★ Closed ★ Fathers day giveaway

[RWalls]

FATHERS DAY GIVEAWAY!

Check it out! Free ammo and solar powered flashlight keychain shipped to your door!

Winner chosen
432

RULES:

1) Anybody can enter in any of the lower 48 free state that allows shipping.

2) Tell a short story about your dad.

3) Your post number is your entry number.

4) Random number will be drawn on Fathers Day.

[rkt13]

I feel closer to my dad more so now that I am a dad even more than when I was a child. I've always had a great relationship with him but now I appreciate everything even more and his guidance has such a high value to me now. 2 years ago I went through the hardest time of my life and he was there for me every step of the way. Love my dad!

[Deebo]

My step father is who I called Dad. He was 22 years Navy retired. He was a very hardworking, honest, loving man, that took on three kids that were not his. He was far from perfect, and I was far from a perfect son, but, he was perfect for me. He would tell stories of "being a polywog", "wiping with one square of toilet paper", and growing their beards and hiding all the fresh food they had on the boat during resupply, so that they "get extra fruit".
If your dad is still around, LISTEN to him, dont talk, listen. The history our fathers have left behind needs to be remembered.
Man, I am tearing up, remembering how pissed he used to get to find one of his tools I left out, I never thought twice about it then.
He raised me from when I was 12 years old, and I buried him when I was 31.

[OSFG]

I remember when I was six and my brother was eight and we watched from my Dad's car as a man walked out of a house and was yelling at him about something. My father said something back that I couldn't hear and then the man pulled out a pistol. My Dad started walking towards him and the guy fired six rounds at him from about 30 feet. The 4th or 5th round clipped his hat band and knocked his cap off. My father then jumped on the guy and choked him out. I never will forget that day. Either he was the craziest man I ever met, the bravest, the dumbest, or the luckiest I don't know...but I do know you don't make him mad. Oh...he was not near the car at the time nor were we in the line of fire.

[Inor]

Until I read SF's account, I was going to say my old man was the toughest son of a bitch I have ever met. I guess I still can since I never met SF senior.

My dad was an auto mechanic. When he was in his early 30's he had a freak health problem and got a pulmonary embolism (blood clot in the lung). I understand that is one of the most painful things that you can experience. It happened in the morning before he went to work. But, being the stubborn Norwegian that he was, he went to work, worked the entire day, and went to the doctor's office that evening. They immediately put him in hospital for two weeks and admonished him because he could have died, especially doing a physical job all day.

I was just a little kid at the time, maybe 5 or 6 years old. But that day made an impression on me that has lasted a lifetime - tough it out and do your damn job.

He went home to his dad on Mother's Day 2002. I still miss him. I liked it much better when he was the patriarch of our family instead of me.

[Infidel]

I certainly don't need to be bribed to talk about my father and the ammo can't be shipped directly to me anyway but I'll give you one of my favorite stories.

When I was about 16 or so my father and I were going to shoot in the county trap championships. My father and his friends had decided that they would all set up their campers the night before the night shoot and have dinner and a few drinks the night before the shoot. So we set the camper up and had a great dinner and then my father and his friends set about drinking stingers. They all had too much to drink and it was the only time I ever saw my father drunk. I had gone to sleep and left my father and his friends to their devices until about 1am or so I heard a huge crash. I jumped out of bed and found my father sitting where he had fallen in the bathroom. I helped him up and put him back to bed. The next morning he said his ribs were killing him and he was pretty hung over. It seems when he fell the previous evening he had banged his ribs on the john, when I asked him if he was still going to shoot he said hell yes he was going to shoot so we went and signed up. We finished the first round of trap and he had run all 25 targets but he told me every time the gun went off it felt like his teeth were going to fall out and the top of his was going to explode. He muddled through the pain and managed to become county champion that day finishing up the day breaking 99/100 targets.

Dad's been gone since 2006 and I miss him. I still have moments where I think "I should call Dad and tell him about that" and then reality hits. I wish my boys had had the chance to get to know him, he was the greatest man I ever met.

-Infidel

[Pauls]

My dad died in 1975 of "unspecified" cancer. He was an engineer - aerospace engineer. I learned a lot from him, how to shoot straight - with my morals and my gun, that children need discipline, and that you should never do anything you will feel guilty about later. He also taught me how to think critically. How to discern the truth when you don't have all the facts. He taught me honesty and how important it was and to take pride in doing the best I could. He didn't fish or hunt but we hiked all over the Cascade mountain range. Dad taught us that mom, and women in general, were special. You treated them with respect.
Dad made some mistakes but so did I so even though he was human I know he did his best to make all 9 boys into men and his three girls into ladies. Between his favoring the girls and mom keeping things in perspective I was very fortunate to have them for parents.

[9UC]

I, unfortunately, don't have a lot of good memories of my Father. He was an alcoholic, and for the most part a hard and bitter man who lacked the ability to display his emotions. When all is said and done, I do admit that I cared for him deeply and credit him for the work ethic I developed. I went to work for him just before my twelfth birthday as an unskilled laborer during summers, weekends and holidays in the ceramic tile tile trade. By the time I was 16, in '62 I was considered a skilled laborer and was drawing $5 and hour. which was a darn good salary for an adult skilled laborer. I learned from him to always do the best I could regardless of the circumstances. When he passed to our Lord, I wondered if I grieved of the Father I had or the Father I wish I had.

[RWalls]

I, unfortunately, don't have a lot of good memories of my Father. He was an alcoholic

Most children of alcoholics don't have good memories. The battle he fought was within himself, you were just a bystander.

[GACAMO]

My Father and I have had our ups and downs! Didnt really get along much in my younger adult years but Id say that over the last 8 years we have grown closer and become more as a father and son! So im thankful to God for that and that I still have my father in my life!

[ekim]

Like 9UC my dad was a drunk and don't have any fond memories, unless you call watching your dad beat your mother or trying to burn the house down in a drunkin rage, good memories. We did go fishing once, but he ran out of beer so we left before we got to fish. It was kind of different when we went to the state hospital to see him on sundays as he tried to dry up. He did let me go to the local bar once with him though, I was 8 years old. There was that new bicycle I got, OH wait I worked as a caddy for the summer and paid for it myself. I do remember that great vacation to Penn. but it was for an AA convention that he was speaking at so we sat in the motel room, but there was a pool. Then he did ask me if the piece of ass was worth getting married for! Yea, I remember my dad, and we are nothing alike, thank GOD.

[Pop's garage]

My dad was always very good to my mom, brother and me. We never had a lot of money, but never went without what we needed.
My fifteenth summer he was to attend a supervisor's convention for his job. Instead of sending my brother and I to relatives and flying he and mom there, he took 2 weeks vacation, packed up our little Shasta camper, and drove us from Atlanta to San Francisco, Ca. We stopped at all the major sites across the country. Petrified forest, Grand Canyon, Hoover Dam, Las Vegas, Bryson Nat. Park, you name it. There are lots of stories associated with that trip, but the fact that he did it shows his devotion to our family.
He's been gone over 20 years now, and I still miss him very much.
If your dad is still with us, make it a point to something with him every month, not just on Father's day. He'll be gone before you know it.

[Just Sayin']

Everything good that I am, and everything useful I know, I learned from my Dad, although it took his death to realize it. The way he lived his life still guides me today, over 20 years later.

The best story I ever heard about my Dad when he was young is the pidgeons in the barn story. My Grandfather wanted them out of his fairly new barn and tasked my Dad and his brother to get rid of them. They did, with the Win. model 1906 .22 that was my first rifle. Needless to say, they also spent a fair time of that summer patching the many holes in the barn, and I'm pretty sure that every shot wasn't a hit!

[RWalls]

433

winner is post 4

[1moretoy]

Congrats old SF Guy! I didn't post since I won the last ammo giveaway but now that the winner has been picked:

My Dad has always been my hero. He will do anything for anyone in need even if he has something really important to do himself. I have never seen my Dad raise his voice much less his fist. He'll, I'm not sure I've ever heard him curse. ( that one didn't rub off on me though). I recently bought a rental property as an investment and at 80...he's been over there helping me almost every day. I have to make him slow down so not to over do it. Well that's just how he is. I love my Dad.

[ekim]

I didn't make my post to win the ammo and would have turned it down for my post as it wasn't in the proper context of this thread, but just told what some Dads were/are and how you can overcome what life gives you some times. Have I drank before, yes, but not in the past 6 years at least and never to the point I got out of control. I'm not saying I'm special, just that you don't have to let your past control who you become. It's great that most have such good memories with their Dads, but I do have some good past memories from other family members.

[OSFG]

Thanks RWalls...and more importantly thanks to all who shared tales of their fathers. I am at home with all four of my boys (the 1 in the Navy is home on leave too). My second had his graduation party this weekend and was the students choice to speak at the graduation as the JROTC Cadet Commander. He is also a volunteer fire fighter and joining the Navy to be a Navy Seal. I can say that I give the credit to Mrs. Young SF Gal (I'm not gonna call her Old cause I'm scared of her). Without our ladies...we would probably eat our young so God bless them to.