Happy Father's Day All The Happy Fathers In the World

What’s the first thing you think of when you think of your father? When I think of mine, I think of his smile. He was so in love with Mom, my younger sister Peggy and me that he seemed to always have a happy face. If you read Sidetracked Home Executives: from pigpen to paradise, you know that I got the disorganized gene from Dad. He threatened to sue me for defamation of character, but of course he was joking and if he really had intended to take me to court, he’d never have gotten around to it because he was a procrastinator.

My dad worked hard delivering gas to farmers who had big tanks to supply their farm equipment. He was so loved by his customers there was hardly a day he didn’t come home in his big Standard Oil tank truck without a few treasures. In the summer it’d be produce. We never needed a garden as we were kept stocked in every kind of fruit and vegetable known to Dr. Oz. Sometimes he’d bring home packages of beef, chickens or turkeys and other times jams, jellies, cakes or cookies.

He loved to hunt and fish and because part of one of the farms was Bachelor’s Island, a duck hunter’s heaven in the Columbia River, he was given the privilege of hunting ducks and geese. Being an excellent shot (Mom said he had the eye of an eagle) our freezer was stocked with wild fish and game. To this day I love the taste of wild goose and Chinook salmon.

As I alluded, Dad was very disorganized, but being married to a BOP (Born Organized Person) wife it didn’t show up in our home. If he left anything out or didn’t put his dirty clothes in the hamper, Mom did it for him without making an issue of it. I think she felt the inside of the house was her domain and the yard, car and garage were his.

If you read The Sidetracked Sister’s Happiness File, you know Dad’s garage was a disaster and he’d leave his lawn mower, garden tools, edger, tiller, hoses, yard chairs and chaise lounges out in the fall and with the first snow Peggy and I would play, Name That Lump.

When I asked Terry, my husband, what the first thing that came to his mind when he thought of my dad, he said, “His smile and happiness.” He was a very happy man. I read somewhere that it’s more important to be happy than it is to be organized, and my dad proved that in his life. Sure we need to get to appointments on time so we don’t keep anyone waiting and it helps to know what day it is so we don’t show up at church on Monday. But once we have a watch and a calendar and we remember to look at them regularly, if they’re for the goal of being happy they’ll serve us well.

Here’s a tribute to all the happy fathers! Thank you for being there for your children!