Monday, the Ides of March, is my father's 60th birthday. Happy birthday to the man who has made me laugh and cry for 35 years. You gave me my name, my humor and my thin hair. I love you! When I think of my dad and my youth, one profound memory always jumps to the top of my head. I was 16 and had a crush on our neighbor. Late one night, well late in teen hours it was probably 10:30PM, I was out front with some friends being loud and giggling. We were being silly girls flirting with the neighbor, my crush. Then, right there in my own yard; in front of my crush, my dad yelled at me. I was mortified. I couldn't tell you what he said, I'm sure a "you're waking the neighbors" was in there. I know if a car would have been driving by, I seriously think I would have jumped in front of it. Everyone quickly scattered (including my crush), and I went inside and told him he just committed social murder. Pleaded with my mom to make him understand what he just did. Argued that I was a good kid hanging out at home, not walking the streets or doing 'bad' things, then stormed off crying to my room. The next day my dad handed me a brown paper bag with a quick "I shouldn't have yelled". I looked in the bag and there was every candy bar I'd ever declared my favorite. Thinking back, I wonder if my dad was afraid he was losing his little girl. I also wonder if he knows hows much that gesture meant to me.
Ok, enough with the mushy stuff.. on to the giveaway! Or should I say giveawaysss... three kits to be precise! Three ways to win, one kit for each way!
- Celebrate your dad by posting your favorite memory of him on this blog.
- Help Scrap This Kit get their name out there. Spread the word about this giveaway on Twitter or Facebook.
- Follow Scrap This Kit. Use the links on this blog page to follow the blog, follow us on twitter, fan us on facebook or sign up for our newsletter. If you are already a fan, follower or newsletter recipient you are already entered!
Winners will be drawn Monday, March 15th .. the Ides of March!
22 comments:
I remember growing up on our family farm in Saskatchewan Canada and Dad would plow out the yard and out to the barn and gas tanks as needed. He always made sure to make one 'pile' special as it was the only place I could go sledding on our very flat farm. Not a big deal to a kid until years later when I realized the 'mess' it made for him each spring when it melted. I have photos of him sledding down it on a grain shovel when he though no one was watching...I will cherish them always.
I will always be my Daddy's Punkin. It does not matter how old i get. I sat in his "punkin seat" first and I am his Punkin. You know when a man crosses his leg over by crossing one ankle over the other knee? Well it creates the perfect hole for a baby bottom and then your head rests safely on Dad's knee while he talks to you about his day and asks you about yours. Well at least that's what my Mom says we talked about, and she's got the photos to prove it. Love you Dad!
I remember getting stuck underneath the street in a culvert. My friends and I thought it was cool to crawl through it, but it was a tight squeeze. Sharon and Barb went first, and convinced me there was a baby snake on the other side so I tried to turn around. BIG MISTAKE. When I was finally free, I was amazed to see the crowd standing there trying to figure out how to get me out. The expression on my dad's face - "I can't believe it was my kid who did something so stupid". I wish I could have taken a picture of him. I think I've made him have that expression a few times.
Love reading these. I can remember one night (I must have been about 5)that I was staying at my Grandma's house. Mom and Dad were at a church party. I remember when my dad walked in I ran to him and he picked me up and gave me a big hug. I could smell his aftershave. I still get a whiff of that every once in a while and it brings it all back. Amazing that that can still happen after 38 years.
Hi Tami! I don't care about winning but I put your link on my facebook page, made myself a fan and joined your group. I'll try to remember to post the new kits there when you get them.
My favorite memory of my dad was when I was about 9 years old and was home with a really high fever and my dad came home from work to see me at lunch - it was an hour and half round trip for him. He gave me a rye bread and blue cheese sandwich which I had never eaten before because it smelled funny. I hadn't been able to eat for days. To this day if I see or smell blue cheese I remember him quietly sitting with me and trying to feed me his favorite food.
My favorite memory of my dad is dancing with him at my wedding. I love him and miss him so much!
I'm blessed that my dad is still making memories with our family (though they might be a bit quirkier than they used to be, lol). A favorite memory? This one's not particularly funny or a singular incident, but I was a homebody who used to hang out with my dad on Friday and Saturday nights... we'd watch basketball, The Love Boat and Fantasy Island together, discuss things in the news and just spend time together. More recently, watching him play board games w/my daughter and teach my son to play poker come to mind... ♥ my dad!
I'm a FB and google fan...
When I was little my parents had one car. My dad worked day shift and my mom worked evenings. I have wonderful memories of me and dad driving to pick my mom up from work at night, and each night going by the Dairy Queen for an ice cream cone on the way. I guess I ate hundreds of those during my life. There were no seat belt laws then so I sat in the front seat of this big car (as everyone had huge cars then) next to daddy then between mom and dad when she got in. He always pointed out neat things along the way, including smells, she worked at a paper mill. Now if I ever drive near one of these, I know well in advance what I am coming up on! Interesting enough, dad still points out things along the way when we are riding around, some 30+ years later. :)
I think my favourite memory of my Dad is the moving speech he gve at my wedding.
My dad worked a lot when we were kids - a full time job plus after dinner he'd leave to work at odd jobs for other people - home repairs, etc. I remember going with him a few times - just me -which was nice as I have 3 sisters and a brother, so it was nice to have some one on one time with him.
My favorite memory of my dad would be of us bringing him lunch on his overtime shift. He was always happy to see us and now I know that he worked so much to provide us with everything we needed.
My fav memory of my dad is playing games outdoors in the summer in our yard. He was the 'fun' dad in the neighborhood and always had time to play with us....so all the neighbor kids gathered at our yard. :)
You sound like you all have some wonderful dads! I really can't say the same, but I have learned from him nonetheless. If I was brave I would scrap that, but I think I'll just savor your entries instead. Thanks for the giveaways, though. :-)
This is a bit tough for me especially since during this short time that my Father has been battling Cancer, all of the little things about my Dad that I took for granted have been "flooding" my mind. I've always adored my Dad but like most teenagers, just thought that all the tidbits of wisdom that he told me was just silly nonsense! I wanted to grow up so quickly and voiced my impatience constantly about how the age of 18 would never come. My Dad always would say, "don't rush the time because once you turn 18, the years will fly by!" Oh boy, was he right and so many times now, I long to be the young child with any responsibilities living at home again... Funny how now that I'm in my 40's, my Dad seems to be the smartest man on earth and filled to the brim with wisdom. Why didn't I see that then? My Dad's profession was a Firefighter but that didn't stop him from trying to be an inventor. He was always rigging things together to try to make chores easier. One of my fondest, most laughable memory is of when I was a small girl and Dad was faced with a large plot of land for the first time. He knew the best thing to do with that plot of land would be to grow a garden but it was a rough patch of land and would take ALOT of work to make it plantable. So after moments of ideas racing through his head, he decided to see what would happen if he replaced the existing tires on the tiller with car tires. It made perfect sense to him that the larger the tires, the more area that the tiller would cover so then it could cut a few hours off of the time of tilling the dirt. It's quite a clear picture in my mind of me as a little girl standing by my Mother, both of us excited to see how Dad's new invention would work... Dad takes his place behind the tiller and starts it up.... and zoom off it went at a speed that he couldn't even run to keep up. I suppose that at the time, all thought left his head because instead of letting go of the tiller, he proceeded to hold on tighter although from waist down, he was being dragged through the dirt. We were yelling, "Just let go" and freaked out that he was going to be hurt, yet he was determined to keep trying to catch up to the tiller and gain control. Ultimatly, the tiller won and continued on it's journey by itself until it ran out of gas! After Dad, brushed off as much dirt as he could and hiked down to retrieve the "runaway" tiller, he took the car tires off right away and replaced with it's proper yet much slower tires... He was always coming up with stuff that would very humorously backfire on him!
I didn't meet my dad until I was 15. That is definitely me favorite memory. We met at an airport in Greensboro and I knew it was him way before we actually got close enought to talk. It is amazing how much we look alike and I always thought I looked like my mom! The day was bittersweet with so much emotion.
My 16th birthday approaches and my dad starts making a big deal about a "very special gift". We go to dinner with the family that night and he brings in a wrapped gift...much bigger than the jewelry box I expected. I open it to find....are you ready? A weather radio!!! Why? Who knows? He was so proud of himself!!! LOL! (lesliemcc@verizon.net)
Every year on Halloween my Dad would take all of the kids trick-or-treating. Everyone that ever joined us knew to wear comfortable shoes. We started out right after dark. He would take us out to several neighborhoods close by. As a child it seemed like 4 hours trick or treating and we always had tons of candy. It was always FUN.
My dad... the one thing he did for me, and not my younger sister (so this is sooo special for me!)...
He always waited up for me after my dates. Always. It was never to make sure I wasn't being bad or to hover over us as my date and I said good night. He just enjoyed hearing about my night and for about an hour after I got home, he would just listen to me talk about my night.
The most special? Was when he did it again after I moved back home following my divorce from my first husband. Once I started dating again, he'd again wait up for me. It was something that was special just for me and him. :-)
My dad was a very hard worker and was gone all week long working construction and then when he was home on the weekend trying to catch up on things that needed fixing under his hand and catching up on the beef farming. But in all this hustle and bustle of what his days must have been like, I remember him sitting in a boat, fishing on a lake with me for hours... He would bait my hook and then take the fish off too and tell me I really wasn't fishing if I didn't do it all, but he humored me each time and let me "catch" the fish. Like so many others, I miss my dad, I would love for him to see the family that I have now...
All of these Dad memories are so sweet to read. My Dad was a very social person, he would talk or laugh with everyone while out shopping or just getting gas. I remember one time in High School and boy asked me to go bowling, but neither of us could drive yet. I asked my Dad if he would drive us and he said Yes, if you let me bowl with you. At first I thought, no way. But he bowled with us and we had a really super good time and my date was just so happy to have him along because he kept us laughing and it was just plain fun.
I have the best dad! He is always a gentleman and a handyman around my house....my DH isn't always the fastest of workers....I cherish the memories of having my dad as a 7th grade history teacher. I remember his fun, creative teaching style. I think that he would have been one of my favorite teachers, even if he wasn't my dad. But, I as super lucky to have him as my dad!
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