Daddyhood
As much as I fret over what kind of mother I will make, I delight in watching Prince Charming stretch his Daddy muscles. It really is so adorable how solicitous he's being. He talks about his little girl quite a bit, although he is still only talking to her to urge her to kick me and to discuss Badger Football.
Pondering this impending Daddyhood, I've been thinking about my own Daddy.
He was stern and strict, but silly too. But I've never doubted his love for me for a moment. It was a given. However, I know that he is an enigma to most people. They can't balance the fun-loving silly guy with the very well-read, highly-informed, thinker and the balls-to-the-walls hardass he can sometimes be. Me? I don't see any problems to the point that at one point in my life it caused some confusion.
I was running about town with some male friends in my hometowns of Johnson and Manter, KS. These friends, I should point out, are significantly younger than I. They are the sons of my father's best friend, who he has known literally since grade school. I grew up spending the summers with these two guys. My sister and I never went to school locally because of our parents' divorce, so these two guys were the sum total of our social connections (farm kids work a whole lot and play very little).
Anyway, we stop at the local Quik Mart one evening to buy sodas for the drive home after the rodeo. Some big cowboy closer to my age sees me with these two guys and notices them leaving me outside in the car by myself. He must have decided to chat me up, because he sauntered over and got sort of flirty. He asked me my name and I told him.
"So, Bob is your dad?"
"Uh, no. Ron is."
He got very very frosty and nervous all of a sudden and said "See ya around."
Apparently my uncle isn't a threat, but that big cowboy was afraid of my daddy. At least, afraid enough not to go pursuing his little girl.
I've always wondered about that.
