As we celebrate Father's Day 2017 I'm reminded of something.
The first home based console we had growing up was the Atari 2600, and my Father became The Master of fixing broken joysticks! It wasn't that the controllers were poorly built, as a matter of fact for the time that this system was released these controllers were fairly durable. No my Dad became the master of fixing the Atari joysticks because of the constant and consistent abuse these controllers had to endure at the hands of myself and my two older siblings.
We took our games of Frogger, PAC-MAN, and Pitfall seriously!
We would receive stiff warnings about treating our belongings better, would be reminded of how expensive these devices were to replace, and would even be threatened with "If you keep breaking these then I'm gong to stop fixing them!" but we kept breaking them, and Dad kept fixing them.
Eventually each of us graduated from the Atari to our own personal computers, the Commodore Vic 20 was the first of many to cross our front door, and once again our father was there to support us with our never-ending computer needs.
It began with buying a few cartridge based games that we could play, but games were just as expensive in the 80's as they are today. So after much debate with my mother, off Dad went to the store and when he came back he held in his hand the secret to our gaming salvation, at the time anyways - The Datasette!
Armed with this new device, and a copy of Compute Magazine, Dad took on the task of teaching himself basic programming skills. Every issue of Compute would come with pages upon pages of instructions for programming a basic game for your Vic 20, it was tedious data entry but Dad would do it just the same.
His time-consuming efforts equaled new games for us, so we didn't complain and once again Dad became a master - this time at programming.
As the years continued to turn we each eventually graduated to new hardware, first the Commodore 64, than the Commodore Amiga, and finally the PC as we know it today - and our father was always there to support us, to lend a hand were needed.
It wasn't until years later when I had children of my own that I began to realize why Dad had become so involved in something that he seemed to have no real interest in, it was about teaching us the lessons of love, the lessons that a father strives to pas onto his children.
For myself and my siblings it was about gaming, for our father it was about showing us that you can do anything you set your mind to, learn to fix a joystick, learn to program, keep up with ever-changing technologies, change careers mid-way through your working life, start your own business.
There is a fair age difference between myself and my sister, nine years, between myself and my eldest brother there is a eleven year age difference, my father was celebrating his 43rd year when I was born - this is a time when most parents are preparing to send their children off to post-secondary education as opposed to thinking about the first day of kindergarten again.
My Dad lived life by his rules, not the rules society placed upon him, and in his own way he tried to teach his three children to do the very same thing. This is our first fathers day without Dad, he passed away just after fathers day last year having had a hard-fought battle with terminal bladder cancer.
I expect this to be a difficult day but it will conclude a year of firsts for our family.
To those of you reading this, cherish the time you have with your fathers, learn both their rules for life and whatever else they are willing to teach you, say whats in your heart because at times life can be a cruel game and you may not get this opportunity again next year.
I wish you and your family a very happy and healthy fathers day weekend, please remember to follow us at cangeek.com.
Thanks for reading.
