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Show Thank heavens Dad had a girl farm He is the first to read the paper at night and the last to see the bathroom in the morning. He likes Saturday night wrestling. And most of the time he watches t.v. with his grassroots $ ' ' Copyright ' ; i - ft,. ' &i986 - 1 ' - I Becky PI ' 4 Grass 1 ) Johnson by BKCKI GRASS JOHNSON eyes closed. Dads are like that . Dads come in all shapes and sizes. He carries things in his pockets like quarters and sticks of gum. Dads can patch a bicycle tire in record time and chase midnight monsters from the closet. It is hard to imagine that anyone would be flattered if they were told they resembled something that was wrinkled, bald and toothless. But just tell a dad that his brand new baby looks "just like him" and watch his chest swell three sizes. It is easy to pick out dad at the hospital. He's the one striding down the hall with an oversized teddy bear in one hand and a pair of cowboy boots in the other. You can find him outside the nursery window giving some fatherly counsel through the glass. And if anyone should ask which baby is his. he'll smuelv answer, "The cute one." Dads are notorious for showing off pictures of their kids. He takes videos of the first step, kindergarten graduation, piano recitals and the , first date. And now, thanks to modern medical technology you must beware the dad whose expectant ex-pectant wife has had a sonogram. He will show you candid shots of the fetus at 27 weeks. He can tell you how many centimeters around the head is. He can show you a close up of junior's kidneys. (And you thought home movies were boring! ) Out of a chorus line of fifteen dancing marigolds, a dad can im--mediately spot his own daughter. Dads are like that. "Look at that graceful whirl. She gets it from my side of the family," he'll say to the people seated behind him. "She dances like, a young Ginger Rogers." (Actually the movements are more like that of a young Roy Rogers.) . A dad cheers his head off over junior's home run and can out yell any ref provided. Most dads like to sit close to the field so they can give lots of advice to the coach. And when it comes to wrestling, a dad will go through the same knots and contortions as his son on the mat. (Meanwhile, the rest of the family sits on a different bleacher and pretends they have no idea who the man is.) My dad is the father of six girls. And if he ever showed up at the breakfast table with band-aids nlaslerpd tn his tana I L.,-,o,,, tv,i In Dad's razor. I I used to watch my Dad brand cattle. I liked the smell of the smoke and . the excitement of hanging around the corral. After a long days work and every steer proudly wore the G-F brand, I asked what the G-F meant. . , al Dad told me it stood for "Girl's Farm" and that if one of the cattle strayed, any farmer in the surrounding area would knowwl belonged to. It was a few years afiet that when I figured out that G-F I really stood for Grass Farm. ' I'm sure there were times whet Dad was sick and tired of steppin? on stray curlers in the dark a nylons hanging in the bathroom, f he always said he wouldn't tradeo T ' of his girls for six sons. And through ( the years I've discovered that to 1 dad, the only thing better, smart ( and cuter than his kids, are W grandkids. Gr Dads can spin some very " dreams . . . dreams that we have" grow into. fc on Thank heavens for the Dad w can see beyond the dancing flo costume! He doesn't see our F a formance in a grade school opere but instead imagines us in our fl hour at Radio City 3ll Hall . . . unless of course we snw , 1 trip and fall off the stage. the Then he'll nonchalantly shrug sj? shoulders and explain to the pe; sitting next to him, "She gets , fVrvi har mnthor'c QlHe. ftlit |