Fatherly wisdom
Every Saturday little Jack and his parents took the train to visit his grandmother an hour and a half away. They did this religiously for years until Jack turned thirteen and asked his parents to let him travel alone on the train to visit his gran. Jack’s mam and dad didn’t think this a good idea and refused to let him travel alone. Jack, however, begged and begged, ‘I’m a teenager now’, he pleaded, ‘and I can look after myself.’ Eventually his parents gave in and the following Saturday Jack’s father walked him to the train station. As Jack boarded the train his dad handed him an envelope, ‘Put that in your pocket’, he said, ‘it might come in handy if anything goes wrong.’ Jack put it in his pocket, thought nothing of it, and scrolled through his mobile phone. Twenty minutes into the journey a crowd of noisy youths boarded the train. Seeing Jack on his own they started to mock his red hair and glasses, they even took his phone and tossed it around among themselves. Jack was scared. Very scared and didn’t know what to do. Then he remembered the envelope, nervously taking it from his pocket he read the short note inside: ‘If you need me for anything, I’m in the last carriage of the train. Love, Dad.’
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I was reading an article recently about fathers and sons and their first drink together. The memories came flooding back of the time I took my son out for his first drink. Off we went to our local bar, which was just down the road. I got him a Guinness. He didn’t like it, so I drank it. Then I got him a Smithwicks, he didn’t like it either, so I drank it. It was the same with the cider, the Coors and the Bud. By the time we got to the whiskey I could hardly stand up to push his buggy home.
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Charles Darwin (1809-1882) married Emma Wedgewood in 1839 and they went on to have ten children. Charles, who gave us the famous ‘On the Origin of Species’ (his theory of natural selection and how we evolved from the ape) certainly did his bit for the propagation of the species. Charles was also a doting dad playfully growling like a bear as his children put their hands inside his shirt to feel his hairy chest.
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Paddy, in a reflective mood, says to Mick, ‘I think the happiest fathers are those without children.’ * Doctor: Does your father suffer from insanity? Son: No, he seems to enjoy it.* When I was five my father challenged me to a game of hide-and-seek. Ten years later I found him in a town 90 miles away!
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Back in 1966 Bob Dylan had a motorcycle accident and stopped touring for almost seven years. He did so to devote himself to his children (he had six children with his two ex-wives). Bob took them to birthday parties, brought them canoeing, fishing and on camping trips. When recording The Basement Tapes Bob would leave the sessions early to make it home in time to have dinner with the kids. Who’d have thought!
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Not too long ago, over a few drinks, I casually asked my eldest son what sort of father I was? Oh. Oh. Believe me I did not get a glowing report. Mind you, it wasn’t a bad report by any means but still– I was somewhat taken aback by some of the home truths he pointed out to me after all these years. Suffice it to say that I will not be asking my other three children the same question. Instead I’ll borrow a line from a former teaching colleague of mine who, when he’d come into my classroom, for whatever reason, would say: ‘Who’s the best teacher in the school – and why am I?’ So, that’ll be my line with my other three children: ‘Who’s the best father in the world – and why am I?’ At least it will get a laugh. I hope. In the meantime, happy Father’s Day to all you dads out there.
