Dadisms That I Didn't Want to Learn

Dad: In fine form . . .

Still thinking of Dad at this important new time of his life.

A story by baby brother Blair:

There are many things that I learned from dad growing up. I am very grateful for them, though I was not happy to learn many of them at the time . . . 

Growing up on the ranch was an educational and fascinating experience.

As a young child, I was very enthusiastic about getting up and going outside to explore.

But an interesting thing happened when I was suddenly given the responsibility of feeding and caring for the animals. When morning came, I was exhausted and somehow robbed of 1 or 2 hours of sleep throughout the night.

I began to dread mornings.

Dad would call down to my room and tell me to get up. If he didn’t hear any reply from me, I’d hear, “Are you getting up?”

I would reply in the affirmative, then promptly fall back to sleep.

About 15 minutes later, dad would come downstairs. I’m sure he knew that I was still trying to squeeze in my last few minutes of slumber.

Somehow I could hear dad coming down the stairs to my room and I would fly out of bed.

Big Brother, George on the other hand dealt with mornings with outstanding ‘get-out-of-bed’ powers. His clock radio would go off and he would reach over, shut it off and sit up on the side of his bed staring at the wall for about 5 minutes. Then he’d get up for the day.

I couldn’t understand how he was able to do this.

Either he was superhuman or he was . . . superhuman.

I thought about this for a long time and finally decided that it had to be his clock radio. It must have some special ability to wake him up and get his day started.

It had to be the reason that he could get up so easily.

I approached dad and tried to share my newly acquired knowledge.

The conversation went something like this:

“Dad I am having trouble getting out of bed in the morning.” I thought that it was good to start by acknowledging the problem and thus side with dad. That way he would move to my side and see my way of thinking. “If I had a clock radio, I could set it to turn on a few minutes before it was time to get up. Then it would slowly wake me and I would be able to get up in the morning.”

Then dad made one of those profound statements that, if I had known, I would have plugged my ears and said “Bla bla bla, I can’t hear you!” However, it was said and, before I realized that it, the statement was resonating with great force inside of me.

“If you can’t do it now you won’t be able to do it later.”

Those words echoed in my ears over and over. At the time, I tried to rationalize that dad was wrong and he didn’t understand me.

But the little voice inside was saying that dad was right.

I decided that I was going to prove him - and that little voice - wrong. I would save my money and buy a clock radio and get out of bed at the right time in the morning.

And dad would know that my thinking was not flawed.

I looked and looked for the clock radio that would do the job, finally finding a Lloyd’s clock radio in the Eaton’s (Google it) catalog. It was really cool looking and would undoubtedly wake me easily. I would welcome the day refreshed and effortlessly slide out of bed.

I ordered the radio and excitedly waited for its arrival.

When it finally came I took it out and marveled at its beauty.

I plugged it in and listened to the radio and thought, ‘This is great! Now I will be able to wake up to the latest top 40 songs!’

That evening I placed the radio on my night stand and set it to turn on 15 minutes before I had to get up.

When morning came, the radio obediently turned on as programmed. I lay in bed wishing that it would shut off, but it played on. Somehow the top 40 hits did not sound as good in the morning.

I reached over and hit the snooze button.

A short time later dad was calling down to my room.

I told him I was getting up and promptly fell asleep.

Then I heard dad coming downstairs and jumped out of bed.

After following the same routine for a few days, I realized, sadly, that dad was right.

If I can’t do it now, I won’t be able to do it later.

Don't you hate that?

Mr. Morning vs Mr. Sleep-Till-Noon