A Two Pitcher Night

"This hurts me more than it's going to hurt you," my Dad says taking his off belt with one hand and grabbing my wrist with the other.

Dad lied.

I hurt like Hell way more than he did when it was over.


It was Mrs. Johnson's fault for having the audacity to work late after school was long out to call my parents to discuss my classroom behavior ... EVEN WHEN I WASN'T IN CLASS!

Dad always claimed it made him cry but I never saw it jumping from my twin bed to my brother David's while Dad held my wrist in vice grip and hit with the belt.

Today, I could have him arrested but ... Dad's ruled back then.

We went through a real tough time after that.

He's raising an adolescent boy in the late 60s and early 70s and I'm questioning Authority, a mantra of the times and Dad was the ultimate authority!

Decades pass and we eventually make our way back to each other.

Home visiting, we escape the family to slip into a Bar to split a pitcher of beer.

I'm in Seminary which he doesn't understand and he's retired playing golf and cards most every day.

We talk for the first time in years ... about family, I had a son by then so a lot focused on him, Georgia football, people who were gone, good times ... bad times.

It ended up being a two pitcher night.

Afterwards as I grew older and he accelerated the rapid decline that is old age, we talked daily.

If life got in the way and the call didn't occur, he grew sullen and short with my Mom.

I ascend as he declines.

Once in the hospital, I help him pee into the plastic jug Hospitals charge $200 for when my son asked if I'm embarrassed.

"He held it for me when I was little. I'm just paying him back. Same as you're going to do for me one day."

"Gee! Thanks Dad," Jeremy groans.

That's what Father's Day really about though.

Dad's start the birthing process with receptive Mothers.

They do their best to be a parent which is always far more than bargained for though if they're lucky ... and their daughters and sons are blessed ... it goes full circle and we all learn it took everything we gave ... for them to be them ... and for us to be us.

Thanks Dad for kicking off my life.

Happy Father's Day Son.

Blessings to the Mothers who also filled Father's shoes!

Happy Day Everyone!
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Sunday at Bar Church is all about Father's Day though they wouldn't be without Mother's. You can't have one without the other and we don't discriminate! 
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Bar Church really needs some help from the non-Bar crowd. Tips and tithes can be made to

Tybee Church
P.O. Box 1511
Tybee Island, GA 31328

or clicking https://www.gofundme.com/tybeebarchurch

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Micheal is also available to conduct wedding services!