Now I Feel Old

I have an old, miniature Frogger arcade game from when I was a kid. I brought it back from New York the last time we were out there. I remember my brother Chris and I playing this game and another we had of Donkey Kong, for hours when we were younger. I have told Kylie this very story when I first showed her the game and showed her how to play it. She seems to enjoy playing the game occasionally. Today she saw the game again, apparently she had forgotten about it, and then immediately asked me a question that made me feel old. When she saw the Frogger game she was momentarily excited and then immediately asked if I had Frogger “back in the old days.” I laughed and asked if she meant when I was a kid and she said yes. So now my childhood is back in the “old days,” amazing how quickly we can feel so old.

Thoughts of my Father

In five years I do not think a day has gone by that I have not thought about my Father. I see him every time I look in the mirror, and hear his voice when I need advice. He is with me everyday, in my memories and in the love I share with my daughter. I learned how to be a man by watching him. I’m not going to say he was perfect, because he wasn’t, but he did try. I learned a lot from him, both things I wanted to emulate and things I learned that I did not. He taught me many things, both tangible things like shaving and non-tangible things like integrity. There were things, too, that I could not learn from him because by the time I was old enough to learn he was to sick to be able to teach me, like hunting. But we still spoke about those things, sometimes for hours on end, and threw those conversations he was still able to pass on his knowledge to me. My father never graduated high school, and yet he was one of the smartest people I’ll ever know. I remember seeing him read a lot, and watching a lot of TV shows that, at the time, I may have thought were boring, but now realize they were very educational. Then I realize that this is probably why I also enjoy watching, for instance, the History Channel so much. I’m not sure what has made me have this reminiscence today, but I feel close to him today and I am happy. I miss you Dad, and I love you.

Childhood Holiday Memory

As Christmas gets nearer, and I find myself once again enjoying putting up decorations, I also find myself thinking of my younger days. This time of year my parents (mainly my Mother) would put up our Christmas tree and of course I (and my Brother Chris when he was home) would help hang the ornaments. While I don’t seem to have any vivid memories of hanging the ornaments them selves, as I sit here stairing at my Christmas tree one memory does keep coming to mind. When I was younger I used to love looking at our Christmas tree, but not in the normal stand back and glance fashion. I used to love to lay on my back with my head underneath the tree and look up into it from the inside. I don’t know why, but I used to love to do this and I remember that I would just stay there for seemed like hours, I even remember playing my Game Boy under there. Though I haven’t done this yet this year, and don’t think I will, it is a very vivid and pleasing memory from my child hood.