from 2 peas: Share something you miss having from when you were a young child growing up.

hmmmm, my mom's cooking, eating together as a family w/my dad next to me. My dad was a burper..after a meal he'd let out a big ole belch, said it was to let my mom he enjoyed her meal. but I found it disgusting, so I used to make a little partition between us, using the salad dressing bottles and a napkin....oh the memories, and oh, I miss my daddy.

He's been gone a little over 15 years now, and there are some days I feel the loss like it was yesterday. It is amazing, how much your dad shapes about you...what is important to you, your self image and all, all just by being themselves.

I don't want to paint a 'rosy' picture here...if you were to ask me my song for my daddy, it would be Reba McIntyre's "The Greatest Man I Never Knew"...if he ever said he loved me, I don't remember it...I know I tried hard to make him proud of me...He was one of those dads in the 60's and 70's who was so caught up in his career (IBM programmer) , that parenting 3 little girls must have been foreign to him. I don't hold it against him, but I do think my values came from him, values of being educated, of integrity...but also my tendency to not be open with my emotions...to be a li'l guarded with people.

maybe that's why li'l things, like "burp walls" are such a good memory for me, cuz there just weren't that many...ya know?