Proud Father
My dad moved to the UK from Italy when he was fifteen. Couldn't speak a word of the Queen's, was pretty much dropped in it to help support a large extended family back in southern Italy; it was pretty common for my relatives over there to bake dough for bread cut with sawdust to make their food last that little bit longer. Times were hard. My dad ended up in the bloated industrial heartland of the Midlands, working in a foundry in Coventry. It was the type of place where industrial accidents were par for the course. I recall my old man telling me how one time he saw this poor fella's arm melt, just dissolve away when he slipped and fell into a pool of molten metal. It was a hard time, the late fifties / early sixties in Coventry.

And my dad was one really hard bastard.

As a result of being made to be a man at the age most boys are still sitting in their bedroom's, playing Playstation and masturbating, my dad was pretty aloof.

I didn't really have much contact with him when I was growing up. Except, of course, for the occasional telling off for doing something incredibly fucking stupid, immature, or downright evil.

But the fondest memory of my dad while I was growing up was when he came to a nativity. Most of the times he worked weird shifts and couldn't come - probably explains why I was usually such a little terror. But this year I was good as gold. I was a shepherd, and a fucking brilliant one. I shepherded my arse off on stage, all the time sneaking a look at my dad, sat with his arm round my mum, beaming and smiling at me. I wasn't used to him beaming and smiling - it made me feel great, it really did.

I had a line, I'll never forget it:

"Look, the sheep have all gone to sleep!"

And I delivered it perfectly and went and stood at the back like a good little boy.

And at the end we all bowed, all us little tykes on stage. And I watched nervously as my dad, a great big bear of a man, got to his feet and clapped and smiled.

It really was an amazing feeling to see my old man was proud of me, a smile on his face, not looking tired and grimey like I usually saw him when he'd come home from a shift.

He's a great bloke now I'm an adult - but as a child I'd say that was the only real time we made a connection.

Me as the perfectly behaved little shepherd, him as the hard-as-nails foundry man who'd knocked off work early (forefitting a shitload of pay no doubt which he probably couldn't afford to be without), to see his boy prance round with a tea towel on his head.

Thanks, dad - you're a star!
( SpankyHanky, Thu 2 Apr 2009, 23:42, 6 replies)

Awwwwwwwwwwww
That's swell that is.
(Helixdaunting, Fri 3 Apr 2009, 0:21, closed)

your dad sounds
like a decent man
(Grrrrr Tigers, Fri 3 Apr 2009, 0:51, closed)

good post
thanks
(Lizard King, Fri 3 Apr 2009, 0:53, closed)

Clickies for happiness...
...but what have you done with our Spanky?!
( Undercovercarrot got done for gross misconduct on..., Fri 3 Apr 2009, 7:49, closed)

Was
feeling a bit emotional last night... Think I might be getting my first ever period.

Oh, and I had been drinking - heavily.
( SpankyHanky, Fri 3 Apr 2009, 8:04, closed)

Ahhhhhhh.
Nothing touches the heart like a maudlin drunk. You stirred memories there. Thankfully it made things a bit cloudy so I couldn't see properly. *Sniffs and clicks*.
(porkylips looks better as the sun goes down., Fri 3 Apr 2009, 9:18, closed)