Sunday, June 15, 2008

When it comes to fathers, I've won life's lottery.

My dad is the best. I've said it before and at great length, so I'll not type endlessly here.

I was going through some photos recently and I came across this one of me and these old pics of papa. I've never posted even a teeny bit of my likeness here before, but this one is SOOOOO long ago that I suppose you might not recognize me. This was about 16 or 17 years ago, and Dad and I had been fishing on Lake Cleburne all night. [Yes, I forgive myself for that ugly jacket and that beastly hat. It was cold and it was the only cap I had, and I liked it because it was so immaculately tacky.] We had several fishing poles staged out over the edge of the boat beside each of us. As I cast one line, I said "I'm going to catch a fish with this one tonight." Nothing was biting, but we had a nice night occasionally chatting a bit, and just being still and quiet. It was a lot of fun. In amongst all that not-biting/non-action the fish were doing, we kept seeing a big fish on the depth finder. We stayed for hours and hours knowing that big fish would eventually hit one of the many attractive baits we were dangling. Well, finally about 4 or 5 AM, we gave up. Dad started reeling in his lines, and I picked up that first pole I'd meant to catch a fish on, and I reeled for a while. We talked as I reeled and reeled. Dad had reeled in 2 lines and mine didn't seem like it was ever going to reel in. I said "oh, that's weird, my line is run all the way out and it's at the knot on the end-- it's not winding up at all." Dad said "you've got a fish on that line." With some great effort, we finally got the line reeled in and turns out it was this 18 pound beastie of a catfish on the end. We should have let it go, because any such leviathan would surely be inedible, utterly. We gave it to a relative who cooked it with unsatisfactory results.

Anyhoo, Dad's fish photo was taken when he was in Panama in the army in 1963, a couple years before I was born. I'm hoping this is not an endangered species or something. I liked the toothsome symmetry of Dad's fish photo and mine. The other photo, of course, is of Dad during senior year of high school. Dad's always been a very handsome man, but he's unaffected by it-- not ruined or vain as people so often tend to be. Dad is the all-around smartest person I've ever met, and the kindest and best. He's a good-natured soul, but a phenomenal badass. He's everything that is admirable in a person, and I aspire to be as much like him as possible, even if it's only to say that occasionally a very large fish jumps on my line.

Happy Father's Day, Dad. I love you.

8 comments:

Anonymous said...

Your father is a very handsome man. What a sweet tribute to him.

We would love to see a picture of you, come on. Please :) I let Flo post one of me. Yikes!

Anonymous said...

That fish your dad caught looks to me like a dorado aka mahi-mahi in Hawaii aka dolphin-fish. A pair of dolphin-fish are used for the submarine qualification pin that I have displayed on the upper left of my blog. Don't worry, no where near extinct. And taste goooood.

And I'm with lainy. We need a photo. You post one and I'll post mine. Like anyone could give a shit what my old ass looks like.

g bro said...

La P, you do him proud! I'm sure he's crazy about you, too. (34 years since I lost my dad. I'd tolerate one more lecture just to visit with him again.;-)

Lainy, didn't we see a fetching photo of Phlegmmy's ankle some time recently? She just likes to take her time.

Anonymous said...

G bro, yes we did see her cute ankle, but she should just be free and flaunt her pretty self!

Oh well, all good thing's come to those who wait. That or I'll have to visit Holly, who would gladly take me to visit our lovely Phlegmmy ;)

Christina RN LMT said...

Wonderful tribute, and wonderful pictures! You look a lot like your father...:)

Happy Father's Day, Mr. Phlegm, Sr.!!

Jay Noel said...

That's a great post for your Dad...

Holy shitzu! That fish your dad is holding looks like half of a mermaid.

FHB said...

You sure did get lucky. I hope I get a chance to meet him some day.

Unknown said...

Awwww....how sweet :) I think that's the closest I've come to seeing what you look like.