A Day For Fathers

Happy day-after Fathers' Day to all the fathers out there.

For FatherBlog, it was his 63rd as a dad. TigerBlog got to spend the day yesterday with his father and his brother, who was in from Seattle, and he cannot even begin to remember the last time the three of them were together on Fathers' Day. 

Given how long ago he lost his mother (coming up on 30 years) and how many others have lost parents way too soon, TB will never take for granted spending time with his father. He's closing in on 89 years old, and TB would describe him as a car with 250,000 miles on it where the engine still works well though it does have more than its share of dings and dents.

For all of the ups and downs that parents and children have in their relationships through the years, TigerBlog can't remember ever going more than a week or so without speaking to his father on the phone.

Actually, in addition to that, he can't remember a time when FB didn't start a phone conversation without saying "what's the news and the views?" It's catchy.

For TigerBlog, it was his 27th. TigerBlog Jr.'s due date was actually Fathers' Day but instead he was born a few days later, so TB had to wait a whole year to be a father on Fathers' Day.

TB was happy that he spent last weekend with his kids and that they have turned out the way they have. He will often stop and tell himself how lucky he is in that regard, and in many regards.

TB's colleague Elliott Carr just celebrated Fathers' Day No. 1, after the recent birth of his son Leon. Elliott sent TB a few pictures, including one where he was watching Australian Rules Football (Leon is half Australian) and another where Elliott was reading to him from a book called "Quantum Physics for Babies." 

Now that's a great title. And here's a great quote: 

"Nice thing about having 38 sports is there will plenty of sports to introduce him to."

With any luck, Elliott and his wife Colleen, who works for the Ivy League office, will get to see Leon grow up the way TB and so many others who have worked at Princeton got to see their kids grow up — on Princeton's campus, attending Princeton sporting events, living the Princeton dorms at summer sports camps.

It's impossible to overstate just how much the campus helped shape the lives of so many kids that TB had the joy to see there alongside his own. The DiGregorio boys. The Levy kids. Mary Sutton (though that's not her married name). The list goes on and on.

There used to be an armory where the Frick Chemistry Building now stands. Among its other uses, it was the home for the ROTC program. And, additionally, the Princeton Band. 

When it was torn down to make way for the new building, TBJ was probably around six years old or so. TB remembers when his son, upon learning of this, said this to then-Director of Athletics Gary Walters:

"There are already a lot of science buildings. Where is the band going to put their stuff?"

TB hopes that Elliott gets to have the kinds of moments that he has had all those years ago.

The overwhelming majority of athletes who compete at Princeton, of course, did not grow up in town. Hey, they missed out on something special.

It's always great for TB to see the athletes he worked with here when they come around with their own children. It's a bit freaky when some of them, like Jack Crockett and Ellie and Cooper Mueller, for instance, actually come and play here. 

He's always said that he would feel old when that happened. And yes, perhaps that is true a bit.

More than that, though, it makes him happy to see something that incredible. 

So Happy Fathers' Day a day later, to them and to everyone. 

If you are like TB, then you realize that being a father is the best thing you've ever done.