(part 1 yesterday)
When we were kids, we knew that we were a family unlike any other we knew.
Our Mum had a super power and our Dad was the smartest bloke in the world to have pursued her.
The three of us were indeed blessed. There were many mantras we lived by.
- Always hop back on your horse.
- A cold wash cures nearly everything, and is a requirement every morning.
- Shoulders back, chin up, look your own height in front of you.
- Get your hair out of your eyes.
- Don't let them know that you're scared.
- Take a deep breath.
- Nil desperandum carborundum illegitimos.
- If you don't throw the first, make the second count. (Actually, that one might have been from a movie)
- Don't rely on others unless you're in a team.
- To be deemed "good in a team" was highest praise indeed.
- Make sure you have something to fall back on.
We knew how lucky we were to have the parents and life we had.
Dad was enthusiastic about everything, a driven polocrosse number 3 and then a campdrafter of note. Nothing was done at half-pace and 98% of the world's problems can be fixed with a bulldozer.
The other 2% sometimes kick back.
We always used to say Dad wasn't accident prone, he just launched himself into accident zones more regularly and with more gusto than most.
Having such a gung ho Dad had its moments of exhilaration, the occasional terror (learning to drive on paddock tracks with him telling you to "use reduction" as you imagine plummeting sideways into a gully sometimes recurs in dreams) and large dose of the sheer frustration of knowing that he wouldn't give up until he got you to do what he wanted. And then get you to agree it was the right thing to do and and to thank him.
Mum was his perfect foil. She was one of the few rare people that had a handle on Bruiser. It was a constant challenge, but while she was generally acquiescent, she shaped his force to her plans and when required, showed an obstinance that he was forced to respect.
This was the forge that we were raised in.
And people wonder why I don't actually know what to do on holidays!
(You never know, it might get continued)
5 comments:
I know there's no such thing as an ideal life, but you had a pretty darned good one, it sounds like.
It certainly had its moments, Kelly.
My dad was the sort who went to work to get food on the table and money to bet on the horses (gambling) while wifey stayed home cleaning house and waiting on him, I wonder sometimes if that's how his parents were, I never knew them. But after Mum took my siblings and left us, we had a succession of "housekeepers" who were expected to do all the housework and the cooking.
When he was old and somewhat feeble he arranged for "meals-on-wheels" and actually expected that person to deliver meals, serve them to him on a plate and then clean up after AND he wanted that three times a day. I gave him a heck of an earbashing over that idea!
LOL. The idea of your father launching himself into accident zones, as opposed to being accident prone. Clever way to put it. In other words, he didn't have accidents accidently. He strode right in there on purpose.
Thanks River - Dad isn't a gambler (well, except with his life and limb). He also "batched" quite a bit before he met Mum which is lucky, as he is now her carer and therefore "chief cook and bottle washer".
Thanks Debby - that is so true - let them at him.
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