Honoring Dad on His Day

Father's Day is again upon us, and it's time to remember Dad.

My dad lived to be 95 years old, and he's been gone 12 years in December, but I still miss him every day.

Even after I grew up and moved off the farm, he was still my best source for advice.

Not long ago, Sharon and I were remembering when he and Mom stopped at the radio station to say hello because they were in town, and he had a store ad in his hand. "If we bought you a lawnmower like this, would you be able to use it?"

Well, yes, we were very much able to use it. We had recently moved into our house and we didn't have a mower yet. I can still see that mower, and we used it for many years.

Dad's "suggestion" with another ad was how we got our extension ladder.

Now, I think dads these days get a raw deal in most forms of advertising--especially television.

Dad usually is a doofus of some kind, either incompetent or an overgrown child, and I don't think that's fair at all.

Of course, go back a few years and women got the same treatment, about such things as laundry ("Ring around the collar!"), bad coffee or bad cooking in general.

It wasn't fair. It never was. And Dad deserves better.

So here's to my beloved father, Lloyd Hetland (1906-2001) of Montrose, South Dakota.

I miss you, Dad.