Fathers Often Said Words

     Sad it is that only one woman and two men of the many people who I asked to tell me some of their father's often said words, could not think of even one single word.

     Were their fathers mute men?  Did they never listen, really listen to what their fathers said?  Were their fathers unimportant in their lives?  Were all of those people so involved in their own life activities that they never made time to spend any with their fathers?

     Perhaps, their childhood and adulthood was not family oriented as was mine.  Surprising too are the people with a living father, who were reluctant to discuss the topic with that parent .

~ ~ ~

     "If you play hard than the other team,

you'll beat the other team." 

David Caffery, Executive Assistant, Berkeley Heights, New Jersey says that his father regularly told him and his teammates of the travelling baseball team that he coached this worthwhile advice.  If you really want to achieve a goal, you must work diligently to obtain it.  Too many people seem to expect their goals to just magically slide into their home plate, while they leisurely watch from the side lines.

~ ~ ~

     "Take a stand for something, or you will fall for anything." 

Bob, manager of a large store in New Jersey immediately recalled that this famous quote by Alexander Hamilton is a favorite of his father's.

     A worthy quote that has inspired many people through the years.

~ ~ ~

     Joan Nathanson of Hamilton, Ontario, Canada sent a mini-biography of her most interesting, multi-skilled father.  She wrote that, "My father's teaching career began in a one-room schoolhouse as soon as he was graduated from high school.  He attended university, graduating in Honors Science and the Ontario College of Education.  He began his secondary school teaching career and except for being seconded to teach radio to young soldiers during WW II, continued there to retirement.  He and two other tech teachers developed the first radio and electronics courses in Ontario, and he authored the first high school correspondence course on electronics."    

     "After seeing a photo of water skiing in Austria in a Toronto newspaper, he built a pair of plywood skis and took me out on a lake to try water skiing.  He also built a one-man helicopter that could be towed behind a boat. Students in his class built a TV when they were first coming into production. One year, they built an electronic organ, using reeds from old pump organs that had been donated to the project. He devised hand controls for a Morris Mini-Minor station wagon for a friend of mine who was a paraplegic so that she could be independently mobile."

     "Dad had a very positive view on life: 'I can do anything anyone else can do, only slower.'  That allowed him to try his hand at the things which interested him. It also excused him from worrying about what he couldn’t do."

     ~ ~ ~

     I have quoted my Father, Loren Eastman-Bennett, numerous times in my varied writing though the years as I will continue to do.  One quote not previously mentioned is ~ "Bravale dicto" ~ a phrase that my Father often used primarily when introducing or showing my sister, our Mother and me some aspect of nature.  These words were usually spoken in a quiet tone sometimes even in a whisper when we were quietly beckoned to a window to observe a nearby bird, to see a glorious sunset, to watch dramatic lightning flashes in a night sky, interspaced with dramatic growls of thunder.

     On a mid-summer's eve, my Father woke my sister and me then whispered the two words as he beckoned to us to follow him outside, there we found a gentle rain in which we all, in pajamas and mother in her nightgown, walked out into, enjoying the wet grass under our bare feet and watching how a single rain drop made its way across a leaf.

     So many wonderful memories associated with two words that my Father had learned in a college Latin class play in which he spoke those two words.

     Bravale dicto translates as ~ "Wonders to behold," which is what he introduced to my sister and me.

~ ~ ~

     If you are a father, what words or quotes will your child or children associate with you, or will you be a blank?

Make space in your life

for long talks with your Father

just two of you, nothing electric.

Share a sunset

while sitting side by side

in lawn chairs.

How Well Do You Really Know Your Father?

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Greetings: I have based many of these monthly writings on quotes from family and friends.  What meaningful quotes have your family and/or friends said that you can share?  Email the quote(s) and a sentence or two concerning each, plus your name, town and state to joaneastben@mail.com

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