Weekends with my Dad

It's funny the way we remember things...

I was just listening to some music and "Okie From Muskogee" played. Merle Haggard records were always on the turntable when we were kids!

When I was a kid we used to spend the weekend with my Dad (not that Momma wasn't around, but she knew how important that time was), he would work on the never ending chores of working on the car or cleaning out the garage or rearranging the furniture for Momma and we... more like I would be spinning records, old stuff and new stuff like Elvis, Merle Haggard, Hank Williams and Johnny Cash. Mostly we listened to Elvis right up till about noon when the local TV station would show the weekend western, then an Elvis movie. My first taste of John Wayne came on one of those weekends. "The Cowboys" "Big Jake" and "El Dorado" all the classics and yet we would sit there rolling our eyes, but we still hated "Long Hair" (Bruce Dern) for shooting "Mr. Anderson" (John Wayne) in the back. Sorry for the spoiler but if you haven't watched The Cowboys yet, shame on you!

And don't get me started on all the old Elvis movies... So corny but listening to him sing was special!

It was still a time when we were innocent, before the Internet, YES there was a time before the Internet, before video games and smartphones, ha I remember the time one of my little school friends came over and didn't know how to use my mom's fancy looking rotary phone! He picked up the receiver and just looked down at the rotary dial and stared. The poor kid only knew how to use a touch-tone phone, my parents got a kick out of it.

But I digress, we didn't worry about the things we do today, I was ten or eleven and I didn't have to worry about drugs in elementary or even later middle school, I didn't have to worry about people abusing me in any way cause I knew Dad would stand up for me, I didn't have to think about what was for dinner, how long my commute home from work would take, I didn't have to watch everything I ate and drank for fear it might trigger a migraine.

I didn't have a care in the world, just what records I was going to spin next, and to listen for that call from my Dad for a flashlight or a 3/8 socket, or that I was taking too long to start up the next record. And to believe I used to dread those weekends! 

I hated listening to all that OLD music and watching those OLD movies! Now I miss those times. I miss Dad, it's been 15 years now since he died. But I know that I will see him again, and hearing Okie From Muskogee brought a smile to my face because in my mind I could just hear him in the distance singing along about as loud as he could. (BTW Dad had never been to Muskogee in his life)