A Tribute to Dad

I’ve got a giant list of things to blog about that’s built up over the last few days but I thought that on a day like today I should do something nice. So this is it; a tribute to my dad on Father’s Day. (A thought... why isn’t there a “First Born Child’s Day”, or even better a “Dale’s Day”?)

Dad is, like any person really, difficult to accurately describe. What I can say though is that he has beliefs and he sticks to them unfailingly. He grew up with certain values and habits that became imbedded in him, and these are still obvious today. His politeness, courteousness and sense of morality are evident in most aspects of his everyday life. Naturally, he’s done his best to instil these values upon my brother and I, and most of them have stuck. From his insistence that we get all our chores and the like done, and keep our lives (and our rooms) in a neat and sensible fashion, to persistently encouraging that we as a family spend a lot of time together; he’s been there to watch over us, most of the time approvingly.

Some of my fondest memories as a young kid involve Dad, my younger brother and I jumping our back fence onto the primary school’s football oval and kicking the ball around on Saturday or Sunday afternoons. My brother and I used to be in awe of how far he could kick the ball and how fast he ran whenever he was chasing us (Dad used to play football & cricket through until his early thirties, and is still very fit today – he still goes jogging most weekends and manages to run impressive times for his age). I have even earlier memories of how he’d sit on my bed next to me at bedtime and read me stories in his smooth but still somewhat animated voice, and of me being upset if he didn’t read to me some nights.

More recently, he played a large and important role in teaching me to drive. He was meticulous, as I’d come to expect, but despite my occasional frustrations at the repeated and seemingly blatantly obvious advice, it worked and he taught me a lot of crucial things. His speech at my 18th birthday family celebration was really touching. His words were so kind and heartfelt. I could hear how proud he was of me in very sentence he spoke, and it touched me.

Today, we went to the football to see the kangaroos (the team we follow) play against the magpies. I’ve been going to the football with dad and my uncle and younger cousin for a long time. When I first started going, Grandpa was still with us. He and dad had a similar arrangement; they’d been going to the football together, and been loyal kangaroos members for decades. Unfortunately we lost, but it was still good to be there with him, on a day that he no doubt was thinking about his father too (he visited the cemetery to pay his respects yesterday).

Anyway, there’s so much more I could say but I think that this is enough. So Happy Father’s Day Dad. I love you, even though we don’t always see things eye to eye, I really do.

Dale.