A few years back, a good friend who I had known for awhile asked: “Are your parents no longer together? You talk about your mom and sister so often, but never mention your dad!” Quite to the contrary, my parents have been married 30 years next month, which is rare in a society plagued by divorce. But she was right, I don’t talk in depth about my dad a whole lot, not because I don’t love him to itsy-bitsy pieces, but because he himself is a man of few words (with three overly chatty females in your life, why bother expending more conversation than necessary?). And since action speak louder than words anyway, I don’t think my dad requires much explanation, other than this:
But I will say that you couldn’t ask for a funner father as a kid. He’s goofy, he’s lovable, he let us do as we pleased.
In fact, to this day, I don’t think he’s ever punished me (Kari either). Silently cunning as he is, he left all the spanking to my mom. And we were both — still are — total daddy’s girls.
He’s always been a soft-spoken, good-looking and charming man (despite his Alabama roots), and it’s funny to see women turn their heads when he enters the room. He looks like a cross between Italian and Spanish — and our last name being Luna, either could be true — but alas, we’ve traced our family tree back 200 years to find…Tennessee and Alabama. Yawn, I know. And he’s a complete soft-hearted do-gooder, which sometimes works as a disadvantage to him — he doesn’t know how to say no, and thus ends up getting himself in a pickle more often than not.
Like the rest of our family, my dad is very passionate about animals (which is probably how we ended up taking in 17 stray cats over the years, despite my mom and my extreme allergies to felines). In fact, he won’t so much as watch a movie where an animal is harmed in any way and gets right up and walks out of the theater anytime one (fictitiously) dies (guess a family holiday viewing of Marley & Me is out!). As a result, the animals, they flock to him.
Dad’s never met a drink he didn’t like. And he gets offended if the rest of the family doesn’t join in (note: The picture below was taken two-and-a-half years ago, and Kari still isn’t legal). I remember when we were in Florida on vacation: I was just 18 and the bartender refused to serve me. My dad was livid: “She’s my daughter, and if I say she can have a margarita, she can have a margarita!” It’s one of the few times I’ve heard him raise his voice.
His attachment to beer (and his staple of scotch and water) makes for some humorous nights indeed.
Two of my close childhood friends have lost their fathers in the past couple weeks, both of whom were barely 50 years young. If you don’t think this makes me appreciate my own dad even more, you’d be wrong. So happy birthday, Daddy; here’s to 57 more!
P.S. On a more fun note, if you haven’t entered the Benefit Cosmetics contest, get thee there right now and do so…you have until Friday!
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Your dad sounds like a great guy! Two of my friends have lost their parents recently and it defintiley makes me so thankful for my own parents
Aren’t dads just the greatest?! Love all the pictures.
I think all us southern girls are daddy’s girls at heart!
p.s. I’m (sadly) allergic to cats, too!
what an awesome post for your dad! its nice to find another daddy’s girl – my dad is hands down one of my best friends (along with my mom). it hit me recently that he’s getting older and i should be grateful for the time i have with him. thanks again for the reminder
Happy Birthday to your papa!
What a sweet post! Your dad looks so fun!
My dad rocked the mustache too!
I totally fell in love with your dad in this post! Happy birthday. Mr. Luna!
And he’s lucky to have kids like you who know how good they’ve got it!
Now I see where you get your tan!
I love the picture of him dancing and you and Kari cracking up. My sister and I would do EXACTLY the same thing.
Happy Birthday, Mr. Luna!
Didn’t you inherit the big ol’ feet from him, too? You have a lot to thank that side of the gene pool for.
This is really sweet. And I love all the pictures!
This is so sweet. My dad is soft-spoken too, but when he does say something he means every word. It makes all of those “speeches” when I was off to college, or at my wedding that much more important! I hope his birthday is grand!
What a sweet post. Your dad sounds awesome, and you look a lot like him
Rockin post. Rockin Dad. Nuff said!!
I love my daddy, too. And yours is so young! Lucky you. And lucky him to have such a cool daughter, too!
CPAs love their drinks- in fact, one of my accounting professors once told me that it stands for certified party animal. Har, har. If you are still curious about your family origins, you might want to try having your DNA tested. National Geographic has a study called the Human Genome Project. You send in a cheek swab and they tell you about your maternal line’s genetic heritage. I participated in the study thinking that we had Native American blood somewhere back in the day- to my surprise, it turned out to be Sephardic Jewish ancestry.
Happy Birthday to your Dad!
i love this post. your dad sounds awesome!
i wish i was close to my dad!
Aww! Dads are awesoeme. I love the pic of you and your sister laying on him.
I’m such a sucker for Dads in mustaches; my dad wore one for all of his life and I always thought he looked rather dashing in it. I love that softball picture, and I totally had those same little plastic barrettes your dad is sporting in the first picture!
Awww, Happy B-day Gregory. He never punished me either, unlike Sweenie who grounded both of us for ‘calling Kari a turd.’
See you in 2 weeks, ahhhhhhhh!!!!!