Father’s Day Musings

Filed Under All Posts, Carine Fabius, Father's Day, Relationships | 3 Comments

My father is a very eccentric guy. At 84, he wears a ponytail, is extremely engaged in what might be termed “new-age” thinking, and he long ago gave up meat, alcohol and other favorite things as part of his personal spiritual quest. When my father develops an opinion on something, it’s because he’s spent long hours debating the thing with his intelligent, intellectually stimulated and very sharp mind; so, even though he loves long discussions on controversial positions, it’s easier to relocate the Grand Canyon than getting him to change his mind. Read more

Team Dad

Filed Under All Posts, Father's Day, Group Posts, Melissa Howden, Relationships | 4 Comments

The summer I turned six my mother packed my younger brother and me into the car for a road trip. Just before we left I remember sitting in the backseat of the Karmann Ghia at 732 Jefferson (I’d learned our address in kindergarten.) From my vantage point I could only see my father from the waist down. From the front seat my mother would say something to my father. Then he’d walk back into the house and return with some item, which he handed through the window. As I remember, this went on several times with me watching his long legs go to and from the house. On the last trip he returned and handed the iron to my mother. And then we left. My father is a six foot five, so even as we drove down the street I could not see his face just his legs. Read more

Portrait of the Artist as a Young Man

Filed Under All Posts, Christie Healey, Father's Day, Group Posts, Parenting | 2 Comments

I knew Fred would be an artist when he was four years old. He started to create a complex color drawing: 24 inches long and 20 inches wide. The drawing started with a boat, then an iceberg was added followed by sharks and other underwater creatures. The drawing would be worked on for weeks at a time and then put away for months before being taken out again. He completed the piece just before his sixth birthday. As complex as the final artwork became, it was not cluttered. Plenty of white space to rest the eye, create flow and add dimension. Read more

Forgiven Hurts

Filed Under All Posts, Family, Father's Day, Group Posts, Prudence Baird | 2 Comments

“Didn’t you bring a different dad last year?”

My classmate Susie, trotting alongside me at the Linda Vista Elementary School Father-Daughter Day Picnic, had noticed. I was mortified—even though Bill, my surrogate dad, was young and buff, sitting straight in his saddle chatting with a real father.

Last year, I’d brought Curt; both he and Bill were firemen my mother had hired from the station across the street to accompany me to the annual event. My father wasn’t available; as usual, he was golfing. Read more

On Men

Filed Under All Posts, Connie Stetson, Family, Father's Day, Group Posts | 9 Comments

“On Men.” Quite a title, yes? I’ve spent way too much psychic energy “on men”, literally and figuratively. The darlings.

My father and mother divorced when I was six, my sister was four. When he left us, he promised he was just leaving mom, not us. He lied. He was so handsome, funny and charming; a musician, and we loved him wildly. I learned from him, that part of love was expecting a broken heart. He disappointed me one time too many and I didn’t speak to him for 15 years. Read more

Daddy’s Girl

Filed Under All Posts, Cathy Fischer, Family, Father's Day, Group Posts | 5 Comments

I don’t’ really see myself as a “daddy’s girl” but I sure do love my dad, and yes, he spoils me.

In some ways he’s typical of his generation, distant but close. Born in Poland in 1922, he lived through the horrors of WWII, lost his entire family and amazingly rebuilt a life in France, then the U.S. Both he and my mother worked in garment factories in New Jersey, then their own lumber and hardware store in South Central, L.A.; immigrants dedicated to giving their children everything they didn’t have. Read more