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 with him simply because he was my father, I sure miss his perspective on politics, especially now. I do know he could never support a Democrat, but he also despised loudmouth braggarts. He would be appalled at the choice we face.

He and I used to argue about a lot of things: social issues, religion, the best way to eat oysters. I can’t remember, however, any time we were at odds on the water or in the field.

He showed me how to cast foam-rubber spiders for bass and bluegill. He explained why I needed to pick out a single bird on a covey rise. He taught me how to quickly dispatch a wounded rabbit.

While I thought he was wrong about most issues, and seldom hesitated to tell him so, when we were hunting or fishing I never argued or talked back.

Dad quit hunting and fishing in his 70s, but we carried on heated discussions about gays, welfare, and Mexican food until he died. It was still challenging to debate my father, but I missed the common ground we used to have.

I walked in my father’s footsteps when I was young. It was the only way he’d let me tag along when he went hunting. At the end of the day he’d hand me the Model 12 and let me fire a shot. It was a few years before I could do so without getting knocked on my butt by the recoil.

I don’t think of Dad every day unless it’s an election year or I’m out hunting or fishing. Then his presence is hard to shake. I’ve been thinking a lot about him lately.

Parker Heinlein is at

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