A friend of mine posted this on another board

and gave me permission to repost it on my blog:

I didn't know what I had when I was growing up. - G. Gardner

My Dad got up every morning and went to work. He worked hard to get ahead and to provide well for his family, and when work was done he came HOME. He sat at the supper table with his wife and children every night, and talked with us and took an interest in our lives.

He deliberately and purposefully set a good example, taught us everything he could, and made us behave and do right.

Mom kept an immaculately clean and orderly house. She cooked three FINE meals a day EVERY day, except on Saturday night when Dad took her out to a restaurant.

Most mornings breakfast was eggs and bacon or sausage, likely with either grits and toast or biscuits, sometimes with gravy on top of that. Almost every morning! I didn't know how good I had it... I didn't know how many kids were lucky if their mom bothered to get up and fix cereal and milk.

My mother loved her children openly and vigorously and unconditionally, and was the sweetest and kindest person I ever knew.

Dad never failed to come home from work; he never disappeared until midnight, never came home drunk hitting people. Never saw him drunk once. Never saw him drink. Rarely saw him lose his self-control.

He was a hard man, something of a perfectionist and a disciplinarian, and far from unstinting in his praise... but he was loving and took good care of us and if we grew up not knowing something it wasn't his fault.

We had to do chores and like most kids we didn't like it, but we did it and didn't dare grumble in Dad's presence. Along the way we learned how to do many things, and we learned how to work hard... this stood us all in good stead in adulthood.

I walked onto a new job as a young man once, and the foreman wasn't enthused about me as he set me to perform some menial tasks. I came back to his office an hour later and told him I was done, what did he want me to do next. His jaw hit the floor and he insisted on inspecting my work to see if I'd really done what he said already; when he saw that I had he gave me a .50/hr raise on the spot --- on my first day.

I didn't know what all the fuss was about honestly... I just did what my Dad had taught me to do, which was work hard and do it right.

I hadn't even realized up to then that all those chores had been more than just chores... my Dad was teaching me how to work and get ahead in life.


We weren't spoiled but we never lacked for anything we needed, and even had most of our reasonable wants satisfied by our fatherly provider.

My parents loved each other deeply and demonstrated it often. They were fiercely loyal to each other, and there was never any hint of unfaithfulness said of them anywhere in the community.

They modeled what being good people and good parents were for us.

I had no idea how good I had it. I loved my parents and appeciated them and did a lot for them when they got old and sick... but by golly if I'd realized what a wonder they were I would have worshipped the ground they walked on.

I've since met so many people who had parents that were mediocre if not selfish, mean and uncaring. Met so many people who grew up from broken homes.

So many young men these days who don't take care of their wives and children very well at all, lazy and shiftless bums who think they're too good to work whatever job they can get. Husbands who disappear all hours of the night getting into trouble, cheating, coming home drunk and mean.

So many young people today don't know HOW to be good people, or good parents... they grew up never seeing an example of it to follow, some of them want to be good parents but have no idea HOW. No one ever taught them, no one ever showed them by example.

How very sad that is.


My childhood had its rough parts but none of that was my parents fault; my life at home was practically Leave it to Beaver and Father Knows Best compared to so many these days.

Once, when I was grown and had a wife and child of my own to take care of, I went to my Dad and thanked him for working hard and taking care of his family and being there for us, and coming home every day to sit at the supper table with his wife and children instead of being out acting a fool. He told me "Son, as far as I was concerned, that's just what a man does."

That's just what a man does, he said. My God, so many young men need to hear that today.

If you had a good father, or a good mother, and they're still alive... go see them and tell them how much you appreciate them. I can't tell you how much I wish I could, but mine have passed on.

Apparently they just don't make 'em like that very often, anymore.