The Mason Jar: My Dad

"Do you and your father share any interests? Tell about your relationship with him."

There are a few things that my dad and I both enjoy doing. We both like to play board games and card games. We both enjoy a good chocolate milkshake. We love sitting down together at the piano and making the house shake as we sing old country songs. We like performing, but we both can be quiet and reserved in crowds of people we don't really know. We both grew up as redheads. We both like dogs.

My dad is one of my favorite people. When I was a kid, not yet in school, I loved taking my afternoon nap curled up on the floor in the living room next to my dad. I'd help get him comfortable for nap time by covering him with an knitted, gold and pink, blanket. I'd also get him a pillow; grab the hair on his head, shove the pillow under his head, and then drop my hold on his hair sending his head crashing down. I was so helpful. :)

 I went to my dad's cowboy poetry performances and was his prop in a poem called "Romeo Cowboy" by Sourdough Slim. He needed a girl with red hair and freckles :). As I got older I started to perform parts of the poem with him.... leaving the yodeling for him of course.

My dad and I had a tradition, when I was in high school, to play games every Sunday night. We'd put together a plate of cheese and crackers, make a blender full of chocolate milkshake, and played Scrabble. Every now and then we'd play a different game, but Scrabble was usually our game of choice.

Another thing that we both loved doing when I was in high school was to have music jam sessions. I would play the piano and my dad would play the harmonica or Jew's harp. We played a lot of old country songs and would sing at the top of our lungs; sometimes while singing my dad would start yodeling. These jam sessions usually happened a few times a month. One night my dad and I re-wrote the song " 'Cause I'm Busted" and called it " 'Cause I'm Mormon" (my mom helped out too) . We later ended up performing it at a couple of church functions. It was quite the contrast to the pretty violin and piano duets.... we sounded more like a drinking song : ). 

Daddy Daughter dance at my wedding reception.
The song we danced to was the song my dad sang
to me as my childhood lullaby... an old country song.

My relationship with my dad was a bit different than my siblings' relationships with him. I came along six years after everyone else, and I had a different set of interests. My dad has always worked hard to take care of us and support us in our different activities. With my brothers and sister that meant operating chutes for a lot of rodeos and roping, bucking the bucking barrel, and building a mechanical bull. With me, it meant going to plays and concerts and paying for private piano and voice lessons. There are so many other memories I could write about my dad. The dark walks through the sagebrush at night that included stories about trolls. The night we went ice-skating on the reservoir behind our house. Riding in the tractor together. Fishing for suckers and carp. Dancing at the fairs. The day I got married. And so many more! I LOVE YOU DAD!!!