My Dad

Ironically enough, one of the first posts I ever put up on my blog was about my father. Which is kinda strange because while he liked reading my blog, he wasn't really into technology... he had to have my mom pull up the website before he would read it.

He past away late Wednesday night, after a stay in the hospital and a brief fight with cancer. While things were looking positive, he was obviously sicker than we thought.

I thought it would be appropriate at this time to mention the 10 things I will probably most remember about him, and why he was such a good Dad.

#10 - Peanuts - Everyone has a favourite snack food. Some people like cookies, other people like chips. My Dad liked peanuts. Liked them so much in fact, that one year for Christmas, that's what my Mom got him. Just about every type of peanuts known to man. All different makes/brands, prepared dozens of different ways. It was kinda funny because I had no idea there so many different kinds of peanut snacks. Now I enjoy peanuts too, but not to the same extent my Dad did.

#9 - Falling Asleep - Until like Grade 4, I thought that every one's Dad came home from work, took off their pants, and promptly fell asleep on the kitchen nook, or in the family room on the couch. You mean this isn't normal? There were times when the doorbell would ring and then Kyle and I would have to run around trying to find his pants so that he could answer it. Yup.

#8 - Western Movies Whenever Possible - Growing-up, I watched a lot of westerns. And by a lot, I mean I have seen just about every movie that involved guns, cowboys, Indigenous People, cattle barons, horses, saloons, and stage coaches. I knew who the Duke was, and what a Mexican standoff was, unlike many of my fellow classmates. I don't even like westerns all that much. They seemed to go on forever, especially ones like the Magnificent Seven. There is only one western I really liked, and to this day will watch when it comes on TV. Rio Bravo, with John Wayne and Dean Martin. Really good movie, I highly recommend it. I must have seen it with my Dad a dozen times or more.

#7 - Ham and Eggs - When we drove across Canada, we didn't have breakfast everyday, but when we did go out for breakfast, my Dad would always have ham and eggs. In fact, every time we ever went out for breakfast he would have ham and eggs. You would think, that after 70ish years of ham and eggs, you might get tired of eating the same things for breakfast but not him. His attitude was: "If you try something new, you might not like it. I know I like ham and eggs, so whats the problem?"

#6 - School projects. Dad was good with helping Kyle and I with our school projects. Not really with day-to-day homework, that was Mom's specialty, but anything that needed to be built, he was good with. Usually what happened was that my project would quickly become his project, and he would up doing most of it because he would get impatient with my inability to make whatever it was I was supposed to be making.

#5 - The Greenhouse - Not many kids grow up with access to a greenhouse. Hardly any kids have a giant greenhouse attached to the back of their house, so that they can walk from the TV room and into a jungle. Now my Dad wasn't the best at keeping the greenhouse neat and tidy, in fact it was often nearly impossible to walk around and it really did look like a jungle. But, we were probably also one of only a few households to have fresh citrus fruit at our fingertips year round. Oranges, lemons, lime, grapefruit, kumquats, pommelos as well as hundreds of orchids and a variety of other exotic plants. There was also something good to bring for show and tell.

#4 - Wood - Dad was a cabinet maker. It pretty much worked out that there was nothing he couldn't make if it involved a piece of wood. When I was a kid, I remember going into work with him on the weekends sometimes to finish up jobs. Giant conference tables, and wall panels. Things that I thought were pretty even though I was like 10, which goes to show you that they were probably even more impressive than I gave them credit for. My Mom's china cabinet at home, all the kitchen cabinets and bathroom cabinets, and every wall unit unit in the house were put together by him. There is still a ton of work around town (some of the biggest hotels and banks in Downtown Vancouver) that have his work proudly displayed in their foyers, hallways, and conference rooms. He didn't get paid a tone of money to do it, but his work will outlive him.

#3 - Summer Vacations - Every summer before I graduated, at least those that I can remember, we had a family vacation somewhere. It wasn't always to the same place, and it wasn't always far away or exotic, but we went somewhere. Dad usually drove since he did not like to fly, but even he bit the bullet once when we all flew down to Disneyland. We drove down the coast to Oregon and Northern California a couple of years and saw the sand dunes and huge red woods. We drove up into BC, and went to Kitamat and ton of other small towns in the BC Interior. We spent many happy summers on Vancouver Island, walking the lengths of Long Beach with my brother and I trying to see who could stay in the water the longest. Dad drove us to Drumheller Alberta to see the famous dinosaur museum, although my brother and I spent just as much time chasing after groundhogs. When I got my drivers licence, we even drove across Canada, stopping to see all the Parliament Buildings, various family relatives, and basically just seeing our country. I do remember almost getting us killed (I had just gotten my licence a few months earlier, so I did kind of have an excuse) when we went head-to-head with a semi-trailer. Mom and kyle got really freaked out, but Dad was really patient with me and didn't get half as mad as I thought he was going to.

#2 - The Best Scout Leader Scouts Never Had - My brother and I both were Beavers, Cubs, Scouts, Venturers, and I even hung around for Rovers and to be a leader for awhile. For all those 15+ years, Dad was never a leader. But, he did drive to countless camps, take other kids home when their own parents never showed up, sorted at Bottle Drives until everyone else had gone home and always paid for Kyle and I to go to whatever activity was happening. He Made patrol boxes and staves for everyone in scouts one year, and pretty much did whatever needed doing because other people couldn't or wouldn't do it. He never wore a shirt, but Scouts Canada had fantastic volunteer. I remember when he used to come with my Mom to pick us up from camp... and then help us dry, hang whatever equipment needed to be cleaned, pretty much because if he didn't help/nag us, then it would have never gotten done.

#1 - He Never met a Fish he Didn't Like - So this has a few meanings. Anyone who has seen the tons of slides he has from when he was younger, knows that he liked to fish. And by liked to fish, I mean that he would drive from Vancouver to Kitamat after work on Friday, fish all day Saturday and Sunday, then drive home Sunday night and go to work Monday. For those of you who don't know, that's about a 15+ hour car ride. You could say my Dad liked to fish.
He also said he didn't really like to eat to fish, but that's a lie, because he definitely liked fried fish. I think he could have eaten at Cockney Kings (a local fish and chip joint) weekly, despite the adverse health affects.

Finally, he loved to raise fish. Anyone who has been to my parents' house knows that there are like 30-some-odd fish tanks downstairs. Before we had the pond (which I will get to in a minute) and in the winter when the pond was covered, he could sit downstairs and watch his fish for hours, often falling asleep with a half-drunken cup of coffee resting on his lap. I was probably the only kid in the neighbourhood who had arawana's, pacous, piranhas, crayfish, and a variety of other strange tropical fish in their basement. Combine that with his "retirement project" a.k.a. the 20,000 gallons of water in the back yard in three ponds he used to raise koi, and you have a man who liked to keep fish.

Having dug the largest of the ponds, I know how many fish can be kept in them, and how upset he was when most of them died one summer because of a heat wave. He used to talk about how he helped out the Vancouver Aquarium years ago. I think he knew a few things about fish.

We miss you Dad.