On Father's Day

This grouping of haphazardly taped together pictures of our four perfect young'ns, is shown exactly as the way they have been taped to the inside door of no less than four of my lockers (while at Metro at different stations) and now on the inside of my medicine cabinet. Since I can't go back in time, I have been able to see them perpetually in the simpler stages of our lives - both mine and theirs. I can see them everyday just as they once were: lovable, agreeable, able to get on the floor and wrestle with, attend daddy-daughter or father & son events, homemade father's day cards, graduations, driving instructions, semi-ornery teen years, and IRS tax deductions. No rhyme or reason for the way I'd taped them together; I can vaguely remember doing it. Without them even knowing it, they've always been a part of my police-life, both before shift while putting on the uniform and at the end of shift, changing back into "street clothes."

No comment on the hair styles. . . oops, I already did. You can't see it, but Jason had a tail.

Then the piano protege', although we didn't know it then. The spoiled, last baby of the house.

For ME, it's part of what being a dad is all about; the love of my kids and desire for their health, happiness and successes in their own lives! I wanted to be a better dad to them than my dad was to me ~ this is probably true of most dads, it's not a slam to my dad. These pictures also represent my legacy, and thousands of events and memories to include, but far from inclusive: watching them sleep at night when I got home from work, fishing trips without catching any, Disneyland & beach trips, traffic tickets, minor car accidents, taking driving privileges away, broken bones, removing a bedroom door to cure door slamming, surgeries, prom nights, calls with flat tires, a missionary send off, wedding dances, grand babies and son-in-laws.

True irony: By the time I figured out my dad wasn't always wrong, I had kids of my own thinking I was. Happy Father's Day to me. Thanks, Carol :)