Dad's Quote

A few Saturdays ago, Amadea & I took Dad out shopping. He needed a new shirt, and as a bonus he bought Amadea three new dresses. Very nice.

First we picked out the dresses. In a pleasant turn of events, each of us selected a dress that we all agreed would look lovely on Amadea. Then, it was on to the shirts.

I learn a lot from my dad, even after knowing him for forty-six years. He is eighty-nine, but shows no signs of loss of mental acuity. On this particular Saturday, I learned the following :

1. The more cotton in a shirt, the more ironing it needs.

2. Collars that are buttoned to the shirt tend to waffle over time, and then will need ironing.

3. Dad likes lighter coloured shirts, with short sleeves. As I write this I realize I have never known my dad to wear a long-sleeved dress shirt. Wait, maybe as a chi- no, I cannot remember it ever happening. He even wore short sleeved dress shirts under his suit coats. Hmmmm.

4. Dad prefers geometric patterns on his shirts, stripes or checks.

But the best thing I learned that afternoon was not a new lesson. It was merely a refresher course. My dad has an incredible sense of humour.

Amadea, trying to help Grandpa pick out shirts, grabbed a Hawaiian style shirt off of a rack. It was not gaudy, and was nice in a casual dressy kind of way. It was black with golden streaks curving through it in intervals that were well enoughed spaced so as not to be tacky. A pretty good selection for a four year old.

She ran towards Dad with it, calling out, "What about this one, Grandpa?!?!!"

Dad looked at it, and I saw his eyebrows twitch. With my dad, this is usually a sign of controlled anger or suppressed humour, depending on the situation. This time I knew it was the latter.

But all he said was, "No Amadea. I don't think so."

"Why not?" was the immediate response.

"Yeah Grandpa," I chimed in, "Why not? It would look AWESOME on you."

Without looking at me, Dad continued looking through the racks and replied, "I don't want to look THAT awesome."

Amadea and I both laughed, although I think I led the way. And now I cannot stop using that line, in one variation or another.

My dad is that awesome, goofy shirt or not.