three little girls and their dad

 

My Dad had no sons. He was an avid outdoorsman. We liked to follow along behind him.
And so we: hunted, fished. We climbed trees. We swung from them  on tire swings and board swings and ski ropes.
We gigged frogs. We rode in and sometimes drove dune buggies.
We baited trotlines and own hooks. We seined bait.
We water skied until we were made to give someone else a turn.
We drove boats and paddled them. We could back a trailer and/or pull a boat onto it well before any of us were in junior high. He taught us all to drive a standard automobile.
We are all good shots, whether with a gun or a bow and arrow. My archery talents were noted one summer at Camp Secola when I won the camp outstanding archer award. I was so proud to bring my award home to show Daddy.
We all liked making him proud which is why we strived to excel at those things he liked to do.
We loved it when Daddy let us help him reload shot gun shells.  We loved doing whatever he liked to do. It was fun to us.
We could be girly girls/ We had tea parties under a certain mimosa tree 
and played wedding dress up wearing Mama's old formals.
But not when daddy was around.
When Daddy was around we were rough and tumble. A lot of the skills we developed following him around the garden and the lake and the sand dunes and the river banks and the deer woods have served us well even as adults.
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