To all the dads out there, Happy Father’s Day!

To my dad wherever you are, I remember best our fishing, hunting and clamming.

My dad made me savvy in how to physically manifest and prepare food in the most primitive manner so I could survive. He taught me how to start, maintain and put out a fire from sticks on a beach, how to skin a rabbit and how to shoot. He insisted you only killed what you could eat and hated waste of any kind, especially life and the time you had in a day and how you spent it.

He cultivated my love of composting and gardening and recycling, re-using and re-purposing everything before it was even an environmental concern for conservationists. It is just what you did because he wanted me to understand the cycle of life.

He was very cut and dry and so was his humor.

My dad loved science, math, engineering, building, fixing, machines and nature.

He tried to teach me how to fix a flat tire, how to drive stick shift and how to put a Volkswagen bug car engine back together again but I had absolutely no interest in those things. He became frustrated with my lack of desire for automotive information but rejoiced when I excelled in an analytical geometry paper I wrote for a math project.

What did/does your dad love? What did/does your dad teach you?

And a special shout out to my husband – the father of our children. Thank you.