Father's Footprint
View DetailsThe Winners!
Our Fathers' Dreams and Disappointments. Second Place in Father's Footprint Challenge.
I wish I could explain to my parents what I do for a living. It's not that I haven't tried. The problem is that in their world, there is no equivalent to this job that has been created by digitalization.
By Ronke Babajide3 years ago in Men
You're Doing Great. Runner-Up in Father's Footprint Challenge.
Dang it, Vocal, again with the challenges designed to pull me, specifically, out of my comfort zone. So, look, I'm an anxious, insecure crybaby who doesn't like to verbalize my feelings. I absolutely know where I get that from. The discomfort around sharing a Father's Day piece comes from the knowledge that my dad is also an anxious, insecure crybaby. I'm five sentences into writing this, and he's five sentences into reading it, and we're probably both on the verge of tears.
By Rebekah Conard3 years ago in Men
The Logistics of Worth. Runner-Up in Father's Footprint Challenge.
Staring out of the windshield over the expansive hood felt like looking across a snow-covered field. The wheel was tight, forcing both hands and muscle power to turn it. Pumping the breaks was an instruction and not just a clichéd term. On one occasion while driving to my summer job, I pumped the breaks continuously but the Lemans didn’t stop at the overpass. Slowly, the beast heaved itself across the road while I held my breath. I reversed out of the bushes with an equal mix of shame and anger. Mad at Dad for not having a better job to afford a nicer, safer car. He worked in a factory, though I told everyone he worked in logistics. Not entirely untrue, but I knew what I was doing when I said it.
By Christina Hunter3 years ago in Men
The Architect. Runner-Up in Father's Footprint Challenge.
It’s the first Saturday of April 2021 and I’m driving around empty parking lots looking for Ron Scholl. I’d talked to him just a few days prior. He called looking for some of that ‘health care that Obama gave everyone’. Ron was in his 70s and not in great health and would call me every once in a while. I work at Tucson Medical Center, so it made sense. I’d told him once that I’d help him get squared away – a doctor’s appointment, a physical, maybe even connect him to the hospital's senior service programs
By Tim Bentley3 years ago in Men
Habitus. Runner-Up in Father's Footprint Challenge.
In the memory I am thirteen years old. It’s a cold night in September, a few months into what my dad and I call my science fiction initiation. I sit on the floor of my parents’ room, my back against the foot of their bed. My dad holds a mug of chai tea. His long legs stretch out on the floor. We stare at the TV that rests on my mother’s bureau and wait for it to warm up. It’s an old TV, the square kind with a curved screen I can rap my knuckles on to produce a satisfying hollow thunk.
By Emma Gardner3 years ago in Men
Grapefruit as Fatherly Love. Runner-Up in Father's Footprint Challenge.
They take work. I’m standing behind the counter where my father peels a white grapefruit. He sections them according to their lines and continues to peel until they are no longer enveloped in the transparent casings and white ribbon. This debris he collects into a pile beside the cutting board.
By Mackenzie Davis3 years ago in Men
Echoes of Dennis Scott. Runner-Up in Father's Footprint Challenge.
Just when I was getting to know my father, he left us. I don't mean like he died. I mean, like he packed up his belongings in his trusty Vauxhall and went to live with his other family that he had started a few years after I was born. Those were hard times for me. The little that I knew about my father--he was an accountant who smoked Benson and Hedges and smiled whenever he saw Diana Rigg on The Avengers--wasn't helpful during those chaotic years after he had left.
By Geoffrey Philp 3 years ago in Men
