Today is my dad's birthday.
What to tell you about him that you don't already know.
You do know that I love my dad very much, so much so that I one time I almost got in a fist fight because someone was talking smack about him.
My dad worked on "The Friendship" the boat that left Portofino. One evening my dad invited me to go with him, the one & only time he wanted to fix someone up with me. I will admit the guy was HOT. BUT there was this other guy there, Brian. This guy did not like my dad, and quite frankly my dad wasn't too fond of him either. The guy was mad that my dad got to be the first mate, and he was the line handler (DUH! Brian couldn't pass the drug test). There was a couple snide comments before we left the dock that Brian made about my dad. I chose to ignore them.
We leave the dock, Jerk-Brian has to stay behind. We have a great time. Captain Johnny was not only hot, he had a great personality.
So... we come back to the dock, my dad does his cleanup thing, I stay with Johnny and Sammy, the other captain. Brian comes on the boat, apparently not having a clue who I am, and really starts bashing my dad. The Captains defend my dad, I say "maybe you should just stop saying stuff like that" or some kind of warning. And he keeps on, only it gets worse. Ok, that's it, the gloves are now off. I start totally ripping on the guy, he gets in my face and tells me to 'F Off'. So I start to tear after him, the two Captains old me back, (and yes, this is TOTALLY Jerry Springer, and BEFORE I was a total Christ follower), they tell Brian to leave before I kill him.
Its over. I still want to kill the guy, well, maybe just mame him a little. I have to call my dad and tell him, because in my mind, most likely he's going to lose the job, and I felt terrible. My dad, was like "He told you to F off?" "Yup" I answer, his reply "I'm going to go have a "talk" with the boy". I tell him I'm sorry, my dad seemed pretty proud (in a Jerry Springer sort of way) that I defended him. I told my dad if we wanted we could have the guy's car blown up before I got home with one phone call. My dad's reply "he doesn't have a car". And we laughed.
Moral of the story, don't mess with my dad. I love him more than I could describe.
Happy Birthday Bob!!
P.S. He kept the job, I still went out with Johnny (he wasn't that great).
Comments
I'm going to Portofino next week, now I'll think about this story every time I go!