Dad, part I

It goes without saying that my father has been the biggest influence in my life. He's a Marine and obviously proud of his service to our country, so what better excuse is there than Veteran's day to record a few dad-related thoughts and reminisces?

• Every week throughout elementary school Dad would drill me on my spelling words. If I spelled it wrong the first try I had to write it out 5 times. Wrong on the second try would mean 10 times, and the threat of 20 times for being wrong on the third try was enough to ensure that two tries was all it took.
  
• When I was 14 I saw an air hockey game at a yard sale in our neighborhood. I agreed to buy it and went home to get some money. After I got home I changed my mind but was embarrassed to tell the people I didn't want to buy the game anymore. Dad went with me, smoothly negotiated the non-purchase and saved me some hard-earned cash. It doesn't seem like a big deal now but at the time it was huge.
• After my Nintendo, our 1989 World Book Encyclopedia was the most influential media in my life. I got 1/3 of the way through the Aa volume before giving up with my quest to read the whole thing. Others thought reading the encyclopedia was ridiculous, Dad just asked me about what I learned.
• He gave me his pocket knife on my 8th birthday. Mom thought I'd slice my finger off. I didn't hurt myself but I did cut down every small tree in the area behind our house and turned them into poorly constructed bows from which I fired poorly whittled arrows.
  
• When I was 18 some of my best friends decided they had "surpassed" their fathers. They thought they were more competent and just generally more capable than their dads. They were wrong, of course, but that's not the point. I didn't think I had surpassed my Dad then and I'm sure I haven't now. More than a decade later I'm still trying to follow his example as a husband and father.