used to have pizza making parties at church and my dad would teach who ever wanted to learn how to throw the pizza dough in the air to make a big flat crust.

7. His love of food. My dad was a big man for a reason. He loved a well made BLT with extra mayo. He could put a big potato chip in his mouth without breaking it. He like sardines. One of my sisters and I tried our hardest to like sardines, I just couldn't like them, not even for Dad. He did NOT like onions, or anything even tasting of onions. If dad ever asked one of us to make him a particular food it was considered an honor to be jealous of because he very rarely trusted anyone but mom, or himself, to make his food the way he liked it.

8. Hiya-Sokki-HAH. As little girls we would rush into a corner of the living room, all a-giggles. Dad would get down on one knee in the middle of the room. He would shout, "Hya-Sokki-HAH!" and one of use would run at him full speed. He would catch us around the waist and flip us upside down and over his knee.

9. His love of knowledge. Dad loved to help us learn. We knew if we just wanted some quick homework help, to go and ask mom. But if we were really interested about something we would ask dad. He would never give anyone a simple answer. In fact he never gave any answer at all. He would have us research it and he would discuss it with us and even give us little debates about what we would think was the answer. I still remember many of the things he taught me.

10. His joy. My dad was a happy, fun, jolly man. We never had much money, but he never acted poor, or sad for his lack of money. He wasn't skinny, but he never acted self conscious and was always fun to be around. He didn't have a fancy house, or even a large one, but he filled it with people and made them all happy. He didn't have all the things that he wanted, but he always made us feel like he had the best of everything in life. I will always love my dad for teasing us till we laughed, for his smiling blue eyes, for his silly flirtations with mom in the kitchen, and for showing me why "Men are that they might have joy" (2Nephi 2:25).

Happy Fathers Day!!!