Fathers

Well with Halloween right around the corner, it has stirred up memories of Halloweens past. When these memories pop into my head I will share them with you all. The one that popped into my head last night and earlier this morning is about my deceased father/dad. Yes he was both to me. He was strict and instilled personality traits like a father should, but also was a also an understanding and fun friend as a dad should be. I will always miss him and he is always in my heart and mind. Now lets get onto the memories.

My love for Halloween has always been huge and I honestly believe some of it is because of my dad. Now he never instilled the scary violent and terror inducing part that most of you know I love about Halloween. He did however instill the creative and some of the over the top Halloween things that I have done in the past. He always went out of his way to make Halloweens special for us kids in the ways of costumes and taking us trick or treating, even when he had to get up early for work the next morning. I have tons of awesome memories of my father but I will save those for other blogs I will just talk about this one cause it goes with the Halloween theme and also give you some insight on the loving and awesome talent my father had.

I believe I was around 9 years old and the movie Star Wars was the end all be all of sci-fi movies. Kids wanted to be Darth Vader, Luke Skywalker, Han Solo, Chewbacca, C3PO, R2D2, Princess Leia, well you get the picture. No, I didn't want to be Princess Leia before you even ask! I was infatuated with R2D2 at the time and wanted to be him for Halloween. Now most, not all, but most dads would of just gone to the costume store and bought the costume that they had back then, you know the kind it consisted of a plastic vinyl like pants and top with just a face mask that kind of looked like R2D2. Nope not my father. He built an almost exact replica costume I could wear trick or treating and even to enter the neighborhoods Halloween contest. This was a severe badass R2D2 costume. He spent weeks making this from a barrel the thick cardboard kind of barrel with a complete paper mache dome. It would fit over me with shoulder straps and my legs would come out through the bottom and my mother sewed some silver looking pants that looked kind of robotic that I could wear. So you know how intricate this was and how awesome it looked, my dad before he died was a really good graphic designer/typesetter. He drew the plaque that is on the moon for the moon landing and my grandfather (who I will blog about at a later date) who was a master printer printed the plaque that is actually on the moon. My father also worked on the panels that were used on the space shuttle at the time. So needless to say he was a very talented individual. He would work all day then come home and work on this costume at night and on weekends to make sure it was just right and perfect. Hopefully soon I will find the pictures of me in the costume and I will update this blog and my facebook page with these pics so you all could see. Let me tell you and trust me when I say this that this was one incredible costume ever made by hand back in those days you couldn't buy pre-mades of this quality. By the way every costume contest I entered I always took first place. IT WAS AWESOME!! Words can't describe what an awesome and great man my father was and I miss him every day.

In closing I would just like to say to all of you who still have their dads/fathers around, please don't wait till fathers day to let them know what they mean to you. Once you are done reading this blog pick up the phone and give your dad a call and let him know how much he means to you. Talk to him about a memory or just say you called to say I love you Dad. Dads do a lot for us and they sacrifice a lot for our well being. They deserve more recognition than just one day. In all seriousness, all parents deserve to be honored everyday both Moms and Dads. If you are a Mom or Dad, please for the love of all that is holy, be a bigger part of your child's life. You are molding them to who they are supposed to be. Don't let TV or video games become the driving force in your child's life. Step up and be a parent, a friend, a confidant, and watch how much your family dynamic will change and how much your child will grow both spiritually and mentally. We all aren't going to live forever and don't you want a legacy left that makes people say "That child was raised right and proper". You dont want to be the parents that look back and say where did I go wrong? I will stop the lecture part of this blog, I am just really passionate about this especially with the direction this world is going now. If parents would just take the time to be parents and instill a little more values, if children would just take the time to just pull themselves away from tv and video games or at least find a balance between those things and your family you will feel so much better. Ok, I have rambled on enough. I hope you enjoy this little stroll down memory lane that ends in a little bit of a rant cause I easily get sidetracked.

Thank you again for reading these blogs I am really trying to blog more and I feel I am getting into the swing of it. Take care of yourselves and don't forget to call you father lol. If your father has passed away, do what I do, and take a moment to remember him. Talk to friends or loved ones about your fondest memory. Heck if you want post a comment about your fondest memory of your father here on my blog in the comment section I will definitely read it.