Weekend Blog 2

The weekend blog was created for off topic content.

Father's Day

Sunday, June 19th is when we celebrate Father's Day in the United States. While I am the father of two daughters (wonderful, smart, delightful girls - I might add) and I am almost forty years old, .... I still do not see Father's Day being about ME. Don't get me wrong, my wife and kids treat me great all year long, and especially on "dad's day"... but Father's Day is about MY DAD!!!

Sadly, I do not get to see my father very often. He lives 2000 miles away, and I only make it to California on rare occasions. Yet the man is so much a part of who I am, that it is like he is inside me all the time. I especially see how much of an impact he has had in shaping my life in the way I raise my own children. Sentences like "Don't run with a stick, you'll poke your eye out" or "STOP....no running by the pool, you'll slip and break your neck" just fly out of my mouth without any warning.

(My brother, Bob, points out that he never knew anyone who lost an eye from a stick or broke their neck by a swimming pool....Yet growing up dad made it sound like a regular occurance that we must actively avoid).

He was older to be my dad. He was almost 52 years old when I was born. He and my mother, who was 40, had three sons who were over ten years old. I do not think they were planning on more kids. My mom used to tell me that they did plan on having me, but dad sometimes refers to me as the "surprise"..... and will add that "surprise" is an "accident" that worked out for the best!!! I do know that they were convinced that their late-life baby would be the daughter they had always wanted. Oh well, I did eventually add the only two granddaughters to the family (the other eight grandchildren are all boys). It took them five days to figure out a boys name, as they had been set on naming me "Nancy".

Having lived in this world since 1914 (He was born 11 years after Kitty Hawk and Los Angeles had a population of 500,000 people...think about that for a minute!), he has a great prospective on life in this country. He has lived all of the history than most of us have only read about. Dad was a soldier in World War II and exemplifies all of the traits of those from "The Greatest Generation". He loves his family and friends, and has lived a life that is a great example to everyone who knows him.

I am very proud to be Al Singer's son. Happy Father's Day, dad.

And Happy Father's Day to everyone who reads this blog and their dads.

Have a great weekend.

Thom Singer
thom@thomsinger.com