The good father

The Good Father

When Jason was a kid growing up in Savannah, he remembers a time when his father, Michael was steadily at work while he was at home with his siblings. His father had a job in the aerospace industry and it held long hours. Most of his time as boy was spent with his siblings or with his stepmother. The life they lived was middle-class his father gave him and his siblings ten dollars a week for an allowance.

Whenever his father got time off he would go to the company’s yearly picnic by all accounts was fun. They went to the Jacksonville Zoo, and various water parks across the state of Georgia and Florida. Then he remembers a time when he was a little older that he had to move with his grand-aunt and uncle. Times there were shrouded with abuse of all forms, emotional, physical and mental. His father had to pay the price as well child-support which he did faithfully working diligently as he was he could not find a way to get his kids back.

With all bad things there is a silver lining his kids found a way to make their way back to him, love conquers all when you have a great parent the kids always find their way back. He remembers the day he made it back into his father’s house and how happy he was to see him. His father was still in the aerospace industry and owned a bunch of real estate at this time and in order for him to get an allowance he had to work for it. Which was fine with him because living with his grand-aunt he had to work for his meals anyway, so it least this way he will get paid.

His step-sisters also hooked him up with a job at the sneaker store. So, at seventeen he had two jobs and he also was in high-school. His stepmom tended to spoil him a bit though her philosophy is that I will help you as long as you are trying to help yourself. She bought him clothes, shoes and gold chains.

In the summer of his junior year of high school the family went on a trip to Florida, to Orlando. They went to Disneyland there he had a lot of fun at the pool. There he met a nice young lady. He would swim from one end of the pool before he realized she was following him. His stepmother and father urged him to go talk to the young lady she is obviously following you to get your attention, they tell him. His interaction with the opposite sex was minimal if there were any it was awkward.

He mustards up the courage to talk to her and realized how they had a lot in common and they talked the whole time. At the urging of her parents and his parents they met later that night. They met at the karaoke bar and their parents had the kids singing some rhythm and blues. By the end of the trip these two were friends. They exchanged numbers since she was from Florida and he from Georgia.

They kept in contact for a while but lost contact with each other after a year. As usual his cheap father put him back to work. “You owe me for this trip,” his father joked. “I work for you on the weekends”, he responds laughing back at his father. His father gets ready to go back to work for the evening shift and he goes to his room to knock out his schoolwork.

He graduated high school and moved out to start his journey in life. His father was proud to see his son graduate high school between him and his wife they both urged him to go to college to continue his studies so that he too can get a good paying job. He chooses to do what he wanted on the world. He did manage to get a good paying job without his college degree but it only lasted four years.

His father through this process still just wished his son would listen to him and just understand he just wanted to guide him and not tell him what to do with his life. He watched his two older sons out there in the world and wanted better for his sons because he knew all of his kids are smart. Now much older he has associate’s, bachelor’s and is working on a master’s degree. He is also an army the whole time his father was cheering for him because he knows his son has better chance at being successful in this competitive world.