Happy Father's Day

Where do you start when you had the greatest father on the face of the planet? This is a photo of my "Diddy" when he was well into his seventies. I don't look THIS good and I am only fifty two.

 The above is a photo of him installing a dishwasher in our old house on Bayard Street.. He looks happy, doesn't he? (NOT) But he did it anyway...he always did.

 The next is a photo of Diddy sitting on the beach. A year or two earlier he was sitting by my Momma...now he sat alone.

 As grand kids started popping out  unfortunately (or maybe FORTUNATELY) my Momma wasn't around to spoil them rotten. Our kids got "Grandpa"  and by  that point in his life he was a tough nut to crack and reminded me of the tough man I remember as a child.

You did something REALLY  wrong in our house and my Momma would say "You just wait til your Diddy gets home."

Wait we would... then once he got home from his exhausting job and talked with Momma we  would be led to the gallows of the "Green Bathroom."  Nothing good ever happened in there. I think the enema bag hanging on the towel  closet door with that wicked looking tube pretty much made all three of us kids HATE the "Green Bathroom."

I was fortunate and had wonderful parents ... if you did something really wrong, my Momma would squeal on you first to Diddy, and once he got home would sit on the toilet with the lid down, make you pull down your pants and lay across his lap. He would always start with "This hurts me more than it hurts you."  I doubted that fact til I had three kids.

He didn't beat us, but it never felt good. Once done though...you learned your lesson!

The above photo is in fact my favorite. Can you see the love between them?  He had just walked in from work. The photo was taken in our kitchen by  my sister with her "Swinger Polaroid." If you click on it you can even see the tooth pick sticking out of his mouth...but can't you also see how much my Momma loved my Diddy?

The trivets on the wall behind them hang on my own kitchen wall today. The memories in that kitchen are marvelous. I remember the Cape Cod curtains on the door behind Diddy. I remember being in that kitchen like it was yesterday.

Had I not grown up with the two most amazing parents in the world, I think I probably would have been a failure.

When I felt my life was in the toilet a few years back I would look at this photo and think "This is Tim and me."

We signed up for having a family and nobody said it would be easy.

The goal is to raise kids who make you proud. If they falter along the way, that's okay as long as they learn from their mistakes.

I was a slow learner ...but they loved me all the while.

I aspire to be the parents I had. If I do just that...I will be happy and so will my kids.

Oh , for the days of black and white photos, rotary dial phones and butt whoppings in the bathroom!

 I had two great parents even if they were snatched from my life too soon... to fail would be a personal defeat .

My parents taught me better than that!

Happy Father's Day, Diddy !!