This line, "The greatest man I never knew came home late every night," was my dad. In fact, he used to come home so late that we never really saw him during the week while we were growing up. But that's not one of my favorite memories.
Nope, one of my favorite memories were of late night television on Saturday during horse racing season. That's when WOR--that's not a typo, there used to be only one "W" in the station's name when I was growing up--used to broadcast the trotters from the Meadowlands (or was it Freehold?) and it was a treat for me to stay up late with my dad when he came home from work. We got to look at the names of the horses and "place our bets" with each other to see who was a better guesser.
Unfortunately, the third verse of the song brings up a not-so-happy memory as Reba sings:
The greatest words I never heard
I guess I'll never hear ...
He never said he loved me
Guess he thought I knew.
Of course, this goes both ways since I guess I never really told him I loved him, either, or that I appreciated all that the did for us while we were growing up: we never went hungry, we always had a roof over our heads, and somehow, my sister and I were able to go two very nice, very expensive private universities.
Why this is especially poignant these days is because my step-granddaughter purposely avoids responding "I love you, too" when those around her tell her we love her. I understanding that this is just part of growing up and there's a stage when children don't like to say "I love you," even to their parents, but I hope she gets past this stage so she has no regrets as the days and years go by.
So today's musing is: it's never too late to say, "Love you dad," until it's too late.
No comments:
Post a Comment