A Daddy Story

Today is Father’s Day, so I thought I’d spend part of it remembering one of my favorite Daddy stories…

When I was growing up, we all had our chores to do every day, and one of those rotating chores was doing the dinner dishes.  We didn’t have a dishwasher (Mom sometimes joked that’s why she had kids), so it was a bit of a lengthy chore.  I would usually sing to pass the time – Tad says that he knows the entire Carpenters songbook because I used to sing Karen Carpenter songs while doing the dishes.  Anyway, this night was my night to do the dishes. 

And I had the hiccups.  I have horrible hiccups.  When I get the hiccups, they are very loud and obnoxious and take a while to go away.  So I was in the kitchen, doing the dishes, NOT singing because I had a wicked case of the hiccups. 

Daddy called me into the living room, “Cathy, come in here.”  So I went in with my hands dripping and Daddy proceeded to REAM ME OUT for taking too long to do the dishes.  “Stop fooling around and get the dishes done, do you understand me?”  Well, I hated to be yelled at, and it was so unfair – I WAS doing the dishes, and I was NOT fooling around.  So I started crying, said “yes, Daddy,” and flounced back into the kitchen.

Daddy called sternly, “Cathy, get back here.”  I went back, tears on my cheeks, and stood next to the chair, sure I was about to get in trouble for flouncing.  Daddy looked at me and said quietly, “you don’t have the hiccups anymore, do you?”  He started to chuckle, a little twinkle in his eye saying “gotcha.”  I was so mad!  (Although it WAS true; his little trick had cured me of the hiccups!)  I smacked his arm and yelled at him, “That’s NOT funny.”  But of course it was, and I had to laugh a little myself (plus it was impossible to not laugh when my Dad was laughing). 

It WAS funny, and it’s one of my favorite stories about my dad.  He liked to laugh, and he liked to get other people to laugh as well. 

Best of all, I know he loved me.  Happy Father’s Day, Daddy.  I miss you!