Dad

Just today, I read on the Internet (where else would I find real news like this) that the Schlitz Brewing Company is going to produce it's last barrels of Schlitz "The Beer That Made Milwaukee Famous". Some of my earliest memories, are of my Dad, beer in one hand and cigarette in another, sitting on the front porch or standing in his tiny workshop, listening to Dizzy Dean describing the Cardinals game, on the radio. I can still hear my Dad fuss about Dizzy's horrible slaughter of the English Language. (These disparaging comments came from a man, who did not speak English, until he was 6 years old.) Dad was a lot of things, but he was not a grammarian!

My Dad, Mike,  did enjoy an occasional beer, or three. His favorite, as I remember, was Pabst Blue Ribbon. But, I kind of remember Schlitz and maybe Hamms, also. As a young man, he had worked at the Potosi Brewery (established in Potosi, Wisconsin (1852). It's slogan, according to my Dad, was "the beer that made Milwaukee, jealous!"

During my childhood, Dad worked the 4-12 shift, at a nearby chemical fertilizer plant. That meant, he left the house about 3:20 p.m. and returned around 12:30 a.m. He was generally up and making our breakfast, before my sister and I went to school. It was my dad who pulled and yanked my hair into a ponytail, every morning, until I was old enough to do it myself.

He was also our lunch chef. I walked, or probably ran home from school, every day for lunch. His gourmet specialties were scrambled eggs and noodles, canned chicken noodle soup and whatever he could make with bologna or hot dogs. Nothing to exciting, but I ate it. He was always there. After school, I'd come home to either an empty house or most of the time my sister was there. Mom came home around five and we wouldn't see Dad again, until breakfast the next morning.

So, I'm hoping that this current generation "remote/working-from-home" dads, is also engaged in some normally "mom" chores. Your kids are going to remember how really "present" you were, when you were home with them.  My dad, was doing "home" work, in the late 1940's and early fifties.

There are all kinds of dads, in this world. Dads who work crazy hours, dads to work 9-5 and dads who work from home. Dads just doing whatever they can, trying to be good dads.

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Heavenly Father. Being a good parent isn't easy. We are thankful for those folks who try to do the best they can. Help us to be Your good stewards of the next generations.