Father's Day
My dad past away back on August 3, 1987 which is a looong ass time ago. He was an electrician who worked for Campbell's Soup Plant in Portage La Prairie, MB. He taught me a lot about life, and some of the lessons were indirectly told:
Don't Harm Anything for the fun of it
"God's creatures" he would say are "everything". I was caught pulling legs and wings off yellow jacket flies one afternoon, and he ripped into me for doing that. Hunting was fine, but anything that caused pain to animals he was always against. I wasn't raised very religiously, but he was due to the era he grew up in: The 1940's and 50's. If you have to kill an animal, make it very quick and humane.
Work Hard for what you want
I remember asking him for money to go to the cinema one day, and he got extremely angry. "Don't shake me down for money like your cousins ask their dad" He worked 12-14 hours a day doing electrical work at the soup plant. When my grandma would do the dishes he would say "Go over there and do the dishes for grandma. she's old" - and we'd do it quickly without complaint. Sounds well behaved, right? Trust me, my brother and I were not.
Drinking
This.... is a bad one. My dad was a severe alcoholic and drank mainly Beefeeter's Gin by the bottle. He would get very weird after drinking this stuff, and sometimes he wouldn't show up on weekends to visit because he was too hammered. It was the breaking point for my mom, hence their divorce. He was a quiet drunk, but I do remember some times thinking "Do other families have this bullshit?". Driving drunk to 7-11, falling down on the floor, yelling. This indirect lession told me to watch how I consume alcohol because to be quite frank, my whole family is full of acoholics except for me.
When my dad past away, it was a few years later when my mom met her 2nd husband, Bert. Bert came up from an extremely abusive family of alcoholics and beatings. His dad was a sad motherfucker who would beat his wife daily. I never liked him. But it took a while for Bert and me to get along.
His drinking was legendary - 24's of Labatt's Blue, maybe some Rum if the night of taxi work went well. Yelling, screaming, raging, threatening, police called numerous times. I once held a knife up in self defence, thinking it was a good idea. Wrong. The breaking point came one year when I had moved to Calgary and this was in 2000, my mom frantically phoned me saying he had pushed her into the wall so hard it almost knocked her out. Spit flying off his face he was yelling so hard. I phoned the police who immediately went over to confront him.He quickly changed from Dr. Jekle to Mr. Hyde and pretended to be a calm, reasonable person. But he police knew better. They said they would be back to arrest him if they got another phone call. I think at that point he learned how far he could go.
He died from a heart attack in 2005 leaving my mom with almost nothing. If someone told me the world is a fair place I would have said they are full of shit.
I knew a drunk guy - someone who lived in the same building I lived in back in 2010 - he was so drunk and raged he ended up snapping his girlfriend's leg by jumping on it. If people ask me if I drink, I just say "I have to drive home and can't risk it". Which is true, but I really don't want to deal with the problems of over drinking.
Respect the Outdoors
My brother and I were taught to treat the outdoors with respect and never litter - always clean up after yourself, don't harm wildlife and enjoy the peaceful quiet of the evening. My dad loved fishing and he taught my brother and I how to hunt for worms at night, the proper fighing knot for fly fishing, and a quick & efficient way to kill fish & de-bone them.
Fishing for me is a rare event now. I do miss it, but the walking through parks and such are still available to me. If your dad is still alive, spoil the hell out of him and tell him you love him.
Don't Harm Anything for the fun of it
"God's creatures" he would say are "everything". I was caught pulling legs and wings off yellow jacket flies one afternoon, and he ripped into me for doing that. Hunting was fine, but anything that caused pain to animals he was always against. I wasn't raised very religiously, but he was due to the era he grew up in: The 1940's and 50's. If you have to kill an animal, make it very quick and humane.
Work Hard for what you want
I remember asking him for money to go to the cinema one day, and he got extremely angry. "Don't shake me down for money like your cousins ask their dad" He worked 12-14 hours a day doing electrical work at the soup plant. When my grandma would do the dishes he would say "Go over there and do the dishes for grandma. she's old" - and we'd do it quickly without complaint. Sounds well behaved, right? Trust me, my brother and I were not.
Drinking
This.... is a bad one. My dad was a severe alcoholic and drank mainly Beefeeter's Gin by the bottle. He would get very weird after drinking this stuff, and sometimes he wouldn't show up on weekends to visit because he was too hammered. It was the breaking point for my mom, hence their divorce. He was a quiet drunk, but I do remember some times thinking "Do other families have this bullshit?". Driving drunk to 7-11, falling down on the floor, yelling. This indirect lession told me to watch how I consume alcohol because to be quite frank, my whole family is full of acoholics except for me.
When my dad past away, it was a few years later when my mom met her 2nd husband, Bert. Bert came up from an extremely abusive family of alcoholics and beatings. His dad was a sad motherfucker who would beat his wife daily. I never liked him. But it took a while for Bert and me to get along.
His drinking was legendary - 24's of Labatt's Blue, maybe some Rum if the night of taxi work went well. Yelling, screaming, raging, threatening, police called numerous times. I once held a knife up in self defence, thinking it was a good idea. Wrong. The breaking point came one year when I had moved to Calgary and this was in 2000, my mom frantically phoned me saying he had pushed her into the wall so hard it almost knocked her out. Spit flying off his face he was yelling so hard. I phoned the police who immediately went over to confront him.He quickly changed from Dr. Jekle to Mr. Hyde and pretended to be a calm, reasonable person. But he police knew better. They said they would be back to arrest him if they got another phone call. I think at that point he learned how far he could go.
He died from a heart attack in 2005 leaving my mom with almost nothing. If someone told me the world is a fair place I would have said they are full of shit.
I knew a drunk guy - someone who lived in the same building I lived in back in 2010 - he was so drunk and raged he ended up snapping his girlfriend's leg by jumping on it. If people ask me if I drink, I just say "I have to drive home and can't risk it". Which is true, but I really don't want to deal with the problems of over drinking.
Respect the Outdoors
My brother and I were taught to treat the outdoors with respect and never litter - always clean up after yourself, don't harm wildlife and enjoy the peaceful quiet of the evening. My dad loved fishing and he taught my brother and I how to hunt for worms at night, the proper fighing knot for fly fishing, and a quick & efficient way to kill fish & de-bone them.
Fishing for me is a rare event now. I do miss it, but the walking through parks and such are still available to me. If your dad is still alive, spoil the hell out of him and tell him you love him.
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