Flying Pat
My family has Dad legends.
Oh, the stories we have. To this day, I don’t parallel park. And my in-laws wear wide-eyed looks of shock when our families get together.
I don’t know if I can do the stories justice, and I know I can’t pick my favorite one. So I’ll share one every once in awhile and call them Pats.
Today I’ll share the Flying Pat, not to be confused with the Flying Dutchman.
My younger brother tried every trick and adventure known to rural Iowa youths in the seventies. Occasionally, he crossed a line, and my dad, like most of the dads in that generation, responded (you know, the ones who could freeze a child’s blood with “the look.”)
The rule infraction has been forgotten but the Flying Pat lives on in legend. The brother got busted, received the look and froze but somehow got his eyes free and made a heroic escape attempt.
He scrambled up and over a five foot stock gate and hit the ground running.
Dad, in six-million dollar man style, took off after him. It was beautiful to watch. Olympic style scoring would have been 9.9’s across the board even from ‘doesn’t play well with others’ countries. He soared into the blue and leapt over the fence. And landed on my brother.
Sweet.
Wishing you a free flying, soft landing kind of day.
