The only father I’ve ever known
I’m one of those people who isn’t a real fan of holidays, especially specifically themed ones, like Valentine’s Day, which for someone who has been single his whole life and usually not dating, it’s not the greatest day ever. The other day is the one that’s right around the corner: Father’s Day.
I was listening to the local radio station this morning, and they decided to dedicate all songs to celebrating dad, so you were asked to phone them and find what song best exemplifies how much you love your father and all of the great things he did for you. So, for most of the morning, we got all sorts of play throughs of Eye of the Tiger, and every sappy song you can think of that has some meaning of “hey, Dad was a great guy.”
For me, dad wasn’t a great guy. No, he never beat me or anything like that. He couldn’t, because he was never around to do it. When I was an infant, he decided that the responsibility of having a kid was too much for him, so he skipped town, found some other woman to shack up with and then started a brand new family. As for me, I never saw him again, so I don’t even remember ever seeing him in the first place.
So, whenever Father’s Day rolls around, all I can think of is how this turd of a person helped bring me to life and then abandoned both me and his wife, figuring a family was way too much responsibility and not worthy of his time. I learned to play catch from a friend, so who sort of learned from his dad before playing with me. That infamous Hallmark television commercial of dad playing catch with his son never occurred in my family. There was no dad to pass me the car keys on the night of the prom, right before he gave me that nervous lecture of how a man should act when alone with a girl for the first time. When I was trying to decide between West Point and Annapolis, there was no long conversation with my dad about how one was better than the other, or that he was proud I was going to be going to at least one of them.
So, when they start their big shin digs about Father’s Day, I really have nothing to say. I’ve never been a father myself, so I’m not a part of that tradition from the other side either. Basically, it becomes one of those days that’s just like every other day, except everyone is running around celebrating some strange custom that I will never understand.