I walked into my parent’s bedroom, it was late afternoon. The sun was streaming in through the windows. I raised my leg high and slipped my foot down into my dad’s cowboy boot. Balancing, I did the same with my other foot and got a surprise. “Ouch!!” I fell over and began crying and scrambling away from the boots. A scorpion had stung me on the foot.

That little experience didn’t stop me from trying on and walking around in my mom or dad’s shoes but I did learn to check first. What is it about putting on a parent’s shoes that kids love so much? It’s part imitation, part imagination, part problem solving, and well just plain easy. Those opening are huge!

When my brothers and I were small, we loved to follow dad around and ‘get in the way’. Whatever he was doing seemed so important, but then he’d tickle our bellies and make a duck sound which always made us laugh. Later, he made us learn certain life skills, like how to fish and hunt, how to take care of a car and fix almost any part of it, how to work hard, and how to try new things.

The first official driving lesson my dad gave me, he took me to a cemetery. It had gravel paths and a hill at one end. I was learning on our Datsun pickup which had a stick shift. Driving through the cemetery was fine, until he told me to go up the hill. I did, then he told me to do it again, and half way up he told me to stop and idle. Then he told me to idle without using the break…um what? Let’s just say I prayed for a little more forgiveness that night as the memory of the sound of gravel striking headstones echoed in my ears.

What is something you learned from your father, grandfather, uncle, or father-figure?