Happy Father’s Day to the most amazing dad in the entire world, who always told me I could do anything and taught me everything I know—and Happy Father’s Day to all the dads out!
In honor of this very special day, I thought it would be an excellent time to tell one of my favorite stories about my dad that pretty much sums up what it must have been like parenting, well, me.
Backstory: Dad became Mayor Pro-Tem of my hometown, Salisbury, NC, when I was nine or ten. And he served as Mayor Pro-Tem then Mayor until I was in my thirties. So, one Saturday when I was sixteen, I’m at the house with my then-boyfriend. We’re about to go out and meet some friends and Dad says, “Could you run by my office and pick up my City Council packet?” (These arrived several days before each meeting.)
I say sure. And then Dad proceeds to remind me of the alarm code and how to lock up and I’m like, “Dad, I’ve known this since I was six. I think I can handle picking up an envelope.”
And he’s like, Okay, I know, but this is very important and there’s confidential information in there, so don’t lose it. And, obviously, I’m sixteen, so I’m like, Dad, I’m SO responsible. How would I even lose a giant packet?
So we go up to the office, get the packet, set the alarm, lock the door, stop to chat with some people in the parking lot, head on about our plans for the day. When we get back home, Dad is still playing golf and I go back to the car to get his packet to put by his chair and… No packet. Can’t find it. Not in the car. Not between the seats.
So we go back to the office. Scour the parking lot. Retrace every step of the afternoon. No packet. So I’m panicking. But then I realize: Five other people have this same packet. Three of the other councillors will not think this is funny. Two will think it’s hilarious.
So, one of Dad’s fellow council members meets me up his office on a Saturday night no less and photo copies his entire packet for me. We put all the paperclips in the right places, get the right manila envelope.
We go back home, Dad’s in his chair, home from golf, now watching golf, and I hand him the packet oh-so-casually. He thanks me. We go along with our evening.
Monday rolls around. I’ve forgotten about the packet. I’ve gotten away with this. I have committed the perfect crime. We sit down at the dinner table, and we’re chatting like always and Dad says, “The strangest thing happened today.” And I’m like, “Oh, what?” And from the floor beside his chair emerge not one, but two City Council packets, one with a giant tire mark across it. “Would you happen to know why someone dropped this packet off at my office today when my daughter brought my packet to me on Saturday?”
I probably should have been in trouble, but it was all way too funny for that. And if my dad raised me to be anything it was resourceful. And what’s more resourceful than faking a city council packet? So, Happy Father’s Day to the world’s most patient man who still has to tell me everything three times. Only, now I’m old enough now to remember why…
Friends & Fiction Official Book Club!
Join me TOMORROW!
I will be on the Friends & Fiction Official Book Club Monday Night at 7pm (due to technical difficulties last week!) To make it extra special I will be doing a preview for FALLING FOR PTB tour- around 7:15pm EST!
Summer State of Mind in The Atlanta Journal Constitution
So grateful to the Atlanta Journal Constitution for including SUMMER STATE OF MIND in this amazing roundup!
The Stanley Cup:
Took a while to dig these up out of the non-digital, from-a-disposable-camera archives. But may I present… 2006… The Stanley Cup at The Beach Tavern with a much younger Will and me !!! 😍 At any rate, goooo Canes!!!
Thanks so much for stopping by, friends. Happy reading!
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