Opinion : Father\'s Day: Thanks is never enough

This STILL looks like my dad, almost down to the pants, suspenders, just not the bowtie!

Dad and uncle, the white things are called diapers hanging on what is called a clothes line :)

My Grandpa and dad

Today as we celebrate dad's day, I think about my dad, his dad, my other granddad, my husband, my son in law and my son, who is soon to be a dad, my father in law and his dad, both whom have passed away.

All these men, and all great guys. All hardworking, all know how to be a great dad, and all who have done, is doing or has done the job well.

I am amazed at the different stages of life everyone goes through. If you grew up in a large family like my dad and my kids did, they learned to help out when they were little and it continued until they left home.

I have a picture of my dad and uncle on diaper duty. My dad is sitting on a tree stump to reach the clothes line, and my uncle, the younger of the two is handing him a diaper to hang.

I remember my dad telling us about making homemade bread when he was only 5 or 6, he was the first bread machine :)

As I watched my own husband on diaper duty,(now for his 3rd generation, he tells of reading the box to change his younger sister when he was babysitting her for the first time so that he had the directions for diaper changing) when we had our own babies he never ran from a diaper he couldn't master, and now the granddaughter will only demand "Gwampa do it" when he happens to be around at diaper changing time.

Being a dad is MUCH more than being a sperm donor, or a one night stand or even being the "father figure". It's a lot of hands on, time consuming effort.

We knew at 4:30pm, our dad would pull into the driveway from his factory job, and my sister and I would wait for his carpool to drop him off. That was the highlight to carry his lunchbox up the drive and grab his hand with our other hand.

As we got older, jobs changed. He drove semi for our neighbor, so we got to ride along hauling grain to Shellsburg where we would stand and watch in amazement at the truck being raised to dump the grain out the back.

Then he got an OTR (over the road) job.

There were a lot of times I can remember my dad returning home from driving his semi all week, and we greeted him with, "Hello and daddy, can you....????" Most of the time he did whatever was on the list, after collapsing in his recliner for a nap.

I can remember our little kids lined up at the door waiting for THEIR daddy to pull into the driveway. It wasn't usually a calm crowd, but more of a happy mob that would attack Dean as he walked up the steps.

As the kids got older, there were many times dad would take the kids out to throw a baseball around, or walk to the park, or go on bike rides.

As I look at our kids becoming parents, I think, "They came from a long line of great dads." We spent a lot of Saturday and Sunday afternoons at the house next door, when it was still "Grandpa's house", where our kids would throw a ball to their great grandpa, and take long walks to the river and back. He would sit and hold anyone that would let him.

His son, Ron, was the same way. Every time we called to see if they would babysit, it was greeted with a, "Sure!"

As the saying goes, "Anyone can be a father, but not everyone is a dad." If you don't believe that watch one episode of Maury.

To all of the dads out there that are doing their job and being a wonderful dad, THANK YOU...our society thanks you, your grandkids will thank you! A few years or so before my grandpa passed away, I sent him some flowers on fathers day and a card and thanked him for teaching my dad to be a good dad to us, by being a good dad to him. Sure I suppose all these guys somewhere messed up, but in general, they got the daddy job right. Not always, but the good far outweighs the mistakes they made.

So take a few minutes, if you can, go back a few generations and thank those grandpa's for your good dad too!

Happy Father's Day all you Dads out there!