Stories My Dad Told Me

Introduction

This was originally for the Vocal “Dads Are No Joke” Challenge being judged by Nikesh Shukla but I am entering it into the "Fathers Footprints" one below as well. I may write another left-field entry that refers to this.

Although the title is in the past tense my dad is still with us and going strong even though he recently smashed his knee in a fall when we were going to a local restaurant. He is 89 and is still very active.

He has been there for me all my life and has told me things that I will share with you in this piece. He can be curmudgeonly but he is also very caring and has done a lot of things that I will never be able to do.

Stories From My Dad

Some of these are funny and some are dark but all are about my dad.

Before I was born my dad spent time down the mines (not sure where) but he, like me, does not like the thought of being underground, and maybe we share a common claustrophobia. To escape the mines he joined the army, I think for National Service and in his time there he represented the army successfully at boxing (that is him in the main photograph) , but had to retire because his eyes cut too easily.

He then wanted me and my brother to take up boxing, but I was not enamoured with it (too soft) so I dropped out.

My dad always used to say when I was reading or playing music “If You’re Not Working, You’re Doing Nothing, And If You’re Doing Nothing You Should Be Working” so I was not always in his best books so to speak, but he also continually said “You Can Only Do You Best” so that was supportive.

I went to Grammar School my brother and sister comprehensive so I lost school contact with a lot of friends and my family.

My dad was a builder and also was responsible for maintaining Post Boxes from Boston to Anglesey to Gretna Green and has told me a lot of stories about moving them about and the problems that sometimes occur. He has been hit so many times by safety laws which he explains actually makes the job more dangerous.

I often helped him with installations and remember one in Southport where people kept complaining that they wanted a Post Box close by but not near their house. Remember that a Post Box is cast iron, and has a three-foot base which has to go into the ground to support it, and moving it means digging it up, putting it on the lorry manually (no crane) then taking it to the next location.

My dad is still a great fan of war films and I remember him taking me to see “Von Ryan’s Express”, “Dillinger” and “The Green Berets” in the sixties and I did enjoy “Von Ryan’s Express”.

When I started working as a computer operator I would get home after a night shift and he would ask me if I could take a van or lorry to a site, and when I got to that site they would have something to deliver to another site and so on and I would get home about six, and then he would say “You’ve Not Been Doing Anything All Day, So Just….Whatever”

He won’t fly on a passenger plane but used to do skydiving, never did work that one out.

I was pleased when he came to see his great-granddaughter Alexis, but that was the day he smashed his knee and ended up in the Newcastle Royal Victoria Hospital for a week before returning home.

In Conclusion

These are a few tales from my time with my dad. I have missed lots and looking forward to a lot more.