Author: RoAnn Bishop
From the time I could toddle, I was a Daddy’s Girl. Almost everywhere Daddy went, I went, too. He would lift me onto his shoulders, ride me in the wheelbarrow around the backyard, or drive with me standing on the car’s bench seat, snugged up beside him.
As a child, I made regular Saturday morning trips with Daddy to Bob’s Barbershop. I enjoyed a Nehi orange soda and some nabs while he got a haircut and a shave. I attended Daddy’s Sunday School class, partly because the older men dotingly dispensed chewing gum and hard candy.
In elementary school, Daddy taught me how to ride a bike and patiently helped me with math (never my best subject!). He valiantly tried to eat my junior high cooking (still not my best endeavor!). And one summer, he even agreed (despite Mom’s reservations) to take some of my high school girlfriends on a family vacation.
Daddy believed in work. As the son of a tenant farmer and one of 11 siblings, he knew what it was to rise before the sun, toil in the fields all day long, and crawl into bed bone-tired at night. He always said hard work never hurt anyone. That applied to me, too.
Daddy drove me to my first job interview. (I was 15 and didn’t yet have a license). When it was time to tour college campuses, Daddy drove me there, too. He helped me buy my first car. And when I had my first fender-bender, it was Daddy I called to my rescue.
Daddy was a “people person.” He had a hundred-watt smile and a friendly handshake for anyone, anytime. Years after he retired, whenever he’d meet a former co-worker whose name he couldn’t remember, he would simply call them “Buddy.” They never seemed to mind, if they even noticed.
Daddy was big-hearted, always willing to “help out.” Ironically, he fought heart trouble for much of his life. But it was cancer that finally took him. He’s been gone nearly 14 years now, laid permanently to rest alongside Mom.
June is the month we honor our fathers. On this Father’s Day, I hope everyone takes time to remember their dads or the men who have filled that role. Mine will always be “Daddy.” And I will forever remain his little girl.
