MY DAD

I will start by saying.... having my Dad guiding me growing up has given me MANY advantages in life.  And the older I have gotten, the more I appreciate that.

One of my earliest memories of my Dad was when I was about 2 years old and playing on my tricycle on our patio and fell off into a cactus.  I remember my dad picking those stickers out of my hand one by one with tweezers.  The next day I remember my Dad and I driving in his black car, (I even remember he was wearing a pair of sandals) and we went to the dump and threw that cactus away.

The next memory that comes to mind is my bud man football.  It was a half red and half white football with a smiling face on it. I remember my dad giving me the football and teaching me how to throw and catch so I could practice when he was at work. He also set up a batting cage machine that pitched balls to me to practice my batting for baseball when I was only 4.  I also remember in my young childhood,  that my dad worked in a store, and would bring me home a new toy every night it seemed.  My Dad played with me, my brothers, and the kids in the neighborhood as if he was one of the kids like us.  He would play hide-n-go-seek, football, basketball, and he can even say we played on a regular basis with Tiger Woods, who lived only a few doors down from us.  My dad also took an active role in my sports life as a young teen including being my baseball coach.  One special sports memory I have and will never forget was the football game I quarter backed against Yucaipa High School. In this game all of our very toughest first string players were literally injured and taken out of the game within the first ten minutes. Playing the entire game with my second string, I continued to lead my team, although loosing the game.  I felt I played my very best game ever.  But what sticks in my mind the most about that game was how proud my Dad was of me.

Some ideas about how to live your life that always stick with me, came from my Dad.  I am not sure where he got these ideas, or even when he taught them to me, but I have tried to live my life using them.  One of the things he always said was, "think of how a plan CAN work, not ways that it CAN'T."  This means to me that any goal can be achieved if you stay focused on how it CAN be done.  That is definitely how I try to live my life.  I don't think of practicality, I don't think of failure, I just think of ways I CAN do what must be done.

My dad always taught me that being a Christian is the most important thing in life.  If we don't have a relationship with Him, we don't have much at all.  Any material thing we have managed to get here on earth won't matter, because when we die we won't take anything with us.  

I am very thankful as well for my Dad's patience, understanding and help that I received from him during my very far from normal teenage years.

As an adult, I STILL often call my Dad for advice,  even for some of my smallest decisions.  He just always seems to know what the best thing to do is.

Dad I love and respect you very much.

Love your son,

Joe