how to have a happy (grand)father's day

1. Put on suit, grab sheet music, and play steady Sunday morning church gig in Dunwoody.

2.  Come home and toss sweet potatoes in the oven, dress in Marlon Brando outfit ("Stella!"), right down to a well-loved old tee-shirt (don't tell me you don't know and love someone who won't throw out a beloved, comfortable shirt even when it's a rag??) and sprawl on the couch to read while potatoes cook and wife taps away on 1966 novel in pink chair nearby.

3.  Be wished a loving, ebullient, full-frontal Happy Father's Day! by grand-dog you are babysitting.

4.  Love that dog!
 Ha! After a run outdoors, they settled down happily together, Elvis the poodle and Jim the musician, waiting for the sweet potatoes, and maybe even a little something more... a little brown rice to go under the stir fry of summer vegetables.
 Happy Father's Day, all. I often say "We are one another's mothers." Are we also one another's fathers? Dunno. I have never been a man, or a husband, but in my research for this 1966 book, I'm reading a lot about the women's movement of the sixties, and I stumbled across this fabulous short essay by Judy Syfers called "Why I Want a Wife."

Whoo! It makes me laugh! It makes me sit up and take notice! And rethink this Father's Day thing, or at least the relationships between men and women. This essay was published in the first issue of Ms. Magazine in 1971. I can't use it in Hang The Moon, book two of the sixties trilogy, but I'm certainly using the bubbling feelings from women in the sixties that led to this essay.

Okay. Time to check the sweet potatoes. I'm spending the day solidly in 1966. Draft due tomorrow. I'm in the pink chair for the duration.

2 comments:

  1. On Father's Day, I finally picked up Countdown again. Finishing the school year well made me put it down, so I'd actually get some work finished rather than read!

    After two hours sitting on the deck at the beach, I've come back from an adventure in the 60's. The book is amazing! I'm in awe of how the words painted such a picture of that period of time and how the pictures added to that! I was born in 69 so this time period has always intrigued me because it was "recent past." I look forward to sharing this book with my mom. I have ideas as to how this needs to be a grandmother/grandchild book club book.
    Now how to make this happen!?!?

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  2. Oh, thank you so much!
    I totally agree about the grandmother/granddaughter or grandparent/grandchild read aloud connection. I have seen so many grandmother and granddaughter book clubs spring up around LOVE, RUBY LAVENDER, and I know how powerful and bonding they can be. It's so important to share our stories. Thanks for writing.

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