Re: Examples of why your dad is/was awesome
 

[ QUOTE ]
once leased a car and drove it around the country. Went way over on miles. Ended up jacking it up in reverse in our garage and backed about 80% of the miles off of it before turning it in. It took him weeks.

[/ QUOTE ]
You almost had me tug, almost. But this one just put it too far over the top..... [img]/images/graemlins/smile.gif[/img]

Re: Examples of why your dad is/was awesome
 

I'm sure I could tell some stories about how cool my dad was and badass things he did but that doesn't capture why he was so awesome to me as well as a small, simple story.

When I was 10 years old I took a huge interest in auto racing but my dad absolutely hated it. Despite that, he got tickets to a Nascar race from his work and took me down to Atlanta motor speedway with all his co-workers. It was awful, way too loud, and I never wanted to go again. I can't believe how boring and horrible it must have been for him but I'm sure if I had wanted to go again he would have taken me every year.

The best part is I could tell about a hundred little anecdotes just like the one above - when I was growing up he did everything he could to make my life a happy one and because of his example I believe that when I have children of my own I will be able to be an awesome dad myself and that is by far the greatest gift anyone has ever given me.

Re: Examples of why your dad is/was awesome
 

i'd say the first part of my dad's life was awesome...

he was very understanding, for the most part...
but that all changed once i got married.

apparantly, my mom disapproved so vehemently of the
marriage that she made my dad's life even more of a
living hell than she had previously.

since my dad "had" to live with her, he sided with her,
and the rift remained pretty much in full for the rest of
his life.

he did coach my little league baseball team and spent
a lot of time teaching me the 'over-the-shoulder,
running-towards-the-fence' catch.

that was pretty cool.

Re: Examples of why your dad is/was awesome
 

he didn't divorce why?

Re: Examples of why your dad is/was awesome
 

divorces are damn expensive, ldo.

kidding, but that's usually a top reason.

Re: Examples of why your dad is/was awesome
 

quirkasaurus,

what reasons did your mom name for disapproving so much of your marriage?

Also, not sure if i agree with you blaming you mom for your father's position on it, but meh, obv you know the situation a million times better.

Re: Examples of why your dad is/was awesome
 

When I was 16 we went camping with the whole family (5 kids) and every kid was allowed to bring 1-2 friends. So there was about 6 of us teenagers walking around the campground and came across 4 13-14 year olds smoking weed. We started harrassing them and told them that our father was the Park Ranger and he was on his way so they should leave (we wanted the ampitheatre area which is where they were) they wouldn't leave so we went and got Dad.

Dad came thundering into the ampitheatre area, sniffed really loudly and boomed out "What do you kids think you're doing? Where's your parents? I'm going to report you"

I swear I think they all [censored] their pants. We all had a laugh and later invited them over to the campfire for s'mores and wine coolers.

T

Re: Examples of why your dad is/was awesome
 

took me to first baseball game

Re: Examples of why your dad is/was awesome
 

[ QUOTE ]
divorces are damn expensive, ldo.

kidding, but that's usually a top reason.

[/ QUOTE ]

My mom made 40K a year when she divorced my dad, so I've never quite understood this. When there's a will there's a way.

Re: Examples of why your dad is/was awesome
 

[ QUOTE ]
[ QUOTE ]
once leased a car and drove it around the country. Went way over on miles. Ended up jacking it up in reverse in our garage and backed about 80% of the miles off of it before turning it in. It took him weeks.

[/ QUOTE ]
You almost had me tug, almost. But this one just put it too far over the top..... [img]/images/graemlins/smile.gif[/img]

[/ QUOTE ]
I don't know why nobody believes this. He did it. I was fairly young and was horrified that it would come off of its jack, back into the garage door, and cause some unimaginable damage to the house or the neighbor's house across the street. He was self-employed so he would sit around all day like Jabba the [censored] Hut while he rolled it back.

He also had a Tourette's-ish habit that was funny but only borderline awesome: he would talk to himself in short sentences, usually repeating the same saying over and over. One of his favorites was "[name], [censored] 'em". I've picked up this exact same habit and when people aren't around sometimes just blurt it out without thinking. Not sure if that's learned or genetic.

He also used to spit at the mirror when he brushed his teeth. He didn't gargle, he just spit it out at the mirror. And didn't clean it up afterwards. Very strange. But now I'm filling this thread with things that are at best borderline awesome so I'll stop. I think I'd have more to say in a thread about how he was NOT awesome so if that ever comes around I'll post in it.

Re: Examples of why your dad is/was awesome
 

He used to play a lot of sports with me. We had a lot of good father son basketball and raquetball games, and even play fighting/wrestling when I was much younger.

Ray

Re: Examples of why your dad is/was awesome
 

I am pretty sure tuq intentionally made a list of Assani-like levelaments just for pure entertainment purposes.

Entertainment delivered.

Re: Examples of why your dad is/was awesome
 

No really funny stories, but my dad's lived a pretty cool life as a professional jazz musician for over 45 years. If someone's a pretty big name i nthe jazz business, there's a pretty good chance my old man's played with him at some point. He released two albums last year, and has been a Grammy voter forever, stuff like that.

He also had a Cubs minor league tryout in the 50s, but as a good hit no field shortstop...that didn't quite cut it, heh.

He'd also take us out of school to go to Orioles spring training in Miami, back in the 70s. Fun times.

Re: Examples of why your dad is/was awesome
 

When my older sister was an infant, my aunt got a divorce from her scumbag husband ("John") who had been hitting her. When John continued to harass my aunt, my father told him in no uncertain terms to cut it out.

John was a heavy drinker, and was heard drunkenly threatening the life of my older sister in the town bar that night. ("the_scalp's dad won't be feeling so high-and-mighty when something happens to that new girl of his in the middle of the night.")

Word of this got back to my father the next day, so at chore time, he made his way to John's farm, walked into his milk barn, and said "John, I'm gonna need to take your gun for a few months until you've cooled down so you don't do something you regret. John, being sober and probably intimidated (my father is a big, tough man) walked with my father to the house and gave him his shotgun.

When there were so many ways that the conflict could have been escalated, I am so proud my father took the path that left John some dignity, avoided fighting (or worse), and protected his family entirely.

A few months later at the start of deer season John called my father and asked "can I please have my gun back now?". He got it back . . .

/he's a Viet Nam vet who NEVER talks about what he went through there.

Re: Examples of why your dad is/was awesome
 

My father is 51 and has bet me $1000 that in 8 years when I am 30 he will be able to beat me in a running race where he gets to choose the distance.

One of his goals is to be able to snowboard with his grandkids when they learn to ski. We normally ski now, but we have snowboarded like 7 or 8 days.

My Dad has never hit me and although I am 6'5" 240, I he can be so intense that I would never want to fight him (he is 6'1" 180.

When my Dad has come by himself to see one of my football games he would come to our room and sit and watch football and have a beer with me and my roomates even when we were all underage.

Also worked his way through the Universtiy of Texas, was treasurer of his Fraternity and majored in possible the hardest major at the entire school (Chemical Engineering).

I am sure there are a ton more.

Re: Examples of why your dad is/was awesome
 

He was a high school basketball star and through his late 40s would still play pickup games with guys half his age and 5 inches taller than him (he's 5'8") and routinely whip them.

He's also great at mildly inappropriate off-color comments. When I was in college, he was driving me and three of my buddies to JFK Airport. When we pulled onto Flashbush Ave. in Brooklyn he says (loudly) "Flatbush, huh? She must have been wearing some tight pantyhose!"

Re: Examples of why your dad is/was awesome
 

My dad is one of the few guys I've ever known who can make permed curly hair actually look good. He is nearly 50 but gets hit on/flirted with by women my age (26). Mom just rolls her eyes.

He's coached HS varsity basketball for almost 15 years and is one of the best basketball minds I've known.

I'm by no means mechanically sound so whenever something goes wrong in my house, he not only gives me advice on how to fix it, but will always come over and personally inspect the problem and often help me repair it that day.

When my wife and I were preparing for our wedding two years ago, we were tossing around ideas for the groom's dinner with my parents. We had several talks about fancy restaurants in the area and such. My dad comes up with the idea of having it at my parent's house.

He had the idea and basically planned out having all he and my mom's friends serve as bartenders, cooks, wait staff, etc. in addition to decorating their yard (they have an 8 foot high fence surronding their back yard) for it.

I think the total cost ended up being as much as if we would have treated everyone to a fancy restaurant dinner because we ended up inviting more people. He just thought the idea of having it at the house I grew up in was really cool, to which I concur. Our entire groom's dinner, wedding and honeymoon rocked.

Re: Examples of why your dad is/was awesome
 

-1st chair violin in LA Philharmonic at age 15

-Hand impaled by brother age 16 ending short violinist career

-joined US Air Force

-later became successful business owner

-took me on road trips all over US as kid

- [img]/images/graemlins/frown.gif[/img] too bad he's dead now [img]/images/graemlins/frown.gif[/img]

edit: he'd surely kick my ass knowing I waste time posting here...

Re: Examples of why your dad is/was awesome
 

Because he divorced my mom and left the state when I was 3 and my sisters were 7 and 9.

And because we saw him like 3 times since then.

He rules.

Re: Examples of why your dad is/was awesome
 

[ QUOTE ]
[ QUOTE ]
divorces are damn expensive, ldo.

kidding, but that's usually a top reason.

[/ QUOTE ]

My mom made 40K a year when she divorced my dad, so I've never quite understood this. When there's a will there's a way.

[/ QUOTE ]

So, she bit the bullet huh? Even though she now has to pay your dad alimony and child support out of a 40k income? What a brave woman.

Re: Examples of why your dad is/was awesome
 

one day when I was a kid, my dad showed me a pile of wood he had bought on the workshop floor. he told me he was going to make me a desk out of that wood, and I didn't believe him. he made me an awesome colonial desk with a fold out top and all sorts of little drawers.

the whole thing is dovetailed together, and was perfectly solid with no glue at all, although he glued it for good measure.

when I was much older I found out something very interesting about the way my dad built my desk. although he had a bunch of tools, he decided to build my desk the way it would have been built in the time period it was from, and so he didn't use any electric tools at all. since every joint is a dovetail, he cut all those dovetails by hand. this is the kind of person my dad is.

he's built almost all the furniture in me and my sister's house, and it's all really beautiful. a lot of projects he does with no written out blueprint or plan, just has it in his head. he doesn't think this is particularly special or weird in any way.

Re: Examples of why your dad is/was awesome
 

I've posted this story before, but I was too lazy to find the link. When home for Thanksgiving in my first year of college, I banged my HS girlfriend at my house while my parents were upstairs sleeping. Afterwards, I took the condom off and left it in the bathroom sink and drove my girlfriend home. When I got home, I forgot to throw away the condom and went to bed. I got up the next morning and saw the condom in the sink and immediately threw it away. No one said anything about it at breakfast, so I assumed no one had seen it. Later that day my dad and I were golfing and our matches used get pretty competitive, even if we were only playing for $20. On the 17th hole I was getting ready to putt for birdie to win the hole and close out the match, and my dad casually says, "Your mom found the condom in the sink this morning and is very pissed." I was totally flustered, blew the putt past the hole and ended up three putting and losing the hole. Still being a little flustered, I then hooked my tee shot out of bounds on the next hole, my dad won the hole and we ended up pushing the match. As we were heading home and I was dreading facing my mom, my dad tells me that mom hadnt really found the condom and he was just messing with me.

After that, he said to me before I went out each time I was home from school, "Have fun, but dont get her pregnant!"

Re: Examples of why your dad is/was awesome
 

[ QUOTE ]
My dad used to get pissed at my bro and I in HS for getting [censored]-faced with groups of friends in our basement. Instead of doing it calmly, he's just walk down wearing nothing but whitey-tighties to declare, in Old Man Ramble, "Ya'll Gotta Git." Ask 'T0ne about it.

[/ QUOTE ]

hahaha. Yeah, Chuck's pretty awesome.

My dad? Meh, nothing special.

My grandpa(s)? Awesome.

G-pa 1:
-rented the cheapest apartment possible in Philly after he took a job there so my dad and his family could stay in their schools in North Jersey. Drove back and forth a ton to see them.
-Was one of the best masters-level (aka old guy) sailors in the world.

G-pa 2:
-taught at 6 or 7 universities across the southeast
-ate lunches with Bear Bryant and Adolph Rupp while he was dean of athletic dorms at UK
-personally invited by MLK Jr to march in Selma (he accepted)
-huge patron of the jazz music scene while teaching at Tulane. I still know all the clubs to visit thanks that him.
-has a scholarship named after him at UGA
-got to hang out with John Hope Franklin and go buy some ham after his funeral, which was possibly the first true jazz funeral in the history of Athens, GA

Re: Examples of why your dad is/was awesome
 

[ QUOTE ]
Did you guys know that some online poker sites have special 'televised' tables, and there is a channel that broadcasts these online poker tables with commentary?

[/ QUOTE ]
Wait, what?

Re: Examples of why your dad is/was awesome
 

[ QUOTE ]
No really funny stories, but my dad's lived a pretty cool life as a professional jazz musician for over 45 years. If someone's a pretty big name i nthe jazz business, there's a pretty good chance my old man's played with him at some point. He released two albums last year, and has been a Grammy voter forever, stuff like that.

He also had a Cubs minor league tryout in the 50s, but as a good hit no field shortstop...that didn't quite cut it, heh.

He'd also take us out of school to go to Orioles spring training in Miami, back in the 70s. Fun times.

[/ QUOTE ]


What is your dad's name?

Re: Examples of why your dad is/was awesome
 

1) My dad worked long hours at a very demanding job but somehow still found time to coach me and my siblings in whatever sport we were playing (after learning how to do it himself). He was never late for a practice or game and was always in a great mood when he got there, despite having to skip lunch and rush around all day to make it there on time. As a coach he was all about good sportsmanship, trying your best, having fun, etc.

2) This is a weird sentimental one. He always packed the lunches for us kids the night before school. They'd all be personalized to our individual tastes of the week - even when my sister became a "lunchtime vegetarian." Yes, we had a mom (she was great, too) but this was just dad's thing to do.

I'm a dad now myself and sadly, my dad is gone, but now I do these same things for my kid and it feels great to know where that came from.

Re: Examples of why your dad is/was awesome
 

Hmmm,

My father was killed by a drunk driver right after I was born, so I'm probably subject to some suspect stories about him, but some great stories that have been verified.

1. My dad was about 14 or 15 and showed up at my uncles place all dirty with ripped clothes. My uncle was 23 at the time, married with a kid on the way. He said to him, "I just got jumped by 3 kids at the gas station that tried to steal my money and I'm pissed." My uncle said, "I would be too." My dad said, " Yea, one of them got away and now the front part of my wallet has a rip in it."

2.) My dad broke his ankle coming down for a rebound during basketball season of his junior year of high school, only didn't know it was broken. He walked around on it for three days, aggravating the injury to the point he had to have pins put in it. His ankle could only move vertically, with no lateral movement. His primary sport was baseball, as a pitcher. He still threw two shut outs his senior year and was able to pitch his way though D II on a scholarship.

And one that I haven't been verified, but my favorite...

My dad took over chief of operations of a nursing home at the age of 25. He apparently kept a stong rapport with the residents. When one, well in to her seventies or early eighties, confessed to him that she had breast cancer and would be on leave for treatment, he told her "I'll miss you and you clevage" with a wink. She died just under a year later; in her will she left her first push up bra to my dad.

Re: Examples of why your dad is/was awesome
 

Both of my parents we're just over 20 when i was born. The money was really tight so my dad had to sell most of his huge vinyl-collection to get some money for the family.

My dad did also sing in couple of bands, including a rock-band called... Rock. They were interviewed to several music-papers. He did also sing in a hardcore punk-band called Penis Surprise. Their songs include "Sperm operating flashlight", "Incredible torture" and "A Ton of Frozen Meat".

He pretty much always has high-quality weed.

Re: Examples of why your dad is/was awesome
 

[ QUOTE ]
[ QUOTE ]
Did you guys know that some online poker sites have special 'televised' tables, and there is a channel that broadcasts these online poker tables with commentary?

[/ QUOTE ]
Wait, what?

[/ QUOTE ]
I saw these when i was in the UK. They seem to be play money tables, as far as I could tell. The play is INCREDIBLY bad (people folding their bb for .25 more, people limp folding with 4 bbs, etc) which leads me to believe its play money. I never could get money on the site.

Re: Examples of why your dad is/was awesome
 

My dad just wrote a book called "Asesinato en Miami Beach" (Murderer in Miami Beach) and is selling great in Argentina. It will also be sold in the US in the near future. BTW, he's a doctor.

Re: Examples of why your dad is/was awesome
 

sledg,

Have you ever played play money? Too much folding is not what makes the players bad..

Re: Examples of why your dad is/was awesome
 

[ QUOTE ]
quirkasaurus,

what reasons did your mom name for disapproving so much of your marriage?

Also, not sure if i agree with you blaming you mom for your father's position on it, but meh, obv you know the situation a million times better.

[/ QUOTE ]

well.... we were a little young; i was 19, bride was 17.
she wasn't pregnant, but boy was she a little blonde hottie.

my mom wanted me to marry a ditzy, air-headed, social
butterfly -- not a brooding, thoughtful, hippy-ish free spirit.

my dad was very supportive of my relationship with my
girlfriend for 2 years. maybe he thought the marriage
was pre-mature or ill-advised but to this day, i felt
their reaction to it was way over-the-top and i could
not imagine treating my children the same way.

however, during the same time, my mom openly hated my
girlfriend and accused her of stealing dope from my
brother's car ( turned out it was the nextdoor neighbor ),
called her "the neighborhood sult" ( even though I was
her one-and-only ), and assorted other slams...

so, yeah, i blamed my mom for my dad's change of heart.

Re: Examples of why your dad is/was awesome
 

Damn. How long have you been married?

Re: Examples of why your dad is/was awesome
 

- Once he was driving through a built-up area, and a cat ran out from one of the driveways and right under the wheels of the car (FWIW he would never do this on purpose, I can remember many times where we've made some mad swerves to avoid foxes, rabbits, pheasants, grouse etc). He gets out to see how the cat is, which is dead. (BTW it's a criminal offense here in the UK to not report killing a dog, but it's fine to not report killing a cat). He gets the cat by the scruff of the neck and walks up to the house it had run out from and knocks on the door. An old lady answers it and he asks "Is this your cat?" She just stands there shocked, so he assumes yes, puts the cat down and walks off. What else can you do though?

- On three occasions I've heard him say to people absolutely convincingly, "If you don't leave/ do X again...I'm going to [censored] kill you." He's only about 5'7'' but I've seen men considerably taller and muscular back down to him. He was always quite distressed that I had witnessed him saying this (being around 4-10), and said that he hadn't meant it but said that you had to talk in these people's language. The swearing was definitely more what he meant than the death threat since swearing was (and still is) absolutely forbidden in our house.

- He once fell in a canal on a drunk night out. Whenever he tells this story it is always about how he nearly died, and how he saw the Grim Reaper on the bank of the canal beckoning to him as he thought he would die. Whenever his friends tell this story (those who were there) it's always about how funny it was that he'd fallen in.

- Last summer I went to the Lake District with my friends planning on climbing mountains all day. It was extremely hot though (about 35 celsius) and I got sun burnt really badly and had to come home the next day. I caught a bus into a small town, Penrith, to get the train home but I didn't have enough money for it, so I phoned home and asked for a lift. When I said "I'm in Penrith" to my Dad, he just burst out laughing for about 5 minutes. There is a scene in his favourite film (which we have seen around 50 times in the last 3 years) where a character repeatedly says "I'm in Penrith...Penrith!" on the phone because nobody has heard of it. He eventually did travel cross-country to pick me up.

Re: Examples of why your dad is/was awesome
 

[ QUOTE ]
Damn. How long have you been married?

[/ QUOTE ]

over 25 years. 4 kids.

Re: Examples of why your dad is/was awesome
 

My dad was never really awesome when I was growing up, but now that I'm older I see that we actually have a great deal in common and I think he'd be one of my friends if he wasn't my dad. He always takes an interest in what I'm doing, is really funny in a dry scots way, and is very, very clever.

When I was about 13 he came home in a brand new Lotus Elise, and hadn't told me about it beforehand. That was like the coolest thing in the world.

According to my mother he used to get mistaken for Sean Connery but I don't believe that for a second.

Re: Examples of why your dad is/was awesome
 

My dad was in Nam when I was born. He needed a bit of cash for himself while out there, so he used to keep his entire military paycheck, and hustle pool to support me. He sent all his winnings home to mom.

He never let me beat him at anything. He was a really good bowler, all state baseball player (looked at by several MLB teams) good at pool, darts, etc. Since he never let me win at anything I always tried my best to beat him (and it didn't happen often when I was young) but when I did win, I felt awesome about it because it was quite an accomplishment for me.

He never said no when I asked him to play catch with me as a kid.

My dad is a "never break the rules" kinda guy... I always thought he was "prude".... but after mom and him got divorced, I was looking for something in his bedroom and found some edible sex paint he and his girlfriend were using to keep it "spicy"... ZOMG dad is a freak!

Re: Examples of why your dad is/was awesome
 

When I was a kid I got pissed about something and said "Jesus Christ" in front of my Mom. She told me that the next time she heard me take the lords name in vein, she'd make me read a book of the bible.

When I told my Dad, he suggested that I say Hugh Heffner instead.

Re: Examples of why your dad is/was awesome
 

Gordon Moore offered him a job in 1972. 6 chip/networking patents. 1 still recently cited by Xerox, Sony, Samsung, etc.

Taught me chess and poker and gin rummy [such a great game] and how to be a man, and power of compound interest, and how to throw a spiral, x-over dribble, hit a 180-yd fade.

Re: Examples of why your dad is/was awesome
 

When I was about 7 I got into my first fight and was sent to my room by my mother. She said wait until your dad gets home for your punishment. He came home came into my room acting all pissed off and then said "did you at least win" I told him I did and he said "good, or else you would be in trouble" that was so cool of him.

My father and I were never really close and one time he came home with tickets to go see the Steelers, our favorite team. Myself, my dad, and my brother all went, and after an awesome game, we ended up going to the Nudy bar because thats where a bunch of my friends were going after the game. This was so cool, me and my friends ended up putting some money together and got the strippers to bring my dad on stage. They took off his shirt, handcuffed his hands behind his back and beat the hell out of him with his belt. He was so embarrased, it was so damn fun, we were all wasted and he made us swear to never tell our mother.

A third story was about 4 years ago on St. Patricks day, I ended up getting into a bar fight and after defeating 7 guys with just the 3 of us kids that went out, I knew we were going to get into trouble. I saw one of the kids writing down our license plate number, so on the way home as we were pulling into our neighborhood, we saw about 4 police cars pulling into my neighborhood. We got our stories straightened out and I called my dad telling him what happened, adn that I might need bail money. He told me to come home and later that night the cops rang my doorbell and shined their lights into every window of my hosue for about 3 hours straight, we just sat on the ground in his room out of range of the windows, and just told funny stories and reminisced, it was definately a great father son moment that I will never forgot, he definately had my back that whole way.