Father’s Day means so many things. Big lawn mower sale at Home Depot. At the local auto showroom, it’s trucks trucks trucks – and more trucks. Mom might take Dad out for brunch, although that’s not so much a treat for him as for her. In Denver, the Colorado Rockies give a free commemorative hat to the first 1,000 dads who come in the gate.
These are very tempting events for this father. I look upon each day as a chance to learn something, or meet someone new. I am a bit like Elwood P. Dowd in this way. Elwood never missed a chance to talk to new people, give them his card, and introduce Harvey, his six-foot-three invisible pooka (giant rabbit). I do not have a pooka, at least not yet. Give me a few more years of life under the Bush administration.
On Father’s Day, I herd my wife Chris and my daughter Annie into the car and we go off for an adventure. One year it was a trip to Fort Laramie near Torrington. It was a special weekend, with cavalry re-enactments, historic displays, and tours of the fort’s refurbished buildings. Massive cottonwoods line the banks of the North Platte. Annie and I spent some time skipping rocks. On the way home, we ate at a little diner in Wheatland. The food wasn’t great, but it had art on the walls and a rack of self-published "cowboy humor" books on the table.
When both kids were little and we lived in suburban Maryland, we drove to the site of the battles of Manassas, as the South refers to it, or Bull Run if you’re a Yankee. Not sure what Westerners call it. A day spent touring the place and strolling along the creek. We took the long way back to Rockville on the tiny ferry that crosses the Potomac between Leesburg, Va., and Martinsburg, Md.
On rainy days, we’ve watched movies (my choice). We’ve hiked in the Snowy Range and soaked afterwards in the Saratoga "Hobo Pool." We visited the Hartville-Sunrise historic mining district, which is wear Mr. Rockefeller moved his mine after Colorado National Guardsmen mowed down miners and their children at Ludlow.
Today we’re trekking to the Laramie Range for a hike and a picnic. Annie has a new pup, so we want to take her into The Great Outdoors. Butch Cassidy Days is in full swing over in Laramie’s Wyoming Territorial Prison Historic Site. But our pup Coco is too unruly for crowds. I’d enjoy the history, but I’ve toured the place on my own. Maybe next year....
Father’s Day isn’t the only annual occasion I spend time with my family. Although my father was fairly traditional, I am part of the new generation of men who share child care and chores with their mates. We both work. We both value our time off. Luckily, Chris and I enjoy many of the same pastimes: hiking, reading, yelling at Republican Talking Heads when they show up on the TV. In that way, we have been terrible role models for Annie. She now has taken to yelling at the TV – and at her conservative junior-high classmates. This has not won her many friends. Next year, she’ll take speech and debate which may channel some of this energy into an academic pursuit.
One time, when I was depressed, I read this quote: "If you’re depressed, learn something." Don’t know who said it. But it serve me well, especially on each Father’s Day.
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