In honor of the upcoming Father’s Day holiday, Deidre Green shares some of her favorite memories of her dad.
When I was a young girl, growing up in Sydney, Australia, my dad would bicycle to work and he would sometimes take me with him. He’d place me on top of the handlebars, telling me to “hold-on-tight” as he peddled slowly.
My dad gave me my first job, sweeping up the cedar-wood shavings from the floor of his shed for sixpence. Once swept into a pile, I would take a running leap, landing on the wood heap and whooshing the shavings up into the air. Thankfully, my dad found this amusing; once done, however, I would clean the floor again.
One evening when the bicycle wasn’t working, we walked home. As we passed the last shops, we spied an old dog, shivering in the shadows. My dad purchased a can of food and offered it to the dog. Even as a youngster, I knew my dad could ill-afford that can of food, however, it was a gesture I never forgot.
During World War II in Sydney, we practiced air-raid drills within our community. My dad would always take our two pet birds in their cage with us to the air-raid shelter.