Thinking about Dad a lot lately

My father’s been gone nearly 10 years and while I don’t think of him every day, most days I do.

He taught me to hunt and fish, how to drive a stick, and how to grow a garden. I suppose I also learned to cuss and drink beer from my old man, too, although I’m sure I would have picked up those bad habits on my own.

He told me when I was 18 that I didn’t know the meaning of hard work, and I spent way too much time working dead-end jobs -- a lot of them involving a shovel -- just to show him he was wrong.

Dad was a conservative Republican who campaigned for Goldwater, and while I often disagreed wi...