RaisingDad

By the many stories I've told you, it may sound like my father got pulled over a lot for speeding, and maybe he did, but I take full responsibility for that.      You see, my brother and I were  very rambunctious as young boys, and he had to spend half of his driving time threatening us in the backseat to get us to stop fighting with one another.      It was a stormy night, as this memory takes place, and my father had pulled to the side of the road because a police officer had pulled us over. In his yellow rain slicker, it was obvious the police officer was not happy to be doing his job.      "Isn't it stupid of you to be speeding with your family in the car with you?" he tried to chastise my father.      My father isn't one to be chastised.      "Stupid? Me?" he told the police officer. "YOU'RE the one standing in the rain."   ...

as featured in Desert Exposure Magazine desertexposure.com     Lest you think I consider my father a burden, I don't.      It's just if all I wrote about were unicorns and rainbows, both you and I would be bored. Besides, I find everything my father does incredibly entertaining. Maybe not at the time, but, you know, when I look back. Now I understand the saying, "I'm not laughing at you, I'm laughing with you." I'm not laughing at my father, because I'm just like him. I'm laughing with him, because I can see what the future has in store for me.       Old age takes pity on no one.     One of the reasons we bought this particular house is because it had a small guest house in the front where we knew my father could live and have his privacy. It was a way for him to keep his independence, yet let us keep an eye on him at the same time. In his home away from home he has his own TV with its own...

My grandson, who's a pretty bright kid (he gets it from me), was telling me how he was learning about fire safety at school.      He's in single digits, and they were teaching him about Stop-Drop-And-Roll, dialing 9-1-1, and that it's "Smokey Bear," not "Smokey the Bear."      Testing his knowledge, I asked him, "What would you do if your school clothes were on fire?"      Probably remembering how his mother lays them out for him in the morning, he said, "I'd leave them on the bed."     Raising My Father RaisingMyFather.BlogSpot.com JimDuchene.BlogSpot.com  American Chimpanzee @JimDuchene