MEN LIKE MY DAD!
My dad had many occupations in my life time. If he didn't know something, he'd go to school to find out. You name it, he knew how to do it and if he didn't, he knew who to call.
My dad was not one to sit around the house to often. He was always doing something or talking to someone. Anyway, here are just some of the occupations he had while I was growing up:
Fireman
Gas station owner
In charge maintenance for the main post office downtown Houston
Offshore drilling rig mud logger
Paint contractor
School bus driver
He worked at Brown Oil Tools- I don't know what he did there but, he worked there and went to college full time.
Was a route sales rep for Curtiss Candy Co.
Owner of a tool store. (I ran it for him as a senior in high school)
When he wasn't working, he was volunteering his time in non profit organizations such as:
Being a coach for little league baseball and football
Being an umpire for little league
VFW - Commander for two years.
- Organizer of their Chili Cookoffs for 5 years
- In charge of the bingo commitee
- In charge of Christmas baskets to needy families.
Singabun(sp) German singing group in Houston
SPJST- A fraternal group that sold insurance and had lodges here in TX where people could gathered to have meetings and recreational things like camping, dancing, volleyball, swimming and all kinds of activities together.
Houston Livestock Show and Rodeo - Member of the Swine Committee.
Member of the Amigos Del Campos BBQ cook off team.- They not only competed but provided catering for the former TX Governor Dolph Briscoe's and Sherriff "Squatty" Lyons re-election campaign.
When he wasn't doing all of that, my parents were working on their rent houses together along with us kids. Whatever needed to be done, we all did it. Painting, plumbing, rewiring, wallpapering, reroofing, etc...we only hired out if the job was something that neither one of them knew how to do or it was too time consuming.
My dad was a very attractive, smart, outgoing and loving man who never met a stranger. He loved, laughed and lived. He helped out where ever he could without being asked sometimes. And I was his shadow and sometimes partner in crime. Where ever he was, you would find me. Never did the words, "I'm bored" ever come out of his mouth.
Now my dad cheated on my mom throughout their marriage but he always came back to her. She knew it but didn't let her bother her too much because he never ever allowed the other women to mess with my mom. The only thing that broke them up was him becoming so depressed and started really becoming an alcoholic. She said, "I can fight another woman but I can't fight the bottle."
Of the three men that I was married to, my second husband was the only one that came close to being anything like my dad. The biggest reason we didn't last is that he had the most depressive personality I had ever encountered in my life.
I don't mind being a cheerleader and bringing someone's spirits up when they are down until they can go on their own but damn I can't always be the one dragging the "dead body" around. He gave whole new meaning to the term ball and chain.
The last one came close too. He just had way too much baby momma drama that I spent a lot of my time and thousands of dollars trying to clean up so that we could have a decent life. And no sooner did I get that cleared up and my dad died that another woman saw all the work that went into creating the new man and stopped at nothing to get him. She convinced him to leave me just 2 months after my dad died. I was like WTF?
Anyway, the one thing that I loved about my dad was his great love of his family and my mom. Almost every woman he dated after my mom was jealous as hell of her. My mom and dad were soulmates and no one that ever met them could deny that.
I will never forget for as long as I live my dad coming to visit her in the hospital shortly after finding out she was dying. I had just gotten mom moved to her bedside commode when the phone rang. It was her doctor and I had been trying to get a hold of him for a couple of days so I was listening to him when I saw dad. He came in on his walker almost sprinting like a teenager (you just would have had to be there to understand) Once, mom realized it was him, she sort of struck a pose and smiled. I don't know how to describe it other than she tried to be sexy for him. She was so out of it that I don't think she realized she was on the commode but you could see the connection as plain as day. After being divorced for twenty years, here they were being the soulmates of 49 years.
My dad was angry at me for being on the phone when she was trying to talk to him. She was giving me dirty looks but, as I had tried to explain to dad since then, her brain was so swollen that she wasn't able to make coherent sentences anyway.
Daddy died two and a half years after she did. I believe in my heart of hearts that even though he had been living with another woman for six years, his heart broke when she died and he didn't want to live anymore.
That is what I want in my life. A deep down love that can not be broken no matter who or what comes in and out of our lives.
Are you that man for me?
