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Home > Blogs > Women's Life > Archives > 2010 > June > 19 > Entry
This one is for my Papa
It would be a massive undertaking to list all of the things I’ve learned from my dad, whom I call Papa (my first word, actually). While our relationship has never really resembled the “Daddy’s Girl” stereotype, there have always specific things we bonded over that still mean a lot to me today, especially when I look back and see where these interests and aptitudes came from.
So here are some of the big things I inherited from Papa:
1. An ear for a variety of music
I haven’t met many 22-year-old women who listen to as much classic rock and blues as I do. This is the stuff I was raised on - Pink Floyd, B.B. King, Eric Clapton, Joe Satriani, Aerosmith, David Bowie, Jethro Tull and Ozzy Osbourne. But Papa’s taste in music stretches way beyond those two genres. His CD collection includes everything from Alice in Chains to Blue Man Group to Beau Soleil to INXS to the Smashing Pumpkins to Yes to Frank Zappa. And just recently he admitted genuinely liking Lady Gaga. My own diverse taste in music is no doubt influenced by the tunes he cranked up on the radio while I was growing up.
2. A taste for good food
My parents shared cooking duties and have never been ones to stick to the same set of recipes every week. They’re always willing to put something new on the table for my picky-eater brother and much-less-picky me to critique. Our Thanksgiving turkey was not cooked in an oven or a deep-fryer, but in a smoker, which meant he needed to get up at 4 a.m. to check on the bird. Christmas dinner at our house was (and still is) Asian pork tenderloin, so moist and flavorful that leftovers never last long. I still get invited over when they have a new recipe to try out, and that’s an invitation I never want to pass up.
3. Red hair and freckles.
Ever since I was a little girl, I’ve been complimented on my bright red hair. In the summer I’m pretty much a walking cloud of freckles, and these days I wear SPF 70 or higher to avoid being burned into immobility. Papa is full-blooded English, and I’m pretty sure that Anglo heritage is the root of my redheadedness. When I was about 14, I cut my hair Pat-Benatar short and dyed it black, thinking it would look cool when the red grew in with black tips. I could not have been more wrong, and since then I have not done anything more dramatic to my hair than get a perm.
4. A pragmatic outlook on life
Papa approaches most things with a sensible, practical attitude, and I’ve noticed how that attitude is reflected in my own decision-making process, especially when it comes to money. I often seek out his opinion on some of the bigger decisions I’m facing because he’s great at pointing out things I haven’t thought of that should be taken into consideration. He hasn’t always agreed with all of my decisions, but he let me make my own mistakes and rarely said “I told you so” when I ended up burned. I’ve come to really value his input. He taught me to not take everything at face value and to recognize a good deal when I see one.
5. A love of dogs
My mom has joked that in her next life, she’d like to be reborn as one of Papa’s dogs. He lights up when he talks about them, whether it’s one of the three they have right now or one he had in the past. Many of the dogs that lived in our house while I grew up were rescues. My parents have three dogs right now, the oldest of which is a rescued Chow-Chow mix named Cinnamon. Chows are a favorite breed of his, but we’ve also had a bloodhound, an English setter, a Hokkaido dog and a Great Dane. My husband’s allergies prevent us from having a dog, but I can still get my fix of puppy love by visiting their house. Papa is definitely one of the big reasons I am a dog person.
6. A passion for learning
Papa is a veritable encyclopedia of trivia. Not to say that what he knows is trivial, but that he is always picking up and storing away little nuggets of information. He took me to a lot of museums, aquariums, historical sites and nature centers throughout my childhood and encouraged me, directly and indirectly, to learn new things. This became something we bonded over, whether it was his supervision of my second-grade Styrofoam solar system project, the many sessions of birdwatching in the backyard or on camping trips, or watching and discussing documentaries on the Discovery Channel together. He definitely taught me an appreciation for the outdoors and nature - I am still a huge bird nerd, and I love camping and hiking. I think this emphasis on self-education has fueled my curiosity for the world around me.
Since I’ve been out of college, I’ve been spending more time getting to know my parents not just as Mom and Papa, but from an adult-to-adult perspective. And I’ve thoroughly enjoyed getting the chance to do that. I think if I could travel through time, I would love to spend some time with Papa before he was a papa - some of the stories he tells about his youth are almost beyond belief.
The best part is, I know he has more stories to tell, and I’ve started earning my own stories to trade with him. It seems that now that I’m an adult, we have more to talk about than ever. We still bond over some of those niche interests, like classic rock and birdwatching, but I feel there’s still a lot about him that I have yet to learn.
I look forward to getting to know him better, as my Papa and as my friend.
Permalink | Comments (2) | Post your comment | Categories: role models
Comments
By MC
June 20, 2010 4:16 PM | Link to this
Beautiful!
By recover data
June 21, 2010 7:30 AM | Link to this
I really liked your post. It forces me to stop and think what I gifted from my father. Yeah it is truly said. We all love our father. I also gifted any face from my father. His attitude, decency, way of laughing, taste of food. I loved my papa very much. Thank you.