My Daddy

 

My Daddy

For feature Friday I am writing about my hero, my daddy.  First, off I am sick at my stomach because I can not find my favorite picture of my dad and me.  It is of me giving him a kiss in the front seat of his old blue pick up truck.  I am two or three years old and he is wearing his white felt cowboy hat.  (It was the 70s and that was the style.) I am hoping that it is at my parents house.  The top picture is of him giving me my diploma at graduation because he was on the school board at the time.  The second one was at my wedding.  It is the best picture we got together.  My photographer was one of my biggest regrets of my wedding but that is for another post.  You can still see how handsome he is in this picture. 

When I was growing up I always thought my daddy was the best looking man I knew and I was going to marry someone just like him.  He was a cowboy with his beautiful Stetson hats and boots.  He picked out my name, Nocona just like the boots.  He always said I was the most beautiful little girl in the world and needed a name that fit me and set me apart.  He has always called me Precious or still greets me with a "hello beautiful daughter."  Growing up he would put his thumb up to us and say, "Your Thumb Body."

Daddy always encouraged us that we were special and could do anything that we set our minds to.  He was the most frustrated when we made excuses or let fear stop us from doing something we wanted to do.  He was never angry at us for falling short he would get angry if we did not try our best.  He was the best at making us laugh when we were hurt or disappointed.  Now don't get me wrong he was no push over and was one of the strictest dads around.  I could not wear a stitch of make up until the day I turned 13. Was not allowed to car date until the day I turned 16.  He was a baptist deacon in the strictest form and I was not allowed to go to a school dance until the 8th grade prom and I had to fight to go to the after football game dances on Friday nights in highschool.  I could not have a bikini until my Sr. year.  I only got that because he used it as a bribe to get me to try to enjoy or summer vacation that I did not want to go on.  There were times I was sent back up stairs to change my shorts because they were too short. 

But, he was fun.  He embarrassed me in Jr. high by dancing in the car to, James Brown's "I Feel Good."  Then as he would drop me off in parking lot he would honk and wave yelling "bye Nocona" out the window.  He honked over bridged when he was driving to keep the trolls from coming out from underneath.  When we were little my mother quit letting him come with us to the grocery store because he would pop wheelies with the basket and get us way to hyper in the store. I think that was his plan all along. 

In highschool he had names for all of the guys I dated.  The Weasel, the Ugly One, The Little Guy, Smiley, even the drum major I dated was the "Head Band Nerd." He has always called Darin, Derwood. (From Bewitched).  He was the dad that cleaned his gun while a guy was over watching a movie once.  He reminded one that he was a hunter and shot things.  He would send my brothers out to wait for me on the porch when I was coming home from a date. 

My dad says he is practical. My mother and I call him cheep.  I wanted to go to a private Christian school and I got the talking to of comparing 65 cent black coffee from the gas station to an expensive late from Starbucks.  It was still coffee.  But, I eventually got to go to UMHB and graduated with out debt because he provided us with one degree on him.  He was my encourager to finish school and see it through when school was hard for me.  He was also the one who would point out the pink Cadillac when we would see them.  Even as a teenage he would tell me about Mary Kay.  My daddy is a salesman and has always been the top for whatever company he worked for.  I have learned so much from him.  He taught me that attitude was everything and he reminds me to keep emotions out of sales.  Growing up when my attitude got bad I had to read, Zig Zigglar's How to Win Friends and Influence People, and Florence Lithour's Silver Boxes.  Growing up if we spoke ugly to each other or negative he would always say "What did you have to gain by that?" I found myself repeating that to my son the other day.  One day my mother was listening to me talk to a customer as I upgrading the sale  closed it.  She told me when I got off that I sounded just like my dad.  That was the biggest compliment I could have gotten.  Last year when I was really working my Mary Kay business my dad gave me the loan to purchase my inventory.  He was the first one I called when I won my car and earned my first diamond ring.  He is the one that advised me not to take the Pontiac G6 and go for the cash option because it was not the Cadillac yet.  One of my greatest motivations to finishing directorship to get to hear that he is proud of me.  I can't wait to pick up my first Pink Cadillac and drive it over to his house.  I love my husband with all of my heart.  But, I had a hard time when I got married.  I did not want to change my last name because I always wanted to be known as a Helm girl and for people to know that I was Steve Helm's daughter.  My daddy has given my brother's and I a legacy of a strong foundation of Jesus Christ, with an instilled belief of confidence that we can do anything.  He was and is the greatest Daddy in the world. (Now he has just added greatest Grandpa to that too.)