A tribute to Dad

My Dad Percy was always a Dad not a father. 

He was the playmate to us that hardly said no, he had a real hard time trying to discipline us. He was too soft. 

Mom had to do the yelling and be the bad guy. He was so proud of us kids. He had his faults but he was the one who held our heads when we were sick and brought us ginger ale and ice cream to make us feel better. 

I remember the night my little sister Helen was born, it was cold in November and Dad decided to celebrate. He knew there would be drinking involved so he walked down to town to play pool with his cousin Carl Gowan and friend Jack Parker at Oz pool hall. They enjoyed cigars and rye and being that he walked down he walked home. Well, about midnight we heard some noise and saw the yard light come on and we could hear the laughing. Dad had fallen over the dog in the back woodshed. 

On a more serious note, he would sit outside the arena or a dancehall until the wee hours of the night so I had a safe ride home. He was always in the stands at my ballgames or hockey games. If I made a cake it was the best he had tasted, if I wore red it was the nicest colour I could have picked. He loved all five of us kids. Once I decided I could go to an all night show at the drive-in after being told not to, so I told Dad I was going to stay over at Marion’s house. My five friends climbed into an old car one of them owned and away we went to the show. We were all nodding off by the middle of the third show and decided to head for Creemore. We had our first flat tire at Utopia, fixed that one with the spare and drove on to Angus, where we had our second flat and no spare left. None of the other four wanted to phone their parents so I called Dad from the phone booth at Angus, he said, “I will be there within the hour”. He drove all the other kids home and as we were driving in our laneway the sun was coming up. He didn’t scold me. He knew I’d suffered enough. We miss you Dad.