A Father's Encouragment

Today would have been my father's 73rd birthday. As always today my thoughts and memories are about him. This year the memory that stands out above the all has to do with a Christmas song by an old time orchestra famous from early television.

The song is "Sleigh Ride" as recorded by the Lawrence Welk. The orchestra and it's stable of singer's Christmas albums were musical staples of our family's Christmas during the years I was growing up. The memory I'm referring to has to do not so much with the song but one of the best acts of encouragement and love my dad ever showed to me.

When I was a freshman in high school I was crazy about radio. My career plans were to go to college, get a communications degree, and become a famous radio DJ. It's all I wanted to do ever since I was 7 or 8 years old. I used to listen to a local station and impersonate my favorite personalities and commercial announcers on my tape recorder. It was just like the one pictured above.

During the Christmas season I recorded a commercial about local merchants using the Lawrence Welk version of "Sleigh Ride" as the back ground music, just like the one on the local station. I played it for my dad and he liked it. He was rather impressed that the commercial was totally different from the one on the radio because I wrote the copy myself.

Not too long after that my dad told me he had a surprise for me. He had grab my tape recorder and he took me to an office in downtown Easton. It was the office of design engineer, Gary Miller.

My dad knew him from his job but Mr. Miller also worked part time at the local radio station. The same station that ran the commercial I had parodied.

Very proudly we went into Mr. Miller's private office and dad had me play my commercial. He had asked Gary to listen to the tape and tell us what he thought. Other than some advice about the choice of words I used (He said not to use the word "jock" when referring to an athlete in regard to purchasing sporting goods) Mr. Miller was very encouraging or at least that's how I remember it. What I really remember is how proud and encouraging my dad was that day.

Gary Miller was a professional consultant to the civil engineering firm my dad worked for. It took a lot of initiative and a bit of humility for my dad to approach him about helping out his high school son in regard to his career interests.

Like I said, I don't remember much about the critique but to this day, over 30 years later, I remember how proud dad was that day. He really showed me how much he believed in and loved me.

Now I have never forgotten that incident. I think about it and the commercial every time I hear the song "Sleigh Ride" But it was this year for the first time in a long time that the memory came back to me in a very vivid way and I realized just what an act of love that was to me from my dad. It's a memory that will help me always remember my father's unconditional love for me. It's a wonderful memory, I choose to share with you today, to remember him on the day he would have been celebrating his birthday.