Father's Day Special

I can't remember a single Father's Day from when I was a kid. I can't remember a single thing I did for my dad, but he is wonderful and I hope we made them special and I just forgot. I see a lot of myself in him. My kids want me to take them off to do something and I want them to all pitch in and help me get caught up so I can enjoy it too. They just don't get it, and I don't think we did as kids either. I've always been very close to Dad and I think it's because I grabbed whatever opportunity came my way to go be with him. My siblings tend to complain about Dad always being too busy when we were kids, but I think I spent more time with Dad than not. I helped him sell and install water softeners, fetched water or tea to the hayfield, rode the tractor with him, hauled hay with him, went to the sale barn with him, listened to him talk about everything under the sun to other grownups while I twirled on the counter stool at the hardware store or the tractor parts store or traced the design of the oriental rug in the front room at Culligan. I counted inventory in the back of Culligan with him (I never knew it stuck but I know the diameter of any pipe or fitting on sight), played around in the haybarn and on the pallets of salt in the back of Culligan while he loaded and unloaded. And it had a million rewards. I know songs that other people my age don't even know exist, I've had an ample supply of mounds bars and nehigh peach sodas. I've acquired things like a beaver fur hat custom made for me and taken home a kitten on his whim. I've been on roads in Arkansas and Missouri that most people will never travel and have memories of watching the hay baler knotter being repaired over and over and over. I've chopped wood, helped repair a sickle bar, sharpened chainsaws and smashed my fingers stacking firewood more times than not. All the while, going to church anywhere from twice to five times per week, and hearing the Word over and over and over. Some would say that on Father's Day, we celebrate the dads for taking us to theme parks or going skiing, but for me, it's a day I celebrate being included in EVERYTHING in my Dad's life, being taught at his knee and having more memories with him than not from my childhood.