Experience has shown us that men who are the happiest and most content in their masculine role today are those whose fathers invested a great deal of time and energy in their lives. Here are a few memories of my dad and me growing up on the east coast of Canada, in Cape Breton, Nova Scotia.
A very special time in the MacNamara household growing up was the “BUCK hunt”; deer hunting was one of my Dad’s favorite activities to do. My Dad always made opening day for the buck hunt exciting for my brothers and me. He would tell us hunting stories weeks and weeks before opening day, and this would get us boys really FIRED UP! My Dad would tell us how all the people up where he went hunting would line the streets and look out their windows waving white towels signaling that the “Great White hunter” has arrived. I remember being around 7 or 8 and we would stay up late with Da, that night before opening day, cleaning his gun, making sure his hunting clothes did not smell clean, he would explain the deer would catch his clean scent and be spooked away. We would make him sandwiches and get small snickers bars for him to eat while in the woods. The BIG buck stories would come out and we could not sleep all night in anticipation of him getting the ‘Big one”. My brother Brian and I would wait all day with excitement, to the point our teachers would ask us why we are daydreaming or what is distracting us, waiting to hear the news if our Dad got a Buck that day.
My dad taught me so many great life lessons while taking me hunting with him:
1. Patience
2. Even when prepared, sometimes you do not win, but being unprepared you never win
3. Survival – if you get lost
4. Gamesmanship
5. Respect the woods (Environment)
6. Dreaming – when hunting long enough your imagination kicks into high gear and u can pretty much, make a tree look like a deer. LOL.
When we would come home from school, we would not go far from the house because we would be waiting for Da to pull into the yard with the BIG BUCK. When he landed home with that deer, we would be SO excited, he would start telling us about the entire day from the moment the people saluted him to the hard drag out of the woods, (my dad got three hernias from pulling out big deer LOL). Thank you Da for making these childhood moments so memorable for us, your still one of the best storytellers I know fact or fiction.
Another great memory I have is a baseball story, I love to this day baseball, I still get emotional when teams fight and win the World Series. It is my all-time favorite sporting moments. My dad would always have a baseball bat and glove for us to play with. Our back yard was the community baseball field, God Bless my mother, for her patience with us kids. My dad allowed us to paint a home plate on the basement outside wall of our house. Da taught me how to catch, throw, hit, and field, he taught me all the aspects of the great game. My brother Brian and I would play baseball in our back yard until complete darkness. We played a lot of baseball and we both became good ball players. One of my favorite memories in baseball was when my brother won the most improved player for his team and I won the most valuable player for mine at our annual banquet. I remember the look on Da’s face when he seen our two trophies, he was so proud of us, I cried for my brother cause he tried so hard to improve his game. I was super proud of my younger brother for winning that trophy. I think that was a special day for my dad, to see his two sons take home the hardware!
An additional baseball story, which I believe, shaped my future view of myself. At a young age my dad convinced/influenced me to go try out for the provinces best baseball team, all these players were known all over town and school as being the best baseball players in our province. Practice started weeks before the season opened, my Dad would drive me, and three of my friends to ball practice every day. When these 3 boys left the car I remember being so nervous and embarrassed then my dad said to me, ” Wayne, your just as good as every ball player on that field, go show them that you know how to play this game, you WILL make this team”. That vote of confidence and 30 second conversation from my Dad has shaped my life. He has always believed in me, I never remember a time in my life my Dad saying you are not good enough. I made that team and that year all 16 players voted me their team MVP. I remember seeing my Mom and Dad at that banquet and watching my Dad’s eyes as the team head coach called out my name as the most valuable player. I want to say thank you to my awesome father for always believing in me. My Dad is the best Dad I could ever hope for growing up.
One last memory I will share with you, I have so many awesome memories I could spend all day doing this.
My Dad is a fighter, he cares and loves his wife (Debbie my amazing Mother) unconditionally, and he loves all his children and grandchildren. When I was a little boy, I do not remember how old but I do remember my Dad breaking his wrist and getting a cast put on it. This cast was big and awkward, my dad sold life insurance, and he dressed in a suit, shirt, and tie daily. With this cast on his wrist I seen that he could not button his shirtsleeve and he said it was a distraction. I remember that shortly after he got the cast my mother helped him saw off his cast so he could go to work and support his family. I am very proud of my Dad for that. That memory taught me a lesson in life of “winners always play hurt,” doing whatever he had to do to provide for his family. This memory has shaped my world-view and it helps me get through my struggles when they come. Winners are not whiners, winners never quit!
Thank you Da, for showing me through example that it takes courage and work ethic to provide for your family. Growing up on the east coast of Canada my family was not rich with money but boy, was it rich with LOVE. I never needed anything as a boy, I never remember going to bed hungry or my Mom not being able to make a meal for all the hungry growing boys. In fact, my Mom and Dad always made us feel special by allowing any of our friends to eat supper with us. My Dad, Wayne MacNamara Sr. is one of my heroes; he was a great Dad for us growing up and is still an awesome Dad and Grandfather today.
To my father, thank you for everything you have done for my siblings, and me – you have the heart of a lion and the touch of an angel. May our Lord above keep blessing our family so we can in turn be a blessing to others.
Tough times do not last but tough people do, we love you Da, we are all very proud to call you our Dad.
Happy Father’s Day, see ya soon.
I would love to hear some special moments you have with your father, or special Man who has made a difference in your life.
God bless,
Wayne
