Hearing rashers upload of doris day singing "you made me love you" reminded me of my dad...and the memories came flashing back...
My dad was a small wiry man, not formally educated but very smart....his whole life revolved around his family, he had some weird ideas about raising kids that wouldnt go over now....like always listen to your "elders and never contradict them" 'Children should be seen and not heard" unfortunately raising two girls he never managed to enforce these beliefs hehehe..being the only male in the house he always manged to get outvoted, but he took his job as a father very seriously...
i remember sitting on a kid seat on the crossbar of his bike going to the phoenix park to feed fairies and hopefully catch one...i remember him yelling for us on christmas eve telling us hed just seen santy crossing the sky with the reindeer, and hed bring us down a let us sit on the front step watching to see if we could see santy too....i remember him cycling home rain hail or snow and hed always have something in his pocket for us....sweets....and on saturdays which were special days hed have a marshmallow mouse for me and a fish for my sister...i remember him being my own personal taxi driver, him with his trusty bike bessie and me sitting on the back or crossbar and no distance was too far for him to travel..i saw and got to know dublin from his bike..he took me to the pictures twice a week...on fridays to the cabra grand and we'd get fish and chips from the chipper beside the theater, and to the carlton every 2nd sunday.....the alternative sunday i went with me ma...
we walked everywhere too....trips up to the canal and over into blanchardstown down thro the phoenix park where hed stop at the hole in the wall and get a pint maybe but always a lemonade for us....his cap would go on and off all thro the walk as hed remove it when he saw someone to say hello...i remember thro his life he missed maybe 5 or 6 days at work in total...and that was due to surgery....he took his job of provider for his family very seriously...he also considered himself a bit of a chemist and at the slightest hint of a cough in the house hed immediately whip up his personal cough medicine ...now this also could be used on cuts bruises, back aches and headaches...in a pinch you might also use it to oil bikes clean windows.....i think his prime additive was onions...he loved bulls eyes and liquorish and spainish onions, and he loved his grandchildren as much as he loved us......................and we loved him back...he was a great father, a bit of a dandy at times.....but most certainly the most loving caring person around.......
Married and an adult with a husband, a couple of kids and a mortgage, i remember my dad cycling from cabra west to ballinteer in his 70s...with bags of groceries, new shoes for the kids, sweets and an envelope of cash when my husband would be on strike...he never asked if we were ok for money......but he always knew when we werent....
my greatest achievement would be i think if my kids and grandkids remembered me the way i remember my father....
My dad was a small wiry man, not formally educated but very smart....his whole life revolved around his family, he had some weird ideas about raising kids that wouldnt go over now....like always listen to your "elders and never contradict them" 'Children should be seen and not heard" unfortunately raising two girls he never managed to enforce these beliefs hehehe..being the only male in the house he always manged to get outvoted, but he took his job as a father very seriously...
i remember sitting on a kid seat on the crossbar of his bike going to the phoenix park to feed fairies and hopefully catch one...i remember him yelling for us on christmas eve telling us hed just seen santy crossing the sky with the reindeer, and hed bring us down a let us sit on the front step watching to see if we could see santy too....i remember him cycling home rain hail or snow and hed always have something in his pocket for us....sweets....and on saturdays which were special days hed have a marshmallow mouse for me and a fish for my sister...i remember him being my own personal taxi driver, him with his trusty bike bessie and me sitting on the back or crossbar and no distance was too far for him to travel..i saw and got to know dublin from his bike..he took me to the pictures twice a week...on fridays to the cabra grand and we'd get fish and chips from the chipper beside the theater, and to the carlton every 2nd sunday.....the alternative sunday i went with me ma...
we walked everywhere too....trips up to the canal and over into blanchardstown down thro the phoenix park where hed stop at the hole in the wall and get a pint maybe but always a lemonade for us....his cap would go on and off all thro the walk as hed remove it when he saw someone to say hello...i remember thro his life he missed maybe 5 or 6 days at work in total...and that was due to surgery....he took his job of provider for his family very seriously...he also considered himself a bit of a chemist and at the slightest hint of a cough in the house hed immediately whip up his personal cough medicine ...now this also could be used on cuts bruises, back aches and headaches...in a pinch you might also use it to oil bikes clean windows.....i think his prime additive was onions...he loved bulls eyes and liquorish and spainish onions, and he loved his grandchildren as much as he loved us......................and we loved him back...he was a great father, a bit of a dandy at times.....but most certainly the most loving caring person around.......
Married and an adult with a husband, a couple of kids and a mortgage, i remember my dad cycling from cabra west to ballinteer in his 70s...with bags of groceries, new shoes for the kids, sweets and an envelope of cash when my husband would be on strike...he never asked if we were ok for money......but he always knew when we werent....
my greatest achievement would be i think if my kids and grandkids remembered me the way i remember my father....
Comment