Dads.

Hello Readers!

Welcome back to my author's blog, Happy DETours!

Well, let's start there with the name of my blog, Happy DETours. If you have been following my writing and publishing journey through my blogs, then you know that I came up with that name as an homage to my dad.

He was the biggest dreamer I knew, until me of course. He loved adventures and had a wanderlust that fueled him. He had odd jobs that took him all over the place that helped satisfy his love of travel and paid his way through college. The stories he would share of those times were fascinating. I can honestly say, with a huge chuckle, that my dad actually worked on a shrimping boat down in New Orleans. I mean, you just can't write this stuff. Oh wait, Winston Groom did. LOL.

The adventure bug stayed with him while raising his family and he would often take us, and our mom, on adventurous car rides on Sunday afternoons to places known and unknown. Those were such happy detours in our lives, that live on, in us now.

My dad also loved anything sci-fi or high-tech. He was always looking for the next big thing and dreaming of the future. He would have loved how far we have come with computers and social media. Especially with online meeting platforms like zoom. Being able to connect face to face with anyone in the world instantaneously would have rocked his world. If there was one thing he loved, it was talking. To anyone. In fact, his mantra was: "a stranger is a friend you haven't met yet."

I remember many a restaurant dinners as a child, and my dad going up to strangers to ask them what they ordered or just striking up a conversation. To say that the rest of us in the family were mortified by his boldness is a gross understatement. But, I must admit he made quite a few lifelong friends that way.

As a middle school special education teacher, "Mr. D", changed many of his student's lives too. He was no nonsense but fair. He loved teaching and he loved his students. And they knew it. He pushed them. Challenged them. And they loved him even more for it. Many of his students were never given a chance to succeed and (maybe fail) in a safe space before and they embraced his teaching style.

My dad had an open door policy, and many of his students visited us at our home over the years. They brought their own children to meet their favorite teacher Mr. D and his family. Still, to this very day, many of my dad's students, now grown men with families, children, and even grandchildren, visit my mother even though Mr. D has long passed.

My dad was a special breed, as I am sure many of you would agree about your own father. It wasn't all sunshine and rainbows, but the good outweighed the bad. I loved mine and I miss him everyday. He would have LOVED that I am writing and publishing books. It had been a dream of his that went unfinished.

My dad would also be so proud of his grandchildren. The little children, that he adored playing games with, reading stories to, giving advice and driving them around in his golf cart. They have all grown into such wonderful adults forging their own adventures and detours in life now! I know he is watching over us, beaming full of pride with his contagious smile!

Until we see each other again Dad, I will keep the dream alive! I love you!

Now on to another pretty awesome dad. My husband. He took the role of being a boy dad seriously. And I mean seriously. I think our sons played every sport imaginable and when they finally settled on the six yearly sports between them... yes six... it meant us giving up a lot of free time and dedicating it all to the boys. (Also add in youth group; boy scouts; music concerts; and so many other activities).

It meant 7 days a week of practices, meetings, traveling, games, tournaments, sectionals, finals, championships and then some. It meant getting up a the crack of dawn and going until the nightly news at 11... unless he was in the ER until the middle of the night dealing with an injured son, then it was 2 or 3AM. Then it meant getting up the next day to go to work and practices and games all over again.

But I know, to the depths of my soul, he would do it all again. Those grueling and amazing days are behind us now but I know he doesn't regret a second of it. My husband has more time now for his interests and hobbies and I know that makes him happy but it isn't the type of happy I would see on his face when he was cheering on one our sons at their games. He loved giving them advice, building them up, keeping them humble, supporting them, pushing them. He loved it all! He will often retell stories from those days with such enthusiasm and pride.

As with any father and son relationship, it wasn't always sunshine and rainbows, but they always knew, and still know, they can count on him to be there every single day in one way or another. He is there to give advice, help them buy a car, buy a house, remodel said house and help fix vehicles. But he is also there to listen, to play golf, to talk, to play pool, go to the cabin, or just hang in the garage. He has always loved being a dad and I would say it has, and continues to be, his favorite role in life.

To my husband, father of our sons, thank you for always being there!

I love you!

HAPPY FATHER'S DAY TO TWO GREAT DADS!

Much love & Happy DETours,

Jenn