Who can’t help but think of their father on Father’s Day? It may be trite and commercialized but its heart is in the right place- taking a day, or a moment out of a day, to honor half of the pair who  gave us life and (for most) created a safe haven in which to begin it. When I came into the world my father was in his prime. It was the 50’s then and things were going well in middle class American homes. There was a sense of accomplishment and hope. My father was the sole provider for a family of six, a dog, and two grandparents. In those days our mother had dinner on the table at 5:30 every night.

What would we have done today- what my father liked to do most. We would have camped out all day at the Canoe Club. There would have been a few tennis matches and some ping pong in the club house. A barbeque by the river. Swimming in the pool. Sunning. Fishing. Reading under the trees. Father’s Day as a summer’s family day. He might have been reading Kon Tiki, or Hawaii, and dreaming of his own personal vision of Adventures in Paradise. I was around 8 when I announced my own dream of being a writer and asked him what I should read. He gave me The Old Man and the Sea.

There was so much more to his life than those perfect summer days, many struggles before and after, but that is the time I like to remember most.

Parker & Ellen

Parker & Ellen