I’m Turning Into My Father

Copyright 2006 Jason Briscoe

The other day I was bringing in groceries from the car and Bacchus Jr. (BJ) wanted to help. He likes showing me how strong he is by lifting the 2 liter bottles and putting them into the pantry.

BJ: “See my muscles daddy.”

Me: “Wow they are getting bigger, you must be eating your vegetables and drinking your milk.”

This goes back and forth for a few minutes until he’s done, but today was a little different. I had just dropped off some packages and started making my way back to the garage and while my back was turned I heard this.

BJ: “See my muscles daddy; I can open the refrigerator all by myself.”

Me: “That’s great BJ, you are really getting strong.”

As I continued into the garage, I envisioned a foggy dreamlike image of the future. I saw BJ at the age of 17 bent at the waist and staring endlessly looking into the refrigerator. He wasn’t moving anything, just staring into the frig as though the food would jump out at him. I was seeing this from a distance and the first thing that came to mind was something my father used to say to me.

Dad: “Close it, or lose it.”

In other words, stop letting all the cold air out or I’ll lose my foot up your @#$%^%&. Yes, I was turning into my dad. My thoughts were becoming my dad's thoughts and that’s ok.

I guess this is just one of the many things most dads go through, but extremely enlightening to me. So I gathered up my groceries from the car and came back into the kitchen and found BJ no where in sight but the scene below.

Now that BJ is strong enough to open the refrigerator, we need to work on him being smart enough to close it.