Weekend Contest in honor of dear old dad ended

[sunshinecindy]

Post in this thread one of your favorite memories of either your dad, or an uncle, or a grandfather.

Entries can be submitted through Monday morning at 8:00 am EST.

I'll select one winner for a Sunshine Rewards prize package.

[29apr00]

my grandfather was a pilot (not a professional.....he just flew his own planes) and I remember he had a Skyote that he used to own when I was little.......he would take us up one by one (there was only 1 seat in the plane so we sat on his lap) and he'd fly us all over town and show up buildings and parks and our house from up in the air. It was so amazing, back then most of my friends hadn't even been in a regular airplane, let alone a small personal byplane like this! He did a roll with us when I was 9 or 10.....mom said we weren't allowed to fly with him after that.

He's retired to FL now......still flies when he can.....80 yrs old.

Happy Father's Day Grandpa!

[iluvamystery89]

my grandfather was my hero. to him, i was always "donya khristi burton tallent paw-paw's girl", and as a little girl, i went places with him all the time, and was always prompted to tell everyone my "name". as i got older, and got married, he started calling me christopher, in place of my middle name (which i don't go by, but he could call me whatever he wanted), and eventually, for some reason that i will never know, added the word "jones", and i was, to him, "christopher jones", which became shortened to "jonesy". he always called me jonesy, and my daughter was his twinkletoes, which was promptly shortened to "twinks". where he got these names, i'll never know, but he died in 2003, and honestly, i would give everything i own to hear him call me "jonesy" one more time.

[StitchandPooh'smom]

My father had Frank Sinatra blue eyes, and they twinkled whenever he teased me. He died 15 years ago, but my DD11 has his eyes. Everytime she is in a good mood instead of suffering from pre-teen angst, I see his smile in her eyes and I thank God that He gave those beautiful eyes to my daughter so I can still feel my father's love as well as my daughter's. I wish my kids could have met him - every silly bone in their bodies is thanks to their granddad!

[secretmoney]

I truly have the best father. When my sisters and I were young, he always had time for us. If he went somewhere and we wanted to come, we were always welcome. My favorite memory happened one evening when I was young. My sisters and I must have done something wrong and my mother sent us to bed. As she was stomping down the stairs, my dad (who clearly didn't think that we deserved it) was stomping up them and promptly released us from our rooms. When he let all 3 of us slide down the banister, I thought that she was going to kill him! Now he's a great- grandpa, slower as he gets around (both of my parents had strokes a month apart about 6 years ago) but I will always remember the way he made me feel wanted and important. I love him.

[fourfoxesinpa]

Back in the early 1960s, my dad was in a very popular regional DooWop band. One of their covers was "Blue Velvet." Whenever the group performed on a weekend afternoon, Mom would go watch the band and bring us kids along. On those special afternoons, I had a little blue velvet Polly Flinders dress that I would wear and would stand up on stage with Dad. When I got married many years later, I surprised Dad by finding a recording of his band's rendition of Blue Velvet for our father-daughter dance.

[cjnix32]

This may seem a little odd and twisted....but hey, it's my memory, right?! It involves my dad, my uncles and my grandfather. My dad's parents died within 7 hours of each other. No accident or anything. Grandpa died in the middle of the night, and came back 7 hours later to get Grandma. They were married for 65 years and did everything together. I was in college at the time and came home for the week. My dad and his brothers were a wreck, and I ended up making the funeral arrangements. Well, with one exception. We were all sitting with the funeral director, and he started talking about cost. The funeral director started talking about discounts depending on how soon you paid the balance in full. So my uncles started asking how much of a discount if they paid it in 10 days, or that day. Then my dad asked the ultimate question....since it was a funeral for both my grandparents....could they get it as a buy one get one free!!! Funny thing is, my grandfather..who never paid full price for anything, certainly was looking down on us smiling. love you grandpa!

[Iteach]

My Dad died very young at 59 and I was 3 months pregnant with my only child at the time. It was hard, but eventually all the wonderful memories returned to enjoy. There is one memory that is still so vivid. My dad was the president of a bank that built a new building. They moved out of the mall they were in and into the new building. In the process of moving everything from one building to the other, the vault was one of the last things to be moved. It was done in the middle of the night, 3 AM. My dad had to be there and he took me with him. I will never forget that time with him. It seems like only yesterday.

[kristenrice]

I am pretty sure that I am in the running for the person with the "World's Greatest Dad".

My parents took us (me, my younger brother and sister) to WDW four times as children. When I grew up, I rekindled my love of Disney and wanted to plan my own trip as an adult. I started saving for it and finally saved up enough to take myself and my boyfriend. Well, we decided that it would be fun to drive so we invited my mom and dad to come along. We ended up spending 7 nights in a 2BR at OKW (at RACK RATE, because I didn't know any better back then) and had a ball. In fact, my "boyfriend" and I got engaged on that trip and returned a year later (2002) for our honeymoon.

Ok, back to the part about my dad...

He enjoyed himself so much on his first stay at OKW, that right then and there, he decided that he wanted to come back and share it with the WHOLE family. So, he said that in 2012, he is taking our entire family (3 kids, 3 kids-in-law and 6, maybe 7, grandkids) to WDW for a week. Yup, count 'em....14 people! He told us that he is paying for our airfare, a week at OKW, our park passes and our food.

We were never spoiled as children. In fact, mom and dad led a very simple, frugal lifestyle. We ate out once a month as a special treat. We participated in a lot of sports and dad even coached a few of our teams. As kids, we always thought that we were being "deprived" because we didn't get the latest clothing or the coolest gadgets. We were brought up in a very budget-minded family. Which is why this whole Disney trip is SO generous of my dad. He NEVER would have spent this kind of money on "just a vacation" in the past. He is 62 years old so he still had a lot of living left to do. He told us that he wants to enjoy his retirement and treat us to this trip while he is still physically and financially in a position to enjoy it. So, it really isn't a great "memory" of my dad, but it still shows what a great dad I have. I can't wait until June 2012!

[lswheatly]

I have many wonderful memories of my day. To be honest, we are more like brother and sister. We joke together, we laugh together. My fondest memery of my dad would have to be when I moved 2 hours away from him. We figured out a way to still stay in touch. So every Monday we would "speakerphone" each other and watch our favorite show, 24, together.
Now that they show is now over, we are going to re-watch the season all over again and will do it on Mondays as we had done in the past.