In our 420 posts we’ve done several tributes to our many worthy family members. However, you’ve probably noticed that one person has successfully avoided significant mention year after year. After many weeks of a birthday cake from 1967 receiving more blog time than this actual person, I decided it was high time he stepped out of the wallpaper for Father’s Day.
Despite his blog obscurity, my dad has been front and center in our family. My dad has given our family a goofy sense of humor, a strong sense of competition, and, most importantly, a mortal fear of poor dental hygiene. As you’ll hear from all of the my siblings and my mother, my dad thinks so highly of dental hygiene that if we’re about to leave the house, we’re drilled no less than three times on the quality, duration, and time since our last tooth brushing. Nothing disgusts my dad more than poor dental hygiene.
Likewise nothing gets my dad more excited than a good old-fashioned competition. In lieu of an actual Father’s Day celebration, every year my dad wakes us all up at dawn on Father’s Day and we run around the neighborhood in his annual Father’s Day Scamper.
If you drive past our house right now, you’ll see a stadium sized Croatian flag eclipsing our house: our family’s way of representing the Croatian soccer team (though only my brother Vinnie actually watched the game, and we’re not actually soccer fans, but darn it all if we’re not going cheer them on with a flag big enough to be visible from space!)
My dad’s sense of competition is not, however, limited to sports. In fact my dad (like his own dad) is never more competitive than when he’s in front of a Scrabble board. Some of my proudest moments are laying down a truly great word on the Scrabble board while playing with my dad. If I lay down a not so great of a word, my dad is always there to joke and help improve my vocabulary (usually with a long-winded story that ends with a much anticipated “pun”ch line).
This Sunday we’re going to celebrate every one of these hats that my dad wears, leaving the Croatian flag up (because Croatia plays Cameroon on Wednesday), cracking many goofy puns, and, of course ,brushing our teeth until they shine.
Very nice Molly!!
Thanks!