My Favorite Father's Day

Hi,

As I mentioned before, I enjoy doing things for other people more than having them done for me.

With Father's Day coming up next month, it occurred to me that you may be thinking about how to celebrate the holiday with your Dad. I thought that you might get some ideas if I shared with you my favorite Father's Day . . . and described how I pulled it off on a tiny budget.

I had just finished my freshman year in college a few weeks earlier and was home in San Bernardino for the summer. I had earned a scholarship that covered almost all of my tuition that was paid for by my Dad's employer, the Santa Fe Railway. They had kindly helped me also by giving me a job for the summer this year . . . earning a lot more than I could have on my own. For comparison purposes, a job at McDonald's (yes, we had McDonald's . . . they were started in San Bernardino) paid 70% less per hour.

Then I got a big break. I was offered an even higher paying job at the railroad to start the day after Father's Day. But I had to work for free for several days to qualify for the job . . . including Father's Day!

I was torn. I really wanted the better job. I knew my Dad was really proud of me for having gotten a chance to do this work. But I also wanted to be with my Dad and honor him on Father's Day. In fact, I had been planning to do so for months . . . having invested over $7 in a pair of tickets at Dodger Stadium for a key game that afternoon. We both loved baseball, and we both adored the Dodgers.

Dad was great about it. He said I should skip Father's Day and we could go to another ball game. I tossed and turned for several nights, unable to sleep very well.

At the end, I made my decision . . . I would go to the game with Dad! Relieved that I had made this hard decision, I shared my decision with my boss at the railroad. He told me not to come back if I didn't take this job. They wouldn't be able to help me find another one.

Now, I felt like I had really put my foot in it. I didn't want to hurt my Dad's position at his job, and I needed the money.

But having told Dad we were going to the game, I decided to stick with my decision.

The day dawned bright and sunny and mild. We had a nice breakfast that Mom prepared and headed off to the game. I had a little extra money so I also bought gas for Dad and paid for the parking. That brought my expenses to over ten dollars. Wow! At the game, I also bought Dodger dogs and soft drinks . . . so the final cost soared to over thirteen dollars.

We had a ball. I felt proud of myself, and Dad could see how much I really loved him. From that day onward, we were even closer than ever before.

In subsequent years, we repeated that outing many times . . . going to other Dodger games . . . and even lots of Super Bowls (I'll write about how to attend Super Bowls inexpensively another time).

I wish I had had more decisions like that one . . . because I made the right choice.

How did my summer employment work out? Well, I didn't make much money that summer. So I looked for a better job with more hours when I got back to school. As a result, I started working for the university alumni magazine . . . a job that helped launch my successful business career. So I was rewarded twice. God was good to me.

If you've had great Father's Day experiences either as a daughter or son . . . or as a Father, please share them with me. I'm very likely to be able to use them in future articles for magazines . . . or possibly even in Live Better than a Billionaire on Five Dollars Extra a Day.

Enjoy Father's Day!

Donald W. Mitchell, Your Dream Concierge

Copyright 2005 Donald W. Mitchell