Get His Hat (words from J.W.): #
Lately my brother Brian and I have taken to referring to my father as "the old man". Usually in sentences like, "The old man has fuckin' lost it, huh?" or "At least the old man is easy to buy for," the latter being especially appropriate with Fathers Day upon us. To his face however he is still referred to as "Dad". Usually in sentences like, "Hey Dad, how's it going," or the much simpler, 'Hey, how's it going."
I understand the latter doesn't even contain the word dad in it. In my late teens/early twenties I went through a phrase where I referred to him as "The Captain", to this day I have no idea where that came from. For a while I thought about calling him "Da" and throwing in a lilting Irish accent for good measure. I thought better of it since the man had three sons, none of who played sports and two of whom joined drama club, so I think he had enough to worry about.
If I thought my adolescence was tough for me, chances are it was probably no picnic for him either.
Let's face it; I was the type of kid he would have beat up when he was in high school. The result of that being I was robbed of any teenage Back to The Future daydreams I might have harbored. All that aside, I have to remember to give the old man a call this weekend.
I also have to remember to send him a father's day gift (after all, he is very easy to buy for). The call is not as much of an issue for my dad as it is for my mother.
If I eat a good sandwich and don't call my mother at some point to tell her about it a sort of capital offense has been committed. I'll call in the afternoon and he'll be watching a game, I've earned points now because it took me 31 years to finally get into baseball. We'll chat for a few minutes and I will stifle the urge to call both my parents by their first names (they're not down with that for some reason) and then the sun will set and I will have to get up and go to work the next day.
