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the first time i ever heard my dad say the f word.
two weeks after getting my drivers license i took my friend to get his. on the way home i decided to show off my lack of driving skills. i was either really good at fish-tialing or really bad. mailboxes were no match for the mustang. except for the last one mounted on a 4 inch steel pipe cemented a good 3 feet into the ground. why the hell would someone install a mailbox to survive nuclear holocaust? the car came to a stop rocking on the pole like a teeter totter.
i had to call dad to come and pick us up. that's when he should have used the f word but didn't.
saturday my dad and i went to fix what I had done. it was the hottest day in august. i was 16 and completely useless with a hammer, shovel or any other tool necessary to make the repairs. i ended up standing around watching my dad dig a hole for the new mailbox. he stopped digging for a moment to rest. leaning on the shovel he slowly looked up at me.
"it's really fucking hot out here, ... isn't it?"
uuuuuuuuuuuuuuugh, i never felt so useless in my life. the guilt of my dad fixing my mistake was overwhelming. he could have dog cussed me for a week and it wouldn't have had half the impact. i still wonder if that was by design.
Posted by griff at June 06, 2002 02:31 AM