First, let me just say that I loved my Dad very much. He was one of the greatest people I've ever known. He truly had a heart of gold.
However, I on the other hand....
Let's just say it's a wonder that Dad didn't take me to another state and leave me.
At one point we had this certain dog. It was an odd looking dog....sort of looked like an Australian Terrier....sort of....or a Yorkshire Terrier....sort of....or not either....sort of....it was a mutt. Anyway, this was during the time when Fidel Castro was in the news a lot so Dad thought it would be funny to name the dog Fidel....so we did.
The barn was about 200 yards or so down in the pasture and there was a trail that the cows had made back and forth from the barn to the house. Dad would walk to the barn to feed the cows and Fidel always went with him....and so did I a lot of the time. I began to notice that if Fidel happened to run across a piece of baling wire that he would jump about two feet off the ground, which I thought was hilarious (by the way, you can't see baling wire very easy, especially if it's on the ground).
So, one day I
didn't go with Dad and Fidel to feed. It was getting almost dark when they started back. I was out in the yard when I noticed them. That's when I had an idea
. I was going to scare Fidel, who was trotting along in front of Dad. They were still quite a ways away so I picked up a fairly decent sized throwing rock, determined to totally freak out Fidel because he was bound to really jump and it would be really funny. So, I drew back and threw that sucker hard. I watched it until it went down below the horizon where I couldn't see it anymore because, as I said, it was almost dark. But, Fidel never flinched and just kept right on trotting along as if nothing had happened. I couldn't figure out what had happened or where the rock went. The last time I saw it it was headed right at Fidel. I thought "
well, that's just really weird". So, for the moment, I dismissed it and starting looking for another rock. I was ready to fire the second round when I noticed that Dad must have dropped something because he was crawling around on all fours on the ground. "
I wonder what he dropped" I thought, because all he was carrying was a five gallon bucket. "
Maybe I should go help him look" I thought. But, just then, he stood up....sort of. He staggered a little but finally steadied himself. I couldn't figure out what was wrong with him at first....but then it finally dawned on me what had happened so I hid behind the well house hoping he didn't see me. But, I kept peeking out around to see what he was doing and he finally saw me. All I heard was him yell my name and I was gone. I ran waaaay down in the woods and hid until well after dark. Finally I came home....because I got hungry I guess. He wasn't mad by now but he wanted to know what I had done. He didn't know but he just knew I had done something. So, I told him the story. I asked him what he thought had happened. He said "
I didn't know. I was walking along and then something hit me in the head really hard. The next thing I knew I was on the ground. I first thought maybe a bird flew into me but it didn't feel like a bird....it was too hard. I figured you had something to do with it but I didn't know for sure until I saw you peeking out from behind the well house". He did have a knot on his head from it. Like I said, by this time he wasn't mad about it....fortunately for me, and we laughed about it. As a matter of fact, I joked about it for several years after that. I don't think he enjoyed it near as much as I did.
Winter time can also be enjoyable, despite all the snow we used to get. Once again it was me and Dad outside. Except this time he was in the front of the house messing around with something, I don't even know for sure what he was doing. I was in the back of the house but I knew right about where he was. So, it occurred to me "
I wonder if I can hit him with a snowball from here"? Of course it meant throwing the snowball completely over the house and it also meant that the throw had to be exactly accurate so I never thought in a million years I could do it. But I gathered up a bunch of snow and packed it really hard because I didn't want it to fall apart when I threw it. So, I lined myself up with where I knew he was and let it rip. It went up and over the top of the house. About 2 seconds later I heard "
Owwww!" And once again he yelled my name. He never considered that some snow and/or ice might have fallen off the top of the house....it just had to be my fault. What's up with that ? And, once again, I ran off for a while. When I came back it was much like the first story. We talked about it then laughed.
To be honest,
my son currently is 16 and if he ever did any one of those things to me he would be lucky if he survived the night.
I'm joking, of course.
Welcome to City-Data.com forum! Make sure to register - it's free and very quick! You have to register before you can post and participate in our discussions with 700,000 other registered members. User profiles and some forums can only be seen by registered members. After you create your free account you will be able to customize many options, you will have the full access to over 15,000 posts/day about local topics and you will see fewer ads. 
(It's OK he wasn't wild. 
Just because we start every other post with "Reminds me of the time... " 
) but I do have fond memories and I am making more every day. 
Dad's Invisible Head Crackers
Linear Mode
