Sunday, June 21, 2009

Happy Father's Day!

Happy Father's Day to my two favorite fathers: my dad and my husband.

Thanks to my dad for teaching me the following things:

How to balance my checkbook, and then, how to balance the books for a business

How to be a good manager. My parents ran their own business, and all of us kids would help out. When he was away he left us to make our own mistakes and he always trusted us to use our own good judgement. If we did make a mistake we would then learn how to fix it.

How to drive (he was endlessly patient) and Accident Forgiveness (Progressive Insurance has nothing on a man who had four teenagers, three of whom crashed all of his cars with varying amounts of damage.)

How to treat VIPS and regular people: exactly the same! He has no respect for people who are rude to waiters.

How to gamble. Some people never learn when to get up from the table.

My dad also cooked, changed diapers, did housework, attended school functions, was President of the PTA, organized community events and did everything modern dads do, but forty years ago. He was and is a pioneer.
Thanks again, Dad!

I hope all of you have a happy Father's Day with all of your favorite fathers.

1 comment:

Toby Wollin said...

Ah, I miss my father; he died 7 years ago. But he and I were a real team: I was his special assistant in charge of distracting surgery patients while he looked under bandages (the pay was a very cool visit to the ice cream parlor). He also taught me to alphabetize so that I could do clerical work for him in the office; he also taught me how to answer the phone in a business-like way ("Remember, the people calling are probably in pain; lower your voice and sound serious") and make appointments for him. His relationship wisdom has definitely stood the test of time ("Don't marry a hot tomato")and everything I know about fitting men's clothes comes from him ("Make sure it fits in the shoulders first; if it doesn't fit in the shoulders, it won't fit any place else. You can always get things shortened or taken out in the waistline, but if it doesn't fit in the shoulders, it will just hang there"). Wherever you are, Pop - we miss you terribly here.