I then began to think of all the things I've "inherited" from my Dad:
- love of Duke basketball (oh yes, bball season is coming sooon!)
- strong dislike for lotion (as previously mentioned)
- enjoying the great outdoors as we used to go camping at Hanging Rock
- the dread of getting shocked in the winter... oh how we hate this!
- the understanding that a car is something that gets you from "point A to point B"
- love for the Gospel
- love for rock music. I seriously love classic rock. Perhaps it's all that Jimi my Dad would play.
Now the things that my Dad loves, but I am indifferent to (or can't do):
- Strumming on his guitar. It's no lie that my Dad has performed many times in front of hundreds of people (weddings & church) and also has a cd out! Holla! He's pretty famous!
- bees. Ok he doesn't love bees at all, but I just had to mention it. If there is a bee in the car he will stop, pull over and shoo that thing out!
- ice cream. Pops loooves ice cream. I wish I knew his current favorite flavor, that's the sad thing about living so far away: I don't know those small, little, every day things about my family. But for the rest of my life, whenever I see Breyer's vanilla ice cream w/ the little specks... I'll think of my Dad. He used to eat that all the time when I was growing up. I'm not a huge ice cream fan. I'll usually eat ice cream when it's super hot or when I have a sore throat. But don't get me started on my dessert of choice: chocolate chip cookies. Mmmm.
- Diet Coke. (I go for the regular stuff. Always have, always will.)- Weather. Paparoni (the nickname I dubbed for him in HS) is a master at knowing weather patterns and what is currently going on on the radar. I think by the age of two I could say cumulonimbus.
- Never, never ever be on the phone during a thunderstorm. He made little labels with this warning to put on our phones at the old house. Of course, this was during the time of landlines, where it is more dangerous.
- On that note, never take a shower while a thunderstorm is brewing outside
- Always close lids on jars
- Finish your cereal milk.
- "Be cautious at all times" while driving. He also made us a little label to put under our speedometer with this warning. I do attribute our little black Volvo making it as far as it did due to the sticker.
- Elbows off the table
Another funny thing about my Dad: in our old house of 23 years we had a problem with crickets. We had a split level house and my room was in the lower level, everyone else was upstairs. Ginna, our dear middle child/sister, had/has an insane fear for crickets and all such critters. It must've been (again, I have a horrible memory) when she was quite young that she would go to the downstairs bathroom and see a cricket every time and it was then referred to "THE CRICKET BATHROOM". She never went in it again. Never. We all tried to secretly trick her into going in whether it be a cry that I broke my arm and couldn't get out of the bathroom w/o Ginna coming in and helping me. Wink wink or other tricks such as such... but I can't remember them. Even the day we moved from the house she wouldn't step foot in it.
Poor Ginna. She had such trepidation for the sighting of crickets and other sneaky little pests. If one of us spotted one while Ginna was in the room, we'd have to do our very best to avoid telling her of the situation and then begin our covert cricket killing/saving operation all with the goal to not have that Ginna girl find out. My Dad usually saved the day on this. I'd go and tell him that there was a cricket and he'd willingly go find it. Now, don't get me wrong... it's not like we had a cricket farm in our house... it was just every now & then. But he was usually the one to do the "disposing".
And lastly, blog world, I will leave you with this, probably the number one thing my Dad has taught us is:
"If the ____ (insert car, house, pool, plane) catches on fire, get out". :) It's a legit warning, it is. But as all parents teach their wee ones to heed this warning, he continued to remind us even into our high school years. It became our family joke. As I'm running out the door headed to meet up w/ friends he yells right before the door shuts: "If Michelle's car catches on fire, get out!". We'd all have a good laugh about it cause most of my friends knew this long running joke.
That's just a few, of the many reasons why my Dad is the best.
(Stay tuned for full blog post shout outs to Mama, Ginna & Lucy) :)
3 comments:
the last few nights i've had nightmares about spiders in my bed. i think it's safe to say i still have that irrational fear...
ah my grandmother used to tell me not to use the toilet during a thunderstorm because (no kidding) someone in her hometown died while she was on the toilet because lighting struck the water line... I thought I was the only one!
If you'll recall, there was once a time in my life when the warning "if Michelle's car catches on fire, get out" was actually appropriate. Dear William the Jeep was way fun and super cool, but oh-so-flammable - I actually kept a fire extinguisher in there on the d/l...just so I wouldn't scare any parents. So. Your dad, as always, was right. And he is still my go-to weatherman.
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