My brother and sister both are making silly faces in this shot, but I like it anyway. My dad’s reading from a card my mother bought and stored and forgot about more than a decade ago and just now found in her closet (my packrattery comes honest). He got a good chuckle out of that ancient card, and was pretty excited about the fancy new grill we all chipped in on. Of course, as soon as we put a nice big purple bow on the thing, Johnny Reb — the one-eyed dachshund — trotted over and hiked his leg and christened the damn thing.
My dad is a hell of a man, and while we butt heads somethin’ fierce on politics and social issues, I think he secretly gets a thrill out of having such a hard-headed daughter who will stand up for what she believes in, because that’s exactly how he raised me to be. I remember being a kid and going to beer board meetings and school board meetings and city hall meetings and watching as he fought for a better way of life for his family and his community. And while he’s a big ol’ intimidating loudmouth most of the time, most people have no idea how much of a softie he actually is. Don’t tell anyone, but he gets emotional when he says grace sometimes and he tends to get entirely too attached to pets and lapses into ridiculous baby talk whenever his dogs are around. And he’s a big ol’ goofball who tells silly jokes and is just waiting for an occasion to laugh.
I kind of hit the dad jackpot, I think.
Fathers Day 2009 from Lindsey Turner on Vimeo.