daddy's girl

I have always been a daddy's girl. It's not that I'm not close to my mom; I am. It's just different. And today is my dad's birthday. He's somewhere in his 70's. I'm not sure he'd appreciate my telling his exact age. I wish I had a picture loaded on my computer of him, but I don't. Sorry dad.

As a smaller child, I was my dad's sidekick. He taught me to appreciate a good football game (and even a bad one). I can recall many New Year's Days spent lying across the bottom of his bed watching bowl games. I'm pretty good in my bowl pool selections because I had a good teacher.

My dad spent over 30 years working for Ford within the stamping function. From what I recall, he was a program timing coordinator--a kind of logistics manager. We started in Chicago, then he transferred to Detroit. As I entered high school, he decided we needed to move, so he transferred down to Maumee (more than 50 miles so Ford bought our house in Detroit), and we landed in Bedford. Eventually, he started working back in Dearborn again, and spent a good 15 years doing the 45 minute commute every day.

I think my dad made it to most of my major milestones (except my actual birth--he was still parking the car). He actually did a few girl scout banquets when I was younger, and I know he was at the school plays and my eighth grade graduation. When I played basketball in high school (GO MULES!), he came to several games; not all, but as many as he could. Many parents were unable to do that way back in those dark ages. I know he was at my wedding--I also recall what he told me before I walked down the aisle. I won't put it here because it was, is, and always will be between us. Suffice it to say that it was fun and I was laughing as we moved on.

My dad tries to get to my kids' sporting events when possible. I'm not going to say he's in bad health, but he could be better. He does have a tough time walking. He had a knee replaced about 4 years ago, and he had some complications (life threatening) that left him in the hospital for 7 weeks instead of the 2 days they expected. He recovered, but given the experience, he's not too eager to get the other knee replaced.

Dad is our resident family historian. He started doing the family tree when he couldn't answer some simple family tree questions for a project my brother had way back when. Since then, he's been able to trace back 11 generations on several sides. Along the way, he's found a few famous ancestors and/or current distant relations. The one that I think is the coolest is Daniel Dafoe, author of Robinson Crusoe.

So daddy, Happy 70-something birthday.