When My Dad Was Little

A couple weeks ago, I posted my first children’s story, Song of Life. Here’s the second of my “nearly published…oh, guess not” picture books. As with Song of Life, When My Dad Was Little was inspired by interactions with my sister’s children. In this case, they were so young that realizing their mother is also my sister was a little mind-blowing for them. This led me to wonder how different, and yet similar, was their world compared to the one in which I grew up.

This one’s for my own Dad and Mom, in recognition of all their support “when I was little”…and since.

It’s hard to imagine, but my Dad used to be a boy just like me!

Things were way different back then, though.

When my Dad was little, Grandma and Grandpa were his Mom and Dad (and they still are).

Aunt Patty was his sister—and she teased him just like my sister teases me.

When my Dad was little, the mall across town was a huge, grassy field with cows in it, and the children’s museum was a crumbling old train station.

When my Dad was little, they didn’t have cell phones. Their phones were always plugged in and couldn’t leave the house.

And there weren’t any phones with cameras or games or even screens! To call somebody, you had to stick a finger in this circle with holes and turn it a bunch of times.

When my Dad was little, there were only four channels on TV. They didn’t have cable or satellite, DVDs or Blue-Ray. There were no remote controls, and you couldn’t record anything.

When my Dad was little, they didn’t have iPods or CDs. They had to listen to music on big plastic circles called records, or funny little boxes called cassettes or eight-tracks that they plugged into bigger boxes called stereos.

When my Dad was little, they had to look things up in these huge, heavy books called encyclopedias….

…because THEY DIDN’T HAVE COMPUTERS OR THE INTERNET!!

But some things are still the same.

When my Dad was little, he had to go to the doctor and the dentist, and he went to school—just like me.

His parents taught him how to ride a bike and play baseball.

They took him to the library, and to get ice cream.

When my Dad was little, his parents made him brush his teeth and clean his room.

Sometimes when I get in trouble, my Grandma winks and whispers to me, “Your father used to do the exact same thing!”

And at night, when my Dad was little, his parents would tuck him in and read him stories…

…just like my Mom and Dad do for me!