Sunday Scribblings Post-Prompt "Parents"
Parents
I love my mom and dad. I don't just say that because I should, I say that because I genuinely mean it. For a while now, I've realized that I had a pretty unconventional upbringing. My parents had me when they were pretty young. They were out of high school, but not that far out of it.
Growing up, my dad raised me pretty much the same way that he raised his brothers. We went fishing and went to tractor shows. I saw him fix things, often they were things that other people didn't consider worth fixing. He never really believed the idea that newer is always better and, because of that, he knows a lot about antique machinery and older farming practices that would probably have fallen by the wayside in our community. I was never given the luxury of thinking that girls shouldn't get dirty. Let me tell you, you can't really say that you've fixed anything until you've had to use Dawn dish washing liquid to get motor oil and tractor grease out of your hair.
Before I ever got behind the wheel of a car, I had to learn to change a tire. This wasn't one of those “sit back and watch Dad do it and repeat the steps back to him”, oh no, this was a practical application of real world knowledge to an actual situation. I had to take the tire off and then put it back on again. Then, I had to drive that very car. When I bought my car, Dad taught me how to change the oil. I soon discovered that this meant roughly every three months I was the star of “Oil Changing Day”, in which I'd go get a case (or two) of oil and change the oil in my car, Mom's car, and Dad's little farm pickup. After the first year, I was entrusted with the run of the shop to accomplish this and left to my own devices. It was just me and the little cottontail bunny that liked to sit right in the door and watch.
It wasn't all work. Dad is the reason that I love sci-fi. Oh yeah, he started it. He liked “Star Trek” and we watched old episodes of it in syndication when I was a kid. He rented me my very first sci-fi movie, which was “The Absent-Minded Professor”. This was back when you had to rent a VCR, too, and we watched it several times. Later on, we watched “Star Trek: The Next Generation” and, as I got older “The X-files”. We watched “Star Wars” a lot at my house. Episodes IV-VI were on the permanent rotation for when there was nothing on to watch. I took him to see Episode III in the theater and I waited a couple of weeks after it was released to watch it so that we could see it at a single screen theater from the balcony. I bought his ticket, his popcorn, and his soda and he groused about the price of all of them, because a movie was no longer “cheap” entertainment.
Neither of my parents ever told me that girls shouldn't like dinosaurs. They never discouraged my interest in science. In fact, when we got the chance to go somewhere as a family, there was usually a stop somewhere that had fossils. Dad even arranged for me to get to do some fossil collecting at some amazing oyster beds not far from where we lived.
My parents taught me the joys of motorcycles and that loving the things that you love shouldn't be a source of shame. Most of all, though, they taught me to be myself.
I love my mom and dad. I don't just say that because I should, I say that because I genuinely mean it. For a while now, I've realized that I had a pretty unconventional upbringing. My parents had me when they were pretty young. They were out of high school, but not that far out of it.
Growing up, my dad raised me pretty much the same way that he raised his brothers. We went fishing and went to tractor shows. I saw him fix things, often they were things that other people didn't consider worth fixing. He never really believed the idea that newer is always better and, because of that, he knows a lot about antique machinery and older farming practices that would probably have fallen by the wayside in our community. I was never given the luxury of thinking that girls shouldn't get dirty. Let me tell you, you can't really say that you've fixed anything until you've had to use Dawn dish washing liquid to get motor oil and tractor grease out of your hair.
Before I ever got behind the wheel of a car, I had to learn to change a tire. This wasn't one of those “sit back and watch Dad do it and repeat the steps back to him”, oh no, this was a practical application of real world knowledge to an actual situation. I had to take the tire off and then put it back on again. Then, I had to drive that very car. When I bought my car, Dad taught me how to change the oil. I soon discovered that this meant roughly every three months I was the star of “Oil Changing Day”, in which I'd go get a case (or two) of oil and change the oil in my car, Mom's car, and Dad's little farm pickup. After the first year, I was entrusted with the run of the shop to accomplish this and left to my own devices. It was just me and the little cottontail bunny that liked to sit right in the door and watch.
It wasn't all work. Dad is the reason that I love sci-fi. Oh yeah, he started it. He liked “Star Trek” and we watched old episodes of it in syndication when I was a kid. He rented me my very first sci-fi movie, which was “The Absent-Minded Professor”. This was back when you had to rent a VCR, too, and we watched it several times. Later on, we watched “Star Trek: The Next Generation” and, as I got older “The X-files”. We watched “Star Wars” a lot at my house. Episodes IV-VI were on the permanent rotation for when there was nothing on to watch. I took him to see Episode III in the theater and I waited a couple of weeks after it was released to watch it so that we could see it at a single screen theater from the balcony. I bought his ticket, his popcorn, and his soda and he groused about the price of all of them, because a movie was no longer “cheap” entertainment.
Neither of my parents ever told me that girls shouldn't like dinosaurs. They never discouraged my interest in science. In fact, when we got the chance to go somewhere as a family, there was usually a stop somewhere that had fossils. Dad even arranged for me to get to do some fossil collecting at some amazing oyster beds not far from where we lived.
My parents taught me the joys of motorcycles and that loving the things that you love shouldn't be a source of shame. Most of all, though, they taught me to be myself.