Fathers Day 2005

Why Dad's Are Important

Just got around to reading James Lileks Backfence column for today and I had to share a bit of it with whoever stops in here today. For those of you who don't know, James Lileks is, among other things, a columnist for the Minneapolis Star-Tribune and a hard core blogger - one of the sort who was doing this before it had a cute name. You can find his blog-like activity at http://www.lileks.com/bleats and his Strib columns at http://www.startribune.com/stories/804/
(annoying free registration may be required - it depends on what mood the server is in on any given day). Anyway, it's Fathers Day and the topic of his column is what kind of dad did you have. Lileks is just a bit younger than I am, in fact, he's just about my kid sister's age, so I'm betting we had the same kind of dad. This one. . . .

"GGs, or Greatest Generation Dads. Fought in the Big One, never mentioned it, worked hard, could bench-press a Rottweiler while
staring it down, able to fix a car with a wrench and two paper clips. The
voice of authority, but not for authority's sake. Disinclined to handle the
mushy stuff. Not flummoxed by it, but it's hard to really connect with your kid's tears over a broken 45 rpm record when your baseline for human tragedy is, oh, Anzio. [Or the Normandy Hedgerows. Or the Ardennes.] Some GG s indulged their kids, because they wanted to give them what they never had; some were strict, because once it came time to go toe-to-toe with the Rooskies, we would need strong men. So drop and give me fifty, mister. But Dad, it's 3 a.m.! Well, it's morning where Ivan lives, son. Drop!"

Except for the very last part, that's my dad to a T. Go and read the whole thing at: http://www.startribune.com/stories/1405/5462833.html See if your dad's there.